The Role of Women and the Gods in Till We Have Faces
Our opinion of the world, especially religious beliefs, shape who we become. C.S. Lewis retells the story of The Marriage of Cupid and Psyches in his book Till We Have Faces. In the original story, women are very shallow characters with little personality, power, or value. Lewis gives women more power and they become more godlike— Orual through her veil and Psyche through her moral goodness. This affirms the power and character of the gods.
While in the original myth the sisters are all beautiful, Lewis chooses to make the main character, Orual, ugly and, in doing so, gives her an advantage. As a woman, she had much less power in that time, especially according to her father. He called
She complains that “everything’s dark about the gods” (Lewis 133), but then, ironically, hides her face. The power and fear she gains through the veil is the opposite of the darkness of the gods. At the end we learn that eventually the gods will step out of the shadows and humanity will at last be “shown how beautiful they always were” (Lewis 315). The gods are concealing their beauty, while Orual uses her veil to try and fabricate it. Even subconsciously she is trying to become like the goddesses, which is a way she could be reunited with Psyche. During this, she hates Ungit. Her opinion is clearly stated when she finds out that she is Ungit and that it “meant that I was as ugly in soul as she; greedy, blood-gorged” (Lewis 292). Her opinion of Ungit, based on Psyche’s sacrifice, is of a horrific, demonic being and it shapes the way she views herself. In a lot of ways, they are the same. Ungit was jealous of Psyche’s beauty, but even more jealous that Cupid loved her. In the same way, Orual is jealous of Psyche’s love for Cupid. After learning who Ungit really is and how she was able to endure some of Psyche’s burden, Orual also learns about herself. Ungit is more beautiful than anyone ever imagined, and still she needs Psyche to travel to the underworld to make her more beautiful (Lewis 312). Orual is never physically beautiful, but by the end of the book she is described as “the most wise, just, valiant, fortunate, and merciful of all princes known in our part of the world” (Lewis 320). Her character changes after she realizes who Ungit really is, forgives her for “stealing” Psyche, and then she finally becomes who she really is without all the pent-up bitterness and sorrow. Although she did not know it at the time, the whole book led up to her becoming like Ungit, powerful and beautiful and good. As Lewis said in one of his greatest works, The Last Battle, “All find what they
The Odyssey: Portrayal of Women How does Homer portray women in the epic, The Odyssey? In order to answer this question you must look at woman and goddesses as two separate groups of people who are "people". This is because they are portrayed in two separate ways. You see, a regular woman like Penelope is looked at as beautiful but has.
Some women are known for the deeds of their sons or husbands, but never for a heroic deed of their own, their personalities, and what they do themselves. It seems the only accomplishment women could achieve was being beautiful. Theseus "had no joy of"(195) the princess Ariadne because she died before this was possible. Homer makes it sound as if Ariadne's life was useless because she did not give Theseus pleasure. The only woman we hear of for a different reason is Klymene, and we only hear of her because she "betrayed her lord for gold."(195) This is the only time we hear of a woman for something she did, and once we do, it is a negative remark. Penelope, Odysseus' queen, is paid attention to only because of her position. Because she has a kingdom, she has suitors crowding around her day and night. Being a woman, Penelope has no control over what the suitors do and cannot get rid of them. The suitors want her wealth and her kingdom. They do not respect her enough to stop feeding on Odysseus' wealth; they feel she owes them something because she won't marry one of them. One of the suitors, Antinoos, tells Telemakhos "...but you should know the suitors are not to blame- it is your own incomparably cunning mother."(21) Even Telemakhos doesn't respect his mother as he should. When the song of a minstrel makes her sad and Penelope requests him to stop playing, Telemakhos interrupts and says to her, "Mother, why do you grudge our own dear minstrel joy of song, wherever his thought may lead.
Till We Have Faces, a novel by C.S. Lewis, uses the love story of Cupid and Psyche as a foundation for a new tale set in the kingdom of Glome. The story is narrated by Princess Orual, the eldest of three sisters, who is limited by her “ugliness,” battered by her abusive father, and tormented by a love for her youngest sister, the beautiful goddess-like Psyche. It is Orual’s love and need for love that eventually sets a painful spiral of events in motion.
Yet, despite the fact that no two women in this epic are alike, each—through her vices or virtues—helps to delineate the role of the ideal woman. Below, we will show the importance of Circe, Calypso, Nausicaa, Clytaemestra, and Penelope in terms of the movement of the narrative and in defining social roles for the Ancient Greeks. Before we delve into the traits of individual characters, it is important to understand certain assumptions about women that prevailed in the Homeric Age. By modern standards, the Ancient Greeks would be considered a rabidly misogynistic culture. Indeed, the notoriously sour Boetian playwright Hesiod-- who wrote about fifty years before Homer-- proclaimed "Zeus who thunders on high made women to be evil to mortal men, with a nature to do evil (Theogony 600).
These two female characters are especially enticing to Odysseus because they are goddesses. Though it is evident that Odysseus longs to return to Penelope in Ithaca, it sometimes appears that he has lost vision of what life was like with a wife, a son, and with thousands of people who regard him as King. Although his experiences on the islands of these goddesses were similar in that he was retained from Ithaca for the longest periods of his adventure, these goddesses and the ways that Odysseus reacts to his experiences with them represent two very different aspects of Odysseus' life and disposition in life. When Odysseus and his men arrive on Circe's island, they are still in fairly good shape. In Book X, lines 194-196, Odysseus says: "I climbed to a rocky place of observation and looked at the island, and the endless sea lies all in a circle around it." I believe this illuminates a very important aspect in Circe's tendencies. She doesn't seem to want to cause any real harm to the men, but wishes to encircle these men with her food, wine, and lust. She seems to be obsessed with lust and material possessions, and it is my belief th...
