I was always puzzled by this book by C. S. Lewis. Why would the author of Narnia use a pagan myth instead of inventing another Christian world? After finally reading this story for myself, I still don’t have a satisfying answer to that question.
I read this book looking for Christianity, but found only vague hints of it. Things that I often couldn’t quite pin down. A reference to God as the creator of the world, and as the merciful but just judge. Joy Douglas Gresham had said Till We Have Faces was C. S. Lewis’ best work and in some ways I agree, but for the most part I don’t.
If Christianity is what you are looking for, this book will disappoint you. (Unless you are cleverer than I am and see something I miss, which is entirely possible.) The book baffled me a good deal and I’m not sure I understood everything he meant to say. I read the book through in one sitting, and couldn’t put it down. It fascinated me, even though I was several times interrupted by my 20 month year old son, bringing me books to read. I read him his books and he returned to play with his cars, leaving me in peace to continue my book. But I feel like I’ve heard more Christian content from my three year old Lily, than I found in this book.
But am I being unfair to C. S. Lewis? I’m not sure. His writing for adults is sometimes over my head. I saw what I felt were hints of Christianity, but no souls will be saved by the gospel in this book. But that wasn’t his goal with this story, his goal was to talk about love and possessiveness.
He was heavily inspired by his letters back and forth with Joy Gresham, and their talk about a love that might destroy its beloved. That’s why he dedicated the book to her. I think Joy was a bit like Orual, the main character of Till We Have Faces. Without loving parents to love, Orual gives all her love to a fatherly figure called Fox and to her younger sister Psyche. Orual’s mother died and her father loves no one but himself. Orual and Psyche have another sister called Redival, but Orual drifts away from her after Fox comes and becomes their tutor. Orual enjoys learning, but Redival doesn’t. When Psyche’s mother died giving birth to her, Orual becomes her mother in many ways. She forgets about Redival. Her younger sister, hurt, hates this newcomer, but Orual can’t figure out why.
Redival grows up alone and without supervision, and Orual can’t see past her sister’s hate and anger. What do our hurts and disappointments blind us to? Orual is too wrapped up in herself to see the needs of Redival. She is too focused on her own disappointments and hurts, the fact her father hates her is enough to make her forget that he also hates her sister. The fact her mother is dead is enough to make her forget that so is Redival’s mother. She thinks that Redival has one consolation, her beauty. She’s not as beautiful as Psyche, but she is beautiful. Orual sees that she is ugly, her father makes that absolutely clear. Does her jealousy of Redival’s beauty blind her to her sister’s loneliness?
Orual throws herself into raising Psyche. And as the story is told from her point of view, we don’t see how twisted this love has become at first. We only see Redival’s hate and frustration, none of her loneliness. Our first hint that something isn’t right with is the scene where Psyche is to be offered as a sacrifice.
It’s outside their power to spare her, outside even their father, the King’s power to save her. Orual goes to see the captive Psyche, but it’s Orual that weeps and Psyche that is calm. She tells Orual to say goodbye to people for her and is at peace. Orual tells Psyche that her heart is iron, but Psyche is patient. Orual says the gods are tearing them apart and that the gods are the vilest of men.
But Psyche says what if things aren’t what they seem. Orual is angry that Psyche doesn’t seem upset to be separated from her. She can’t control herself. But Psyche says there are mysteries about the gods that they don’t understand. Orual wails that Psyche is cruel to leave her alone and asks if she ever loved her at all. Psyche replies that of course she loves Orual and Fox, but that they will soon be reunited in death. Orual is so selfish, she doesn’t even want to hear about Fox now.
She hears how Psyche has been longing for something beyond herself, and all Orual can think of is that she has already lost her little sister and didn’t know it before. Orual admits that she begrudged Psyche her courage and comfort and that something has come between them. Psyche is trying to explain it all to Orual and appeals to her not to let grief harden her heart. But Orual accuses her of being the hard hearted one. She believes this is her sister’s last night on earth, and all she can do is keep accusing Psyche of not caring about her. Psyche has already told her that she loves her, but Orual wants her sister to act broken about it. Would we be that selfish? That blind to our own demands? That blind to the needs of our beloved?
