Psyche And Orual example essay topic

TILL WE HAVE FACES.S. LEWIS The first person narrative in the ancient kingdom of Glome, a land ruled by a tyrannical king and religious goddess Unit. Narrated by Princess (later Queen) Orual. The first section of this novel presents itself as an open complaint against the gods, particularly the god of the Grey Mountain, who brought Orual such pain and distress over the years, yet offer no answers or explanations to justify the suffering. Orual says she had suffered much at the hands of the gods, but what most torments her is the loss of her previous sister Is tra (Psyche), in which loss Orual shares responsibility and blame: this loss of Psyche results primarily from Orual's jealously and rage at the gulf dividing herself (non-believer) and Psyche (believer). The second, and much shorter section of the novel, which breaks off with the dying Queen Orual's last utterance, proclaims the Queen's great realizations. She now understands why there can be no answer, no justification, from the gods and her charges against them: 'How can they speak to us face to face, she asks, till we have faces?' (TWHF, pg. 201) Throughout the book Orual expresses her love for Psyche, as well as her fear of loosing Psyche.

The sin of jealousy and obsessive love leads Orual to resist yielding to the higher love destined for Psyche, and ultimately to destruction of the object of her love and the hardening of Orual's soul to the point of self-induced misery and guilt for the rest of her days. Orual first feels the pain of the great gulf after the kingdoms subjects begin to perceive that the Princess Psyche is something more than a mortal, that she is somehow touched by the gods. Her beauty is remarkable, certainly, but it is not only her beauty that convinces the kingdom of her uniqueness. A certain radiance and artless perfection seem to emanate from the young women. The sick soon begin flocking in hordes to the palace gates to be touched by the 'goddess'. Psyche is praised and revered throughout the kingdom.

Until, that is, the harvests turn meager ad the masses look for a scapegoat. Only one answer presents itself: a blood sacrifice. A perfect sacrifice. Psyche, the princess, the goddess. Orual raves in protest, nearly mad with pain, and falls into a temporary state of senselessness over the impending sacrifice of her beloved sister. It is decided by the king, after some deliberation that Psyche will be bound to a single, leafless tree on a dark, stony stretch of the Grey Mountain.

There, it is believed, she will be devoured by the holy Shadowbrute; presumably, the curse of sickness and famine will then be lifted from the land. Strangely, though, Psyche relates to Orual only days before the sacrifice that she has always felt a certain vague longing for the Grey Mountain, even for the holy Shadowbrute For as long as she can remember, Psyche has felt herself somehow destined for a land beyond the Grey Mountain, far from Glome. In fact, she has never felt truly at home in Glome. This aspect of religious belief - longing for another world- is once used by Lewis elsewhere as proof that humankind was created for another world. Orual, in typical fashion, interprets Psyche's longing for the far kingdom as a threat against their own relationship, giving in to the omnipresent urge to selfish, and self-centered, love. 'Ah Psyche,' I said.

'Have I made you so little happy as that?' 'No, no, no,' she said. 'You don't understand... It was when I was the happiest that I longed you most... Somewhere else there must be more of it. Everything seemed to be saying, Psyche, come! But I couldn't (not yet) come and I didn't know where I was to come to...

I felt like a bird in a cage when the other birds of its kind are flying home. ' ' (TWHF, pg. 74) This idea of the Christian being destined for another world is one found not only by Lewis. Dietrich Bonhaffer, the German theologian martyred for his anti-Nazi stance during Hitler era also stressed the other worldly element of Christianity as a separating force, dividing believer from non-believer and the non-believer world. It is important to note that Psyche functions both as a Christ figure and the fundamental Christian in her eternal quest from righteousness and divine union.

It is this facet of Psyche that enrages Orual, triggering her obsessive love, pitching her into a pit of spite and jealously over Psyche's proclamations of longing for the Grey Mountain. Orual, however, clearly aware of her destructive emotions, does admit the true source of her feelings toward Psyche, on more than one occasion. 'Since I write this book against the gods, it is just that I should put into it whatever can be said against myself. So let me set this down: as she spoke I felt amid all my love, a bitterness.

Though the things she was saying have her (that was plain enough) courage and comfort, I grudged her that courage and comfort. It was as if someone or something else had come in between us. If this grudging is the sin for which the gods hate me, it is one I have committed. ' (TWHF, pg. 74) Psyche's ultimate downfall, after the sacrifice on the mountain, comes to pass after Orual and Bardia (trusted royal body guard) travel to the Grey Mountain to look for ant trace of Psyche, hoping to find her body sufficiently in tact for a proper burial. Orual meets Psyche herself on the mountain.

