C S Lewis, Till We Have Faces, Summary and Themes

C.S. Lewis's best novel is less well known than it should be. Lewis retells the myth of Cupid and Psyche, reflecting on a longstanding preoccupation with the true end of love as well as the ways in which it can be distorted.

More subtle in the account is his confrontation with the characteristic misconceptions of divine love among his contemporaries, in particular its reductionist tendencies, and its conflation of God's love with our own.

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[Chordus_Gaius]

Till we have faces was a genuine discovery for me. I never heard of it even when C.S Lewis got somewhat popular when the Narnia movies were made.

[kamilziemian]

14:25 "There are two sisters". Poor third sister is again forgotten. Quite fitting to the darker part of the novel.

[kamilziemian]

I read "Till We Have Faces" around September 2021, after watching videos about it on this channel.

[kamilziemian]

35:14 If I remember correctly, Orual ride to the mountain to burry Psyche's remains. I think in things like that, we can see a better side of Orual, who is quite nuanced character.

[TheLookingGlassAU]

I finally read Till We Have Faces. Initial review: I'm depressed.
So the book has done something.

She was a very wise monarch, but as to her heart she was always a childish victim.

How important is the love of a father for children? That was my takeaway - how things would have been different if the Father was a kinder and more loving man.

[TheLookingGlassAU]

I read most of it over again.
King Trom is surrounded by death. He is introduced a widow, who is widowed again, and kills a child slave in rage. His Kingdom has no heir and he hates the gods, his kingdom withers under him and he is overly brutal putting down a rebellion and brutal to his children. A narcissist who dies alone.

The King puts the Greek Fox as tutor to his daughters. Wanting them instructed in Greek wisdom (is this a slight to his own culture and gods?) The daughters receive the same instruction yet Orual and Psyche develop on divergent paths. One receives inexplicable beauty and blessing while the other is ugly and cursed. In the face of suffering citizens, Psyche matures and becomes a messianic figure. Orual shows little pity or empathy. The two who claim the gods are aloof and uncaring (The king and Orual) are aloof from their people. An irony?

A sacrifice is required to relieve the suffering of the people and the blessed daughter is chosen as the cursed.
Orual is blinded to the good, and the beautiful of God, she is disgusted by holiness and claims the gods are silent and selfish for taking her sister. She doesn't see that she worships psyche as an idol and wants her to stay as she is, infantilizing her.

Fast forward.
Psyche betrays her god husband to save Oruals life. After Orual and the Fox take a naturalistic view and deny a benevolent transcendent god could exist. previously Psyche represented life, but her people turned on her believing she brought death.
Then Psyche and Orual are reversed. Orual becomes Psyche and is blessed but can't see it or appreciate it. She is made a Queen and succeeds in everything. Ironically everything her father wanted from the gods (a heir to rule the kingdom) he got in the first child he had - she just wasn't male.
Psyche becomes accursed and walks into death and trial, the lot appropriate for Orual, her father and her countrymen.

The messianic substitution is hard to miss.
Psyche doesn't complain, Orual's grievance with the gods only increases. As she is obsessed with her loss and her lack she can't see her blessings or how she is loved by people around her and by reputation beautiful. Ironically she hides her face; an ironic metaphor of her perception of the silent gods.

Im waiting to get to the part where she reads her grievance and has her realisation. I want to understand how did she transform did she repent - what state was she in when she died.

2nd reading is better.

[Laocoon]

I heard somewhere that the sweating blood thing was a translation error? Is that true or false?