Psyche tells her that she was the one chosen for the sacrifice, because she was the one made ready for it. But Orual says that Psyche never loved her at all and is becoming cruel like the gods. Poor Psyche does cry then, her sister hasn’t been listening and has been so unfair. But they are parted before either of them can say anything.
Orual believes in the gods, but Fox doesn’t. Fox says that sometimes we must lose what we love. But Orual thinks there is no other love for her than Psyche’s. “Mine whose love was taken from me, I the ugly princess who must never look for other love, the drudge of the king, the jailer of the hateful Redival, perhaps to be murdered or turned out as a beggar when my father died.” pg. 96
You see very clearly that Orual doesn’t believe in a good God, she believes the gods are punishing her. And that they give her delight just to take it away.
When she finds Psyche after Cupid has rescued her, Psyche laughs and talks about how she has been longing to see Orual again and how happy she is. She kisses her older sister and shows her every kindness. And yet, she is different. She has seen a god, she talks about feeling embarrassed by being mortal and insufficient. But she tells Orual that she is her own true Psyche still.
Yet Orual realizes what this means. If Psyche is right then Orual has been wrong her entire life. So Orual asks Psyche to show her the palace that she has been speaking of, and Psyche is confused that her sister can’t see it. Orual becomes unreasonable angry. Psyche is filled with pity and sadness. Orual nearly believes, yet sees she hasn’t shaken her sister’s beliefs at all. Her disbelief becomes cemented I think simply because of her jealousy in realizing that her sister doesn’t belong to her anymore. That she loves another. Her sister is far away from her even though she is right there. Orual thinks that the gods had stolen Psyche and would leave Orual nothing.
Orual begins to think her sister is worthy of the gods, but this noble thought is swallowed up by choking sorrow. She has found her beloved sister, and yet, Psyche no longer belongs to her. Psyche does all she can to comfort her older sister, but when Psyche talks about her husband, Orual is again filled with rage. Psyche is filled with joy because of her marriage, and she says that it makes her love other things and people more. But Orual fiercely hates it.
Orual entreats her to leave with her, but Psyche replies that she is a wife now. Orual accuses her harshly, but still, Psyche is patient, saying that she can’t return to Orual, but that Orual must come to her. This is her home and she must obey her husband.
“I learned then how one can hate those one loves.” Pg. 127
Orual tries to force her to come with her, they struggle. They leave bruises on each other as they wrestle. As they separate, Psyche stares at her older sister reproachfully. She didn’t expect this desperation. Orual weeps with shame and despair. It’s then that she realizes that she actually scratched her precious little sister and drawn blood. Psyche still is forgiving and patient. She sends Orual away as it’s getting late, but asks for a kiss. But still Orual is asking her to come with her. She hasn’t listened, or learned.
She reflects on their conversation, but not her actions, not her inability to let her sister go to be happy.
The next morning, Orual glimpse Psyche’s palace for a moment. Orual is so confused, but after she talks with the soldier she trusts and hears what he thinks, she thinks that Psyche would be better of dead than left with her mysterious lover. And yet, Orual knows her sister is happy, and she asks herself why Psyche needs saving, or warning, or meddle with the matter at all. Orual knows that Psyche is happier than she could make her. This does give her pause.
“Don’t spoil it. Don’t mar what you have learned you can’t make.” Pg.
“My heart did not conquer me. I perceived now that there is a love deeper than theirs who only seek only the happiness of their beloved.” Pg. 138
But Orual still thinks that Psyche is being used as sport for a demon. When she speaks with Fox, he agrees. Yet for a moment, Orual is tempted to believe her little sister. Pointing out her calm, her merry laugh, and her gaze not wild. Orual wonders aloud if something could be real even if she couldn’t see it. But Fox puts a stop to that. He can’t believe that Psyche could be married to a god. It’s not natural.
