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Essay / Orual's Universal Struggle: Conflict and Development in Till We Have Faces
As some may know, Till We Have Faces is far from being CS Lewis's most beloved or most accessible work . However, with the central story of the broken protagonist, Orual, we gain insight into Lewis's interpretation of how souls are often damned by their own excessive desires. For Orual, his main conflict seems to be his long path toward reconciliation with the divine. Orual's path to redemption parallels Lewis's in real life in that they both sought to gain a fuller understanding of the divine in order to atone for their wrongdoings. Lewis plays out the conflicts he faced during his life on the character of Orual by having him face the pressure of the rational versus the romantic and the moral failing of too much self-love. Looking closely at Till We Have Faces we see the way Orual's character is portrayed and in turn she must learn that to understand the gods we must have true sincerity in our souls. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”? Get the original essay In Till We Have Faces, we learn of Orual's romantic desire for his sister Psyche, which is at the heart of the novel. Since they were children, Psyche wanted to live on the mountain that overlooked Glome to encounter a world so different from her own. I think that's where Orual's fault comes from. Her fault comes when she says, "She made beauty all around her" (Lewis, Till We Have Faces, 22), meaning that Psyche had no fault and that all she honored would instantly become beautiful. His perception was clouded because his romantic desire for Psyche prevented him from living his own life. With the introduction of the Fox in the novel, Orual comes with a significant rational influence that also facilitates his thoughts. The Fox simply states: "We must learn, my child, not to fear everything that nature brings to us" (Lewis, 14 years old) and what I take away from this quote is that the Fox is trying to transmit his noble manners to Orual to win his admiration. .Looking back at the conflicts faced by Orual, it seemed that she had resolved the problem between rational and romantic with the advice of the Fox and the Priest. The extended dialogue between the two sisters when Psyche is condemned to be consumed by Brute reveals an uplifting resolution. After shockingly encountering Orual, Psyche speaks of the Fox's rational thinking and the Priest's dark beliefs. She states that "the only thing that did me any good" had something to do with the Fox's philosophy of divine nature "but mixed with things the priest also said about blood and earth and how sacrifice makes crops grow.” (Lewis, 109-110). I believe the sisters realize that the Fox's virtue gives them a sense of existence, wisdom and truth that they have never received before. Orual suggests that the gods are exactly as the priest describes them and that they are “viler than the vilest men” (Lewis, 71). Psyche offers a more positive view but in my eyes they both agree that the Priest and the Fox are not smug enough about their own beliefs. Together, they both exclaim, “We don’t understand. There must be so much that neither the priest nor the fox knows” (Lewis, 72). It seems clear to me that in the final pages of Chapter 7 of Till We Have Faces, we are given a current response to address the romantic and rational conflicts that Orual must face..