We usually associate Cupid as a cherub on Valentine’s Day who goes around shooting arrows at people who are devoid of any sense of love. Some uninitiated to Classic Mythology forget, though, that Cupid was regarded as a young adult god in Roman Mythology–and sometimes regarded as being so desirous that it caused mere mortals on earth to show sides of themselves that ruined their reputations in the eyes of the Greek gods. The best example is the story of a young human girl named Psyche who gets sacrificed in her family to the god Cupid in a nod to the quasi-biblical idea of angels (or gods) falling in love with a human and ultimately mating with that person. But Psyche has a sister, Orual, who’s considered to be physically ugly–but loves her sister to death. We’re to assume that she feels overly possessive of her because of her obsession with her sister’s unfair and intense beauty.
What happens next was a perfect opportunity for Christian allegorist C.S. Lewis to put a new spin on how we view love and beauty–as well as how we should present ourselves when praying or going to our own personal God (or gods). That same concept could be applied to any relationship where some people just can’t be who they truly are without putting up a veneer.
For Lewis’s “Till We Have Faces”–he places Orual as the central figure–which only makes the myth of Cupid and Psyche all the more mysterious when Orual obsesses about them from afar, forcing us to have to take Orual’s prejudiced ideas about them to heart. She considers Cupid to be some kind of monster (because Psyche isn’t allowed to see his face) who will corrupt her sister in some way. As a metaphorical nod to not appreciating the gifts the gods have blessed Orual and Psyche with previously–Orual ends up thinking she’s been unfairly singled out from on high and can’t even recognize some of the fortunate possessions she and her sister had together–including the opulent castle they lived in.
Already at that point, Lewis puts a unique Christian allegorical spin on a Greek myth that obviously had no Christian intentions. He continues the story by having Orual being haunted with her actions for years to come and people rumoring that she had ruined her sister’s life from the hatred spewed so venomously. She’s also a long-reigning queen for years who, because of her reputation, ultimately lives alone and in continued misery. She then attempts to go to Greece and uphold her side of the story when the populace becomes convinced that she’s a heartless witch who will never be forgiven. Yet, Orual finds out that any contested situation can be taken and argued to the gods as something akin to a Supreme Court case.
As in real life, Orual finds out that you can’t be your own lawyer. She writes out her case to potentially be read to the gods, but finds out she has to revise everything so it makes her look good. However, she’s getting old and worn-out from all the misery she brought on to herself. In a near-death dream state as she revises her case, she has strange dreams that place her into the mind of Psyche when she was younger. She sees through Psyche’s eyes what she had to endure during the sacrificial rites.
Later, Orual has the opportunity to present her case before the gods. However, it’s only in this particular dream state, which may be real or not. It’s during that time when she admits to the gods her mistakes in judgment. It was all a natural (or maybe abnormal) sister to sister possessiveness that made her lash out at her sister and Cupid. She realizes that she made Cupid into a metaphorical monster–akin to the old Freudian psychological condition of possessing intimacy with your mother when a child so much that you make your father into a monster when he spends time with your mom…in the bedroom.
Of course, we don’t know for sure if Orual is exonerated by the gods….because this might be her only dreaming. Or, it could be her being repentant in death.
We don’t know if she’s already dead, but it’s said she reconciles with Psyche after this encounter. But first-person text shown of Orual writing a sentence that recalls her hatred ends with an unfinished “I might…” showing that she does die…and about to make a turning-point decision in her life that we’ll never know.
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In the end, Lewis could teach people so much today with the notion you have to see yourself and other people from all perspectives and not be carried away with negative thoughts that can consume you and corrupt your own soul. Even if you have to videotape or record yourself to break bad habits–it isn’t a bad idea. More importantly, Lewis was once quoted in relation to the book as saying the title (“Till We Have Faces”) fits so well with the philosophy of confronting our own sense of God (or gods)–and that we need to show our true vices (or true face) if we want to present our case and be forgiven. Defying that and sticking to a darker philosophical view of life, yourself and other people only makes you a fool.
In the realms of Cupid and Psyche’s relationship and Cupid not revealing his face–it paints a portrait of love (however sacrificial) without being drawn by physical attributes. Having a god being with a human being oddly defies true Christianity, however–outside of Lewis acknowledging this is just mythical allegory.
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Yes, in case you were thinking it–this would make an excellent movie if conveyed right in perhaps animation instead of live-action. All of C.S. Lewis’s fictional books show just as much broad insight into life, intense love and life principles as all other works of fiction you’d normally think of first.