Because of the danger they believe Psyche to be in, they are desperate to get her out of it. Orual talks about the honor of their father’s house and the intolerable abuse of Psyche. She says that Psyche will not be left there and she will kill her if she can’t reason with her.
“‘Daughter, daughter!” Said Fox. “You are transported beyond all reason and nature. Do you know what it is? There is one part love in your heart, five part anger, and seven parts pride. You know I love Psyche. It is bitter grief that our child, should live a beggar’s life and lie in a beggar’s arms. Yet even this…it is not to be named beside such detested impieties as you speak of.”‘pg. 148
Orual is twice willing to literally kill her beloved sister. Once because she doesn’t want Psyche to suffer as the sacrifice, and again when she believes that Psyche’s lover is a liar instead of a god. But Fox calls this willingness to murder the beloved as a detested impiety.
Orual doesn’t think about what he has said about her pride or her willingness to murder her sister in order to ‘rescue’ her. But she does look for an answer outside of herself. She prays face down on the ground to the gods and begs for a sign. She promises to do whatever they ask. But there is no answer. Orual feels lost and abandoned.
She goes back and forth on what she should do. Both the men Orual trust, think something evil or shameful had taken Psyche. Orual thinks that only she cares enough to save Psyche. Still, she is tempted to leave Psyche, knowing that she is happy. But Orual convinces herself that sometimes love must be stren, and that Psyche is acting like a disobedient child. She lies to herself. I think she knows in her heart that Psyche is right, but no one else believes her and Orual convinces herself that she is wrong. How easy it is to deceive ourselves and to hide our motives.
When Orual returns to her sister, it is to destroy her happiness. Her heart feels cold and heavy, but Psyche is delighted to see her again. They embrace. But Orual tries to persuade Psyche to trust her.
“Those who love must hurt. Psyche, you are little more than a child. You cannot go your own way. You will let me rule and guide you.” Pg. 159
Psyche points out that she has a husband to guide her now. She doesn’t call her sister out on her controlling behavior. Orual tries to persuade her that her husband can’t be a god, but must be an evil deceiver. Psyche grows angry, but conquers it. She trusts Orual’s motives, but tells her to torment herself no more. And if Orual ever loved her, to put such thoughts away now. But Orual goes on.
Psyche says she wants to obey her husband because she loves him. She is ashamed to disobey him. Psyche knows that her husband has good reason for what he does. She trusts him even though she doesn’t understand. Do we trust God like that? Do we trust Him when He says He loves us? And do we trust Him even when we don’t understand why He does what He does?
When Orual demands Psyche obey, the girl respectfully refuses. But by this point, Orual is unhinged and doesn’t care what she has to do to convince her sister. So Orual stabs herself in the arm to prove her determination. Psyche is pale and binds up the wound. Then Orual tells Psyche what to do, or says that she will kill Psyche and then herself. Can you imagine if your older sister who you have always known and trusted, tells you that she will kill you if you don’t come with her?
Unbelievably, Psyche remains calm. Orual demands she swear to obey in this matter.
“‘The look in her face was one I didn’t understand. I think a man who has loved might look so on a woman who had been false to him.
At last Psyche said, “You are indeed teaching me about kinds of love I did not know. It is like looking into a deep pit. Oh, Orual–to take my love for you, because you know it goes down to my very roots and cannot be diminished, and then to make of it a weapon, a instrument of torture–I begin to think I never knew you.”
“Enough of your subtleties,” said I. “Both of us die here, in plain truth and blood, unless you swear.”
“If I do,” said she hotly, “it will not be for any doubt of my husband or his love. It will only be because I think better of him than of you. He cannot be cruel like you. I’ll not believe it. He will know how I was tortured into my disobedience. He will forgive me.”
