Orual's Conversion in C.S. Lewis's Till We Have Faces
This essay examines the spiritual transformation of Orual, the protagonist of C.S. Lewis's Till We Have Faces: A Myth Retold, as she moves from a state of obsessive, impure love and rejection of the divine toward genuine conversion and selfless love. The paper traces Orual's journey through her flawed relationship with her sister Psyche, her antagonism toward the gods, and her eventual self-reckoning, arguing that Lewis uses Orual's story to illustrate his belief that true conversion requires an internal spiritual awakening. The essay further explores how the novel's central metaphor — gaining a face — represents the prerequisite for encountering God.
- Introduction: Orual's Transformation: Lewis uses Orual to explore spiritual conversion
- Orual's Impure Love and Self-Deception: Orual's envy clouds her love for Psyche
- The Encounter with Psyche and the Invisible Palace: Orual's blindness revealed at the invisible palace
- Orual's Rationalism and Rejection of the Divine: Rationalism blocks Orual's spiritual awareness
- The Conversion: Lifting the Veil: Orual's self-realization enables her conversion
- The Broader Human Journey Toward God: Orual's journey mirrors universal human spiritual struggle
- Conclusion: Internal Awakening as the Path to the Divine: Internal awakening prerequisite to discovering God
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What makes this paper effective
- The essay maintains a clear central argument throughout: Lewis uses Orual's transformation to demonstrate that genuine conversion requires internal spiritual awakening, not merely external circumstances.
- Textual evidence is woven naturally into the analysis, with direct quotations from the novel used to support specific claims about Orual's character at each stage of her journey.
- The paper moves logically from Orual's initial flaws to her eventual conversion, mirroring the novel's own arc and making the argument easy to follow.
Key academic technique demonstrated
The paper demonstrates effective use of symbolic close reading, particularly in its treatment of the veil as a recurring metaphor. By connecting the physical image of the veil to Orual's spiritual blindness, the essay shows how literary symbols can carry thematic weight across an entire narrative and reinforce an author's philosophical or theological argument.
Structure breakdown
The essay opens with a thesis-driven introduction identifying Lewis's views on conversion, then moves through a roughly chronological analysis of Orual's development. Each body paragraph addresses a distinct phase — her early obsessive love, her confrontation with Psyche, her rationalist rejection of the gods, and finally her conversion — before broadening in the final two paragraphs to connect Orual's story to universal human spiritual experience. A brief conclusion restates the central argument.
Introduction: Orual's Transformation
Orual, in Till We Have Faces: A Myth Retold by C.S. Lewis, is a character who undergoes a complete transformation. From an ugly sister obsessed with power who only hurts those she loves, she becomes a true believer in the divine and a model of unselfish love. Speaking largely on the power of God, the divine, love, jealousy, and family — among other themes — Lewis creates a powerful character in Orual whose transformation reflects on the very nature of God's involvement in life and on love, spirituality, and holiness within the individual.
While touching on numerous themes through Orual, Lewis is able to express his powerful views on conversion. To Lewis, conversion is a difficult task — it took Orual a lifetime to believe in the power of the gods and the divine — yet it is possible through self-reflection. It is impossible to see the divine before conversion, but once one gains a face and understands spirituality in his or her own life, conversion becomes possible. Ultimately, Lewis believes that to convert to a believer in the divine one must undergo an internal spiritual awakening, and he uses Orual's transformation as an example as she develops from an ugly to a beautiful person where it counts most: inside.
Orual's Impure Love and Self-Deception
At the beginning of the novel, Orual is unaware of her eventual transformation, and thus she thinks of herself as ugly — and she is ugly. The opening of the book marks the origin of the process that will help her become spiritually aware, through the retelling of her own story. It is in this retelling that the reader becomes aware of Orual and her shortcomings. Early in the work, Orual reveals that she "wanted to be a wife so that I could have been her real mother," among other reflections of her obsessive, even blind love for the beauty of Psyche (Lewis 31). "It has no envy," Fox tells her of divine nature and true love, but Orual does not believe it at the beginning of the story (Lewis 32).
Orual considers herself to be ugly, and although she does have love, it is not pure or spiritual love; rather, it is clouded in envy and obsession. She wants Psyche's love for herself. Additionally, Orual considers the gods to be unjust to her, and she becomes extremely bitter and protective of her sister. Her love of Psyche is untamed and goes too far; Orual is full of envy and does not love unconditionally.
Works Cited
Lewis, C.S. Till We Have Faces: A Myth Retold. London, UK: Geoffrey Bles, 1956.
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