Topic > Orual's Universal Struggle: Conflict and Development in Till We Have Faces

As some may know, Till We Have Faces is far from CS Lewis's most beloved work nor his most accessible. However, with the central story of the broken protagonist, Orual, we get a glimpse of Lewis' interpretation of how souls are often damned by their own excessive desires. For Orual the main conflict seems to be the long journey towards reconciliation with the divine. Orual's path to redemption parallels that of Lewis in real life in that they both sought to gain a fuller understanding of the divine to reconcile with their wrongdoings. Lewis plays out the conflicts she faced throughout her life on the character of Orual, making her face the pressure of the rational versus the romantic and the moral flaw of too much self-love. Looking closely at Till We Have Faces, we see the way Orual's character is portrayed and she in turn must learn that to understand the gods we must have true sincerity in our soul. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an original essay In Till We Have Faces, we learn of Orual's romantic longing for his sister Psyche, which is central to the novel. Ever since they were children, Psyche had wanted to live on the mountain overlooking Glome to encounter a world so different from her own. I believe this is where Orual's fault arises. Her guilt occurs when she states, “She created beauty around her” (Lewis, Till We Have Faces, 22), meaning that Psyche had no flaws and everything she beautified immediately became beautiful. Her perception began to be clouded because her romantic desire for Psyche prevented her from living her own life. With the introduction of the Fox in the novel, Orual is accompanied by a significant rational influence that also helps her thoughts. The Fox simply states, “We must learn, child, to fear nothing that nature brings” (Lewis, 14) and what I understand from this quote is that the Fox is trying to convey his noble ways to Orual to gain his admiration. .Thinking back to the conflicts Orual encountered, it seemed that he had resolved the issue between the rational and the romantic with the guidance of the Fox and the Priest. The long dialogue between the two sisters when Psyche is condemned to be consumed by Brutus reveals an uplifting resolution. After the shocking encounter with Orual, Psyche speaks of the rational thinking of the Fox and the dark beliefs of the Priest. He states that "the only thing that did me any good", had something to do with the Fox's philosophy on the divine nature "but also mixed with things said by the Priest, about blood and earth and how sacrifice makes blood grow collected" (Lewis,109-110). I believe the sisters come to realize that the virtue of the Fox 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 are “viler than the vilest men” (Lewis, 71). Psyche offers a more positive view, but in my eyes both agree that the Priest and the Fox are not sufficiently convinced of their beliefs. 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 timely answer to address the romantic and rational conflicts that Orual must encounter. The second conflict that Orual experiences on his path to divine reconciliation appears to be his possessive love for Psyche and all the results that come from it. Orual broke his relationship with the gods because of the.