I don’t understand Till We Have Faces, but I don’t think it will hurt any Christian’s faith. If you are curious about it and you want to read this puzzle about jealousy and love better than I have put it here, then I encourage you to read the book. It’s likely you will never find a clearer picture written by a godly man on the subject.
“He need never know,” said I.
The look of scorn she gave me flayed my soul.
“You grow more and more a stranger to me at each word. And I had loved you so, honored, trusted, and (while it was fit) obeyed. But I can’t have your blood on my threshold. You chose your threat well.”
So I had won my victory and my heart was in torment. I had a terrible longing to unsay all my words and beg her forgiveness.
“And now,” said Psyche, “I know what I do. I know that I am betraying the best of lovers and that perhaps, before sunrise, all my happiness may be destroyed forever. This is the price you have put upon your life. ”
My tears burst out, and I tried to speak, but she turned her face away.” Pg. 165-166
Orual has both won and lost, she has gained her sister’s obedience and lost her sister’s trust and possibly her love. Orual’s need to control Psyche, causes her to destroy their friendship, her sister’s happiness, and her marriage. It causes her to threaten to kill her own sister! All in the name of protecting her.
Self deception is very easy to do. Orual has blinded herself to the evil of her actions, even though they are plain to everyone else. Orual waits and daydreams about Psyche seeing the ‘truth’ and returning to her. She dreams about comforting Psyche, saying then she will see who her true friends are, and then she will love Orual again and thank her. She focuses on what she hopes for and not what she has done. She never wondered if she could have handled that differently. In fact, she never really thinks about what Psyche said to her about how she is acting.
But Orual does wonder, what if she is wrong? What if she has just robbed her little sister of all joy? But she doesn’t focus on that for long.
“But beneath these thoughts, deep as the deep sea Fox had spoken of, was the cold, hopeless abyss of Psyche’s scorn, her un-love, her very hatred.
How could she hate me, when my arm burned with the wound I had given it for her love?” Pg. 170
Orual doesn’t realize that she didn’t wound herself to save Psyche, but to control her. She again calls Psyche cruel. Still not thinking about anything Psyche really said. Orual is consumed by her self pity. She thinks that her little sister is being the unreasonable one. What do our self deceptions say to us? What do they blind us to?
But when all goes wrong, and she and Psyche are parted, Orual is too ashamed to answer Fox’s questions about what happened. She realizes that she lied and can’t admit what she has done. Orual wears a veil for the rest of her life and she burns anything of Psyche’s that reminds her of their separation. Even the clothes she wore that year.
“I wished it to be so ordered that if she returned she would find all as it had been when she was still happy, and still mine.” Pg. 183
But why would Psyche return to the palace instead of trying to reconcile with her husband? Orual is still blind, still deceiving herself. Orual still hates Psyche loving someone else so much that she destroys her sister’s things. She also refuses to talk of her sister and tries not to even think of her. This life that she has ruined she never tries to fix.
Fox later says that it is wrong to try to force one by their love, and that love is a thing not to be so used. But Orual doesn’t reflect on this. When Fox has his freedom, Orual immediately asks him not to leave her. She feels embittered that Fox should even desire to leave her. And yet, says to herself that he only loved Psyche, that if she was there he would stay, that he never loved Orual. Even while she thinks it, she knows it’s not true.
Fox agrees to stay, because he knows she needs him. She feels only joy. Here is someone else that Orual can’t let go of. Another life that she must in a way control to be happy.
She thinks of Psyche still with longing. And she does do her best to find her, though this all comes to nothing. Orual doesn’t take the time to reflect over the years over what she did to Psyche. Orual comes to love a married man and while she never lets him know that she loves him, his wife comes to suspect. Orual becomes very jealous of his wife, and makes assumptions about their relationship that she can’t possibly know. Unfair assumptions to make herself feel better. How often do we do the same when we are jealous?
