Til We Have Faces - Stephanie Snyder

More Thoughts on Til We Have Faces

This belief in Christ is symbolically reflected in Till We Have Faces through the image of Psyche’s redemptive gift to Orual. Symbolism was a popular writing style during the early 1900s, thus Lewis parallels his faith in Christ’s redemptive gift with Psyche’s gift to Orual.
“You know” Psyche tells her sister, “I went on a long journey to fetch the beauty that will make Ungit beautiful” Orual's ugliness isn't just a characteristic, it's a running theme throughout the whole book. The theme of spiritual-ugliness is also demonstrated through the plot, and conflict of this story.
The plot gives a clear image of this ugliness, beginning with the exposition as Orual’s unsightly grasping of those she loves becomes evident, in contrast to Psyche’s gentle, generous love. As the action rises, Orual’s ugly possessiveness of Bardia, the Fox, and Psyche grow to a life-sucking death-grip upon those loves, and finally Orual sees the hideous nature of her heart. “It was I who was Ungit. That ruinous face was mine… …Glome was a web –I the swollen spider, squat at its center, gorged with men’s stolen lives.”
At the climax, it is Psyche who gives Orual the casket of beauty that will change her ugly Ungit-like heart into a beautiful, Psyche-like heart. Finally, the conflict of man versus self demonstrates the theme of spiritual ugliness, for as Orual desires an answer from the gods for her perceived injustices, it is her ugly, bitter selfishness that keeps her from receiving an answer. Her spiritual ugliness that has lain festering in her soul must be removed first, before she can get the answer. “I saw well why the gods do not speak to us openly, nor let us answer. Till that word [the festering bitterness] can be dug out of us…
How can they meet us face to face, till we have faces?” It is when Psyche gives Orual a new, beautiful face that she can finally receive her complete answer from the god. Till We Have Faces masterfully portrays the theme of ugliness, not only as a minute charicteristic of the main character, but in a deeper, spiritual thread that runs throughout the whole tale.
LOVED THIS BOOK!