Looking amazingly healthy and bubbling with joy over her new 'husband', a god who had rescued her and taken her to live in his palace (Psyche is alone at this point is capable of seeing). Psyches new godly husband keeps his face veiled and only comes to her in the night. Orual first takes her sister for mad, but eventually is convinced the perhaps she should leave Psyche to her new found joy, to the love of her husband. But her jealousy and obsessive love step in, grudging Psyche her happiness, her love. Orual is unable to comprehend, much less approve, of any love for Psyche that usurps her own.

Orual, predictably, resents the gods for the gulf now so plainly separating her from Psyche. '... the world had broken in pieces and Psyche and I were not in the same piece. Seas, mountains, madness, death itself, could not have removed her from me to such a hopeless distance. Gods, and again gods, and always gods... they had stolen her. ' (TWHF, pg. 120-121) Psyche pleads with Orual to open her spiritual eyes and see the palace now standing all around her in dazzling splendor; and Orual is indeed tempted. In the end, though, jealousy wins the day.

Orual delivers Psyche an ultimatum: either expose this 'gods' face this night, or Orual will kill herself. To this threat Psyche reluctantly acquires, broken with sorrow. Everything, she knows, is now changed, horribly changed, altered forever. She will betray her god to satisfy her sisters love-need.

'I know what I do,' Psyche informs Orual. 'I know that I am betraying the best of lovers and that perhaps, before sunrise, all my happiness may be destroyed forever. ' ' (TWHF, pg. 161) The next morning, as Orual begins, incredibly, to catch glimpses of a great palace rising from the mountain, the valley is suddenly besieged by rock slides, storms, general destruction, and Orual understands suddenly and fully the extent of her guilt. Hearing in the distance Psyche's cries ringing from the rocks, Orual steals her heart, knowing that the deed is done, and prepares to return to her own kingdom to live life as a lonely warrior Queen. Her nights henceforward will be haunted by phantom like howls and clinking of chains, and all attempts to locate Psyche will fail. It is only in Queen Orual's last hours, when all the dead have gathered to hear her complaint against the gods, that she again meets Psyche.

For Orual's sin of obsessive love, for her sister to a life of wandering and toil, and herself to guilt, anxiety, and utterable loneliness. In Christianity no moment in the history of the soul is more crucial then that preceding repentance, the moment when one admits violations, experiences shame, and resolved to seek redemption at any cost. Orual experienced such a moment in the final section of the novel, when she is summoned to read her complaint against the gods. Her book, 'life's work' however, appears strangely small, dirty and scribbled. Not only this, but the same words are repeated over and over in the book, vile charged against the gods and declarations of her innocence. It is only as she stands naked before all the dead that she is able to view her life's work.

For it is not only Psyche and Orual herself who have been ruined; Orual now recognized this. Other lives as well have paid the price for her selfishness: the Princess Redival, who Orual ignored and detested after Psyche's birth. All along Orual realizes, Redival was lonely, and only wanted to join Psyche and Orual's private circle. Poor Bardia, who Orual kept from his family on any pretense of meetings, planning, or royal business, ended his life over worked, a man who had sacrificed the company of his own family to spend day and night at the palace on the Queen's behest. And Psyche's herself, like the mythical Psyche, has been sentenced to eternal toil at all manner of impossible tasks. Orual is guided by the palace slave she always knew as 'grandfather' to a place where she is shown images of Psyche performing there tasks.

'In the next picture I saw both Psyche and myself, but I was only a shadow. We toiled together over those burning sands, she with her empty bowl, I with my book of poison. ' (TWHF, pg. 300) In the end, however, Orual is allowed some comfort and redemption. She learns that Psyche has felt little emotional distress and anguish over the years, that her pain has all been of the physical variety. Orual instead has borne all the anguish. Orual learns as well, with her last breath, why the gods give no answer to her accusations, why these is no explanation for her suffering here in this world.

'I know now, Lord, why you utter now answer. You are yourself the answer. Before your face questions doe away. What other answer would suffice? Only words, words; to be led out to battle against the words.

Long did I hate you, long did I fear you. ' (TWHF, pg. 301) Here ends Queen Orual's 'life's work', which she has realized, is itself the answer to her questions: 'To have have heard myself making [the complaint] was to be answered. ' (TWHF, pg. 294) The Queen's body, still clutching the scroll is discovered by a priest, and the scroll is placed in the temple for safekeeping until it can be transported to the cultural and intellectual Mecca of Greece.