Still, years pass. Orual does her duty to her country. She does good, but she isn’t learning. She doesn’t reflect on her own behavior. Then she comes to a little shrine in a different country. It turns out to be the shrine of Psyche. The priest comes out and tells Orual her sister’s story. But it’s not the story she knows. Orual is shocked, then angry.
“He was telling it wrong –hideously and stupidly wrong. It was as if the gods themselves had first laughed, and then spat, in my face.” Pg. 243
In his story, she would have seen the palace not merely glimpsed it. She feels betrayed. In the priest’s story, the elder sister wanted to ruin Pyshe because she was jealous. Psyche’s palace was so much finer and the god so much more handsome than what the sister had.
“I jealous of Psyche? I sickened not only at the vileness of the lie but at it’s flatness.” Pg. 246
She feels the gods have slandered her through this story. So Orual writes down her story and says many harsh things about the gods. But she slowly begins to realize that not everything she thought was true. She begins to realize that she wasn’t fair to Redival. But it’s when she visits the widow of the man she loves that she begins to realize that she isn’t the person she thought she was.
It’s the widow who slowly begins to show Orual the truth of the situation. She tells Orual that she worked her husband to death. Orual had no idea. She asks why the husband didn’t say something or why woman didn’t say something.
“Tell you? And so take away from him his work, which was his life, and all his glory and his great deeds? Make a child and a dotard out of him? Keep him to myself at that cost? Make him so mine that he was no longer his?” She asks.
“And yet-he would have been yours.”
“He was my husband, not my house dog. He was to live the life he thought best and fittest –not that which would please me. You have taken my son now too. He will turn his back on his mother’s house more and more, seek strange lands, and be occupied with matters I don’t understand, and go where I can’t follow. Do you think I’d lift my little finger to stop it?”
“And you could –and you can—bear that?”
“You ask that? Oh, Queen Orual, I begin to think you know nothing about love. Or perhaps, yours is Queen’s love, not commoner’s. Perhaps you who spring from the gods love like the gods. They say the loving and the devouring are all one, don’t they? You’re full fed. Gorged with other men’s lives, women’s too.” Pg. 265
Enraged, Orual leaves. But when she gets sick, she has time to think and she realizes the widow was right. Orual had loved to keep her husband working late at the palace to have more time with him, ask him needless questions just to hear his voice.
“Anything to put off the moment when he would leave me to my emptiness. And I had hated him for going. Punished him too.” Pg. 266
She reveals that she even used tricks to get other men to mock him for loving his wife too well. She hated them for mocking him, but had a bittersweet pleasure in his clouded face.
“Did I hate him, then? Indeed, I believe so. A love like that can grow to be nine-tenths hatred and still call itself love.” Pg. 266
She reveals her fantasies of his wife dying or turning unfaithful and him coming to her. Begging her forgiveness. But now that the widow’s words have revealed to Orual part of what she is, Orual’s love for this man had become sickening to her.
“A gnawing greed for one to whom I could give nothing, of whom I craved all.” Pg. 267
Then Orual has a dream of her unloving father and he forces her to realize that she is the empty goddess that she has hated all her life.
“That ruinous face was mine. I was that all-devouring womblike, yet barren, thing. The kingdom was the web–I was the swollen spider, squat at it’s center, gorged with men’s stolen lives.” Pg. 276
Her first resolve is to not be this thing. She tries to kill herself using her sword, but she’s too old to wield it now. So she goes to the river to drown herself. But the voice of a god tells her not to do it. She asks the voice who it is, but it doesn’t say. Yet it knows what she fears. It warns her, but refuses to answer anymore than that.
Orual goes home, resolved to change. To no longer be so greedy, controlling, or selfish. Each day she tries to be just, calm, wise. But before she is even dressed for the day, all her rage, resentment, and sullen bitterness is back. Eventually, she realizes she can’t change her soul. Much as I have learned it, that all my good resolutions are worthless, that I need God to help and to change me.
