Analysis Of C. S. Lewis's 'Till We Have Faces'

Thankful after the gods helped him survive and defeat the Sphinx, he forgets their ultimately capricious and vindictive nature, eventually leading to his attempt to avoid the prophecy that causes him to fulfill it. To any Ancient Greek man, woman, or child, this attitude toward the gods would expose extreme naivete. Oedipus’s blindness to the realities of life reflects the type of development seen in boys undergoing Oedipal complexes, who still see their mother as attainable objects of affection.

Orual is portrayed clearly as being ugly and constantly being called ugly by other people, including some that were close to her, like her father. This made Orual feel more and more insecure about her looks. This is something that Orual doesn’t want to have to deal with, so if she is veiled than no one can see her face, then they can’t recognize her ugliness. This builds up Orual’s confidence in herself and helps her interact further with people without the fear of them recognizing her ugliness. This also affects people Orual socializes with. People began to grasp other more important qualities in Orual, rather than her face. She realized that she was being treated different by men, that they thought she was beautiful based on other traits, besides her face. “From the very first (it began that night in the garden with Trunia) as soon as my face was invisible, people began to discover all manner of beauties in my voice.” (Lewis 228) This affects the way Orual interacts with people as a queen and in general because she has a newfound sense of confidence in herself while

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.

Though Orual did not agree with her beloved sister being sacrificed, it was something the Priest decided that would ultimately benefit the kingdom. She demanded to go with Psyche to say her last goodbyes, “....I was determined to go with Psyche to the Mountain and the holy Tree, unless they bound me with chains (77).” Psyche was willing to be sacrificed when she knew she would help everyone she loved, even when she felt miserable, “‘...my arms were as heavy as lead (106).’” Even when she was being tied to the tree, “‘...and they were fastening me to the Tree with iron round my waist (107).’” she wasn’t focused on herself and her own pain. When being tied to the Tree, Psyche explained how many animals surrounded her, “‘And they came nearer and nearer in a great circle, but never very near, and mooed at me (109).’” Once Psyche was set free, she described the great wind around her, “‘And then the wind was

Could anyone feel sympathy for a groveling, sly demon? The demons did have a hard job, but it was a despicable job of choice. In The Screwtape Letters, by C.S. Lewis, Screwtape busily instructs his nephew, Wormwood, who scrambles to trip up his “patient,” and bring the man to hell. Throughout the book, everyone should plainly realize that neither Screwtape nor Wormwood deserved pity or sympathy in the least. The first reason for this is that the demons’ malevolence revealed itself plainly in the book. Secondly the demons’ hate for all that is good and innocent reared its ugly head, snarling in the reader’s face. Finally, the pitiable, vile, cruel plans of the demons wiped out any lingering sympathetic feelings in the reader. The demons were purely cruelty.

Virtue is a quality that one possesses. But how can virtue be attained? Does someone simply decide they want to be virtuous? The question I am focusing on is as follows: Is avoiding evil sufficient to make one virtuous or must virtue be an active choice? Upon hearing this question I immediately thought “of course just avoiding evil alone doesn't make one virtuous”, but as I began to think more deeply about the question and to analyze examples from “Out Of The Silent Planet” by C.S. Lewis, it started to change what I thought. I do think that virtue is an active choice, however I also think avoiding evil is active choice.

    Orual is writing a book as her complaint against the gods and all the wrong that they have done to her. Through her narrative she demonstrates to the reader her erroneous thinking, which she realizes later in her life. . She sees her own face in the second section of the book when the veil in front of her spiritual face is removed and her true self  is exposed. She realizes that she was not as righteous as she believed herself to be. The things that she thought were right had been wrong. She hurt a lot of people with

Everyone in their life experiences a state of hopelessness. Whether it is a big or a small occurrence; it helps us shape up mentally or physically ready for the real world. In March, Lewis talks about the events in his life that we classify as his turning points which caused them to turn their life around. It is true that many events did not increase his will to protest. I think that John Lewis' life was changed by his turning points, there are four turning points what continues to affect him to this day. The four turning points that stand out are his first arrest, Lewis' trip to Buffalo with his Uncle Otis, Dr. King's speech, and when he decided to join the Freedom Riders.

She cannot come to terms with the fact that her son was brought back crippled. She questions why there is evil in the world and why good people have to suffer. Oriel does not understand why God had punished her since she was such a devoted and hard working woman. She becomes disappointed and angry with

In the essay of “The Poison of Subjectivism” by C.S.Lewis, he says “it is useless to compare the moral ideas of one age with those of another: progress and decadence are alike meaningless words.” Our society constantly changing, people’s view follows the change and it also produces action. We can’t be shifting around by what the world views are. We must have a biblical worldview which we can find from the Bible. As I am studying theology it is my responsibility to bring the biblical worldview to those who have a different worldview.

In the year 1625, Francis Bacon, a famous essayist and poet wrote about the influences of fear on everyday life. He stated, “Men fear death as children fear to go in the dark; and as that natural fear in children is increased with tales, so is the other” (Essays Dedication of Death). Clearly, external surroundings affect perceptions of fear as well as human nature in general. Although C.S. Lewis published the novel, Out of the Silent Planet, over three centuries after Bacon wrote his theory on fear, Lewis similarly portrayed external surrounding to manipulate perceptions of fear. From the first chapter of the novel, Lewis revealed fear to be a weakness that leads to ignorance. It was this

C.S. Lewis is one of the greatest authors in history. His books are still widely available and sold to many interested readers. In Lewis’ childhood, he experienced a tragedy that affected his belief in god; in his middle life, he mainly focused on college and his studies, but his father’s death played a role in Lewis later becoming a Christian. In Lewis’ later life, he married one of his own fans. Clive’s passion for writing began when he was a small child, and it continued to grow as he furthered his education to become a college professor at Oxford University. Lewis is still remembered today for his great works, such as The Screwtape Letters and The Chronicles of Narnia, which is a popular series among children.

Joan Montgomery Byles’s view of Ophelia’s behavior in “Ophelia’s Desperation” and Sandra K. Fischer’s view of Ophelia’s behavior in “Ophelia’s Mad Speeches” contradict each other and present opposing explanations. Byles’s view is that Ophelia is defined by the male roles in her life (i.e. her father, brother, and lover). Fischer’s view is that Ophelia is simply grieving the loss of her father and fails to break the hold of the men in her life. These two analyses present opposing explanations because one author is saying that Ophelia simply cracked because she has lost her father and she just could not handle it and the other is stating that Ophelia went mad and committed suicide because she was tired of

This is the woman she might have become – warm, tolerant and imaginative. Instead she becomes jagged, benighted and imaginative. . . .Ophelia is made mad not only by circumstance but by something in herself. A personality forced into such deep hiding that it has seemed almost vacant, has all the time been so painfully open to impressions that they now usurp her reflexes and take possession of her. She has loved, or been prepared to love, the wrong man; her father has brought disaster on himself, and she has no mother: she is terribly lonely. (73-74)

After the King died, Orual chose to cover her face with a veil. Her choice to cover herself created a sort of indestructible barrier. She became a very strong and respected Queen, which not a lot of the men expected. Part of the reason she started wearing the veil is because she was not the most pleasant person to look at, and that would have been a distraction, and a reason for the men not to take her seriously. After her father has ridiculed her for almost her whole life, she probably wanted to instill fear instead of feeling it for herself like she had in the past.