Love Causes Us To Have Blindness (Till We Have Faces Analysis)

“The Venus flytrap, a devouring organism, aptly named for the goddess of love.” - Tennessee Williams. Love, as a devouring force, brings us to question how far can it go on until it overwhelms us. Orual, a character in the novel, Till We Have Faces loves deeply, almost devouringly, and not until after reading the book a couple of times do the problems with her abusive love show. The book retells the story of the myth Cupid and Psyche. C. S. Lewis does a fantastic job at retelling this story in a unique way. Orual tells her side of the story, and presents a testimony against the gods. It states that the gods changed the story about Psyche and Orual as a way to punish her. Throughout the story, we get to witness all different types of love, true love, genuine love, and selfish love. Orual, the protagonist, unknowingly loves selfishly which leads us to question whether she really loved the people in her life. Her unaware self-centered love damages her friends, her beliefs, and herself.

Orual’s harmful love damaged the relationships she had with her friends. Firstly, her two sisters, Redival and Psyche. Even though all the girls came from the same bloodline Orual treated both of her sisters very differently. The way Orual treated Redival did not seem like love. From a young age they had always clashed, but as the years went on Orual grew to despise Redival more. She blamed her for ruining her good times with Psyche. “It was Redival who ended the good time.” (Lewis, 29). On the contrary, Orual loved Psyche severely. In the first days of Psyche’s birth, she became captivated by her. “I lost sleep looking on Psyche for the joy of it than in any other way.” (Lewis, 24) Throughout Psyche’s life, Orual’s love shifted and grew for her, it became overwhelming and devouring. It got so out of hand that Orual forced Psyche to betray the man she loved, just to prove a point. She even threatened Psyche, that if she did not do the task she would kill them both. (Lewis, 187) Secondly, her teacher the Fox. The Fox did not teach her until Orual’s father, the King, bought the Fox as a servant. As the years went on, the Fox turned into a grandfather figure to her and she cared for him tremendously. But this eventually leads to her hurting the Fox. Once she became queen she chose to set the Fox as a free man. He then wants to return to his homeland. “You mean I could… I can… it wouldn’t matter much even if I died on the way. Not if I could get down to the sea.” (Lewis, 236) Orual feared him leaving and it drove him to feel guilty about his decision and he stayed. “I am but a limb of the Whole and must work in the socket where I’m put. I’ll stay.” (Lewis, 238) Finally, the guard Bardia. She practically loved him to death. Her love for Bardia differed from the others, she loved him romantically. She loved him from afar. Although she loved him deeply, he defined her as just a friend. A friend to go into a battle with, a friend to have a drink with, a friend that you would only share so much with. Orual only received best friend affection from him and she wanted all of it. She worked him daily for years never realizing his death approaching. She worked him and loved him to death. Orual’s love damaged the people around her, her sisters, her teacher, and her best friend. 

Orual’s hurtful love damaged her relationship with her beliefs. Psyche and the Fox both had disparate faiths, The fox did not believe in the gods whereas Psyche did and this brought Orual to never truly know which person to side with. Both people she loved dearly believed in different things and she did not know which to choose in fear of upsetting one of them or later realizing she made the wrong decision. This interfered with her own beliefs because she did not want to upset her loved ones. Throughout the novel, Orual shifts her beliefs many times. Her uncertainty within herself and her decisions cause her to have floaty beliefs. This damages her beliefs because of how many times she changes them. Since she continually shifts them it leads her to even more uncertainty and indecisiveness because she then cannot pick a side. When she chooses to believe in the gods, it gets based on whether it benefits her at that point or not. Orual’s hurtful love damaged her certainty within herself, faith in the gods, and belief in the gods.

Orual’s harmful love damaged her relationship with herself. Orual got a brief-lived childhood since her mother died at a young age. Since their mother died earlier in Orual’s life and the king never acted like a father, Orual had to play the mother figure role. She had to develop independence at a young age and this took away from the precious learning experiences she needed. She never received a mother’s love but ended up giving that absent mother’s love she never got to Psyche. This both brought maturity and immaturity. Maturity meaning responsibility and immaturity as less experience in how to handle situations. For example, when Redival hit Psyche Orual proceeded to attack Redival.“Then I hardly knew myself again till I found that I was astride of Redival, she on the ground with her face a lather of blood, and my hands about her throat.” (Lewis, 30) Her love caused her loneliness. She loved everyone deeply, but sometimes selfishly and this resulted in her all alone because of the way she loved. Her harmful love caused her to lose sight of her true self. As the years went on she slowly closed herself off from everyone, what she did became her way of loving people but not letting them love her. Over time her confidence slowly broke because everyone always commented on the way she looked. This led her to trust no one fully. She loved people deeply as a precaution out of fear of losing them because it became her only way to keep them. Orual’s hurtful love damaged the relationship she had with herself by her emotions never maturing, fearing loneliness, and hiding her true self. 

Orual’s unconscious selfish love damaged her relationship with her friends, her beliefs, and herself. Orual never planned to damage so many relationships. She was unaware of her actions. Love as a devouring force can break someone, the one receiving and the one giving. In this case, both Orual, the giver, and her friends, the receivers, get broken by her love. Her love becomes devouring because of fear. Fear of losing everyone she cares about, she wants to love them to death so they can never leave her. From a young age, no one loved her while not saying anything about her looks. This brought her to a closed-off place where she would never let anyone in again. Her veil states that for itself. She loved deeply while never letting someone else love her deeply besides Psyche. Which in the end because of this it hurts Psyche the most. “Love takes off the masks that we fear we cannot live without and know we cannot live within.” - James Baldwin. When Orual spends time with Psyche we see the truth behind this quote. But when Psych gets sacrificed Orual shifts and lives behind her masks forever. Love brings out the truth in everyone, and that makes it a strong force. But it can also bring out people’s worst selves making it a dangerous force as well. Love can persuade its user beyond belief, without them even realizing it. When we fall in love as teenagers we ignore all the red flags about a person and this causes us to overlook simple signs. Love causes blindness.