But Orual has written her story in a book and calls it her complaint against the gods. In a vision she is brought before the judge and has to stand there with her soul exposed. But she finds instead of her book, a scroll is in her hand. It’s too small she thinks. It’s not what she wrote.
“It was all a vile scribble -each stroke mean and savage, like the snarl in my father’s voice. A great terror and loathing came over me.” Pg. 290
Yet she reads it and it lays her soul completely bare. It’s not what she wrote, but the truth of what was in her soul. It reveals that she did know that Psyche was right. That Orual had never hated the gods until they took Psyche from her. Orual accuses the gods of lying to her. She says it would be better if the gods were foul and ravening, that it would be better if they drank blood rather than stole the hearts of loved ones.
“We’d rather they were ours and dead than yours and made immortal. But to steal her love from me, to make her see things that I couldn’t see…oh, you’ll say (you’ve been whispering it to me these forty years) that I’d signs enough that her palace was real, could have known the truth of I had wanted. But how could I have wanted to know that?
The girl was mine. What right had you to steal her away?” Pg. 291
So the truth comes out. Orual should have known the palace was real. That she saw Psyche as more of a possession than a sister.
“You’ll say that you took her away into bliss and joy such as I could never give her, and I ought to be glad for her sake. What should I care for some horrible, new happiness which I hadn’t given her and which separated her from me? Do you think I wanted her to be happy that way? It would have been better if I had seen the brute tear her into pieces before my eyes.” Pg. 292
Orual realizes that this is what she has been writing in her book, over and over again. That her very complaint is her answer. Then she speaks with Fox, both their eyes opened.
“Did we really do these things to her?” I asked.
“Yes. All here’s true,” said Fox.
“And we said we loved her.”
“And we did. She had no more dangerous enemies than us.”pg. 304
Hare we ever been the enemy of our loved ones? Have we ever been controlling, blind to their needs, and held them back from what God has told them to do? Like Orual and Fox trying to keep Psyche from obeying her husband.
Now that Orual has seen the truth of her own evil soul, she can be recoiled to Psyche. Orual gives up her claim on Psyche, but offers her sister herself, admitting this isn’t much. She admitted that she never wished Psyche well, never had one selfless thought towards her younger sister. Which is very contrary to what she thought she had been thinking about her little sister.
The justice of the judge in Till We Have Faces reminds me of the story of Job in the Bible. And it wouldn’t surprise me if that’s what C. S. Lewis was thinking about when he wrote the ending. First the main character knows great loss and complains that God is somehow unjust, and laments that they can’t have court with God, and then wonder of wonders merciful God hears them. He comes to have court with them. He points out the truth and unholds His justice, and yet He is merciful. Orual brings her complaint to a merciful god, and nothing changes except that her eyes are opened to the truth.
Things change but in God’s time, not in ours. Job’s children aren’t restored to him in this lifetime, but he has been answered by God. He is at peace. In time, God restores his health, his wealth, and even better gives him more children. Orual’s eyes are opened and she sees that she is the one that has been unjust. She is reconciled to Psyche, but the ending after that is somewhat ambiguous.
This study of love fascinated me. And I wondered how often I was like Orual. Possessive, selfishly clingy, and deceiving myself about the needs of my beloved husband or children. It caused me to examine myself, which is always a good thing to do.
C. S. Lewis loved myths and that is my only guess for why he chose this way of telling his story. He wanted to redeem these pagan stories because of his fondness for them. But I can’t fully understand that. What I want is clear Christianity. There are some things that can’t be christianized. Some things that can’t be saved. Time is precious and you want to spend it wisely.
So do I recommend this book? I’m not sure. It won’t draw anyone closer to Christ, at least I doubt it will. But it might reveal to someone their pet sin. Or it might explain to someone a sin problem that they couldn’t put into words before. It is a well written book and I wouldn’t be surprised if there was more virtue in it than I understood right now.
The Christian Thinker 