Wednesday, April 25, 2012

Rachel Goodwyn - Till We Have Faces- Entry # 2


1.     I was reading an article about Till We Have Faces and suggested that the unchecked female was the force of destruction in Lewis’s novel. Saying that it is because Orual as an older sister and a queen and Ungit as goddess all become wrapped in one by the end. Orual’s realization of her selfish love is not made until the end, when she sees that her love only serves to devour and destroy the lives of the people who surround her. The article suggested that perhaps the tragedy of Orual’s love was so impactful because she had no complementary masculine force to balance her out or to keep her in check, concerning her style of love. Without anyone to essential reflect her love off of, Orual takes a long time to truly learn and see a true glimpse of herself and the destructiveness and the motives behind her “love” for Psyche. I wonder than, did Lewis believe this as well, did he think a masculine force was needed and would have prevented Orual from asserting this selfish love. Was his view of women that they love selfishly, for their own gain and not just for the simple reasoning of loving another? In the Space Trilogy, Ransom had no complementary female force, an absence of such and his ability to accomplish his missions makes me wonder if Lewis held a belief that a single woman needs a man in her life to keep her in line and to check her, but that a single man on his own is capable of great things and is able to take a stand. Lewis was a single man for a while and only married when he felt he met a woman, Joy, an intellectual equal as opposed to someone subservient to him. I want to look more into his view of women and see if any of this has any support for it.

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