Sexism has occurred throughout history and has impacted women significantly.The Odyssey follows the narrative of a man and looks at love from the perspective of a man. The famed poem was written by an ancient greek man and until recently, has always been translated by a man. For these reasons, The Odyssey provides a great example of how love, women, and marriage have been perceived by society, especially men, in the past. By examining the sexist undertones and the perception of women and love from the men in the epic and comparing those to criticisms made today we can truly understand how far we have come as a society.
...ow Greek civilization was founded by women; they were the ones who gave birth to the heroes. Similarly, The Odyssey is a story created by women. The plot revolves around the actions of women. Athena orchestrates all the events. The seductresses, such as Circe, the sirens, and Calypso, attempt to stop Odysseus from reaching home. The helpmeets, such as Nausicaa, Arete, and Athena, aid Odysseus in his homecoming. The wise and virtuous Penelope is the object of Odysseus’ quest. Unlike Helen who forsakes her husband, Penelope remains faithful. Unlike Clytemnestra who assassinates her husband, Penelope patiently waits for Odysseus. She becomes a model of female patience and of female intelligence. Her craftiness is the only one which can match up to Odysseus’. The Odyssey presents a wide array of women and demonstrates the influence that women have in the life of a hero.
... the most pampered queen to the lowest servant, the women were always had the lowest perceptions of them. This scene is just a shadow of the stereotypical ideology of women being inferior to men and not being able to defend for themselves, while the men improve in stature and ego. Also, when Penelope talks about the “girl[s] and goddess[es] he was praising, the reader sees that Penelope knew all along Odysseus’s unfaithfulness to her. This is a sign of Penelope’s intelligence that was hidden due to the original story being solely based off Odysseus’s perspective.
This essay explores the role of women in Homer's Odyssey, James Joyce's Ulysses (1922) and Derrick Walcott's Omeros (1990), epics written in very different historical periods. Common to all three epics are women as the transforming figure in a man's life, both in the capacity of a harlot and as wife.
Mortal females cause struggles among men and are portrayed as wicked in Greek Mythology. In the story of How the World and Mankind Were Created, the Father of Men and of the Gods, Zeus, swears to get revenge upon mankind because of the poor sacrifices made to the altars. Therefore, he “[makes] a great evil for men, a sweet and lovely thing to look upon… they [call] her Pandora… the first woman… who are an evil to men, with a nature to do evil… is the source of all misfortu...
These three goddesses represent three different types of women in Greek society. Sarah Pomeroy, author of Goddesses, Whores, Wives, and Slaves, believed that “the goddesses are archetypal images of human females, as envisioned by males” (8). Pomeroy understands the significance of the differences between Hera, Athena, and Aphrodite, and what those differences meant for the women of Greece who were required to follow three important rules. The first rule was for the women to live a life of domesticity and motherhood. This was very important to the men in the society.
In the era of Homer, women played a very specific role in society, and even in literature. Women of this time were basically put in a box, and expected to never step out of line. If they did go against the arbitration of men, then they were faced with serious consequences. However, female characters play a huge role in both aiding, and delaying Odysseus’s journey home. I will proceed to analyze, and interpret the actions and intentions of every major female character in The Odyssey.
The goddesses such as Hera, Thetis and Athene are strong, powerful, and elegant. Aside from powerful, in Iliad the goddess Hera represents a nurturing and motherly side, and Homer writes, “I have come down to stay your anger but will you obey me? from the sky; and the goddess of the white arms Hera sent me, who loves both of you equally in her heart and cares for you” (7). In the Odyssey we have the two goddesses, Calypso and Circe whom Odysseus has extended affairs with and they are beautiful and embraced sexuality. Calypso had an egocentric and dominative character because she wanted Odysseus as her immortal husband (Bauschatz, 22). Women gods in the Odyssey and Iliad are elegant, strong, and wise while mortal women are property and subordinate as written in Hesiod’s Works and
Women were often subjects of intense focus in ancient literary works. In Sarah Pomeroy’s introduction of her text Goddesses, Whores, Wives, and Slaves, she writes, “Women pervade nearly every genre of classical literature, yet often the bias of the author distorts the information” (x). It is evident in literature that the social roles of women were more restricted than the roles of men. And since the majority of early literature was written by men, misogyny tends to taint much of it. The female characters are usually given negative traits of deception, temptation, selfishness, and seduction. Women were controlled, contained, and exploited. In early literature, women are seen as objects of possession, forces deadly to men, cunning, passive, shameful, and often less honorable than men. Literature reflects the societal beliefs and attitudes of an era and the consistency of these beliefs and attitudes toward women and the roles women play has endured through the centuries in literature. Women begin at a disadvantage according to these societal definitions. In a world run by competing men, women were viewed as property—prizes of contests, booty of battle and the more power men had over these possessions the more prestigious the man. When reading ancient literature one finds that women are often not only prizes, but they were responsible for luring or seducing men into damnation by using their feminine traits.
"A wet towel left on the floor, the toothpaste cap tossed aside, wearing yesterday 's socks inside-out, heedless of time!" is an ideal example that Rhea gives to explain the messy life of a typical boy. Girls, on the other hand, are more clever and organized. According to Rhea, women are dedicated to improving the men they care about. A woman accepts the man she is in love with along with his faults and develops him into an intelligent, sophisticated person. A woman also gets a man to start thinking about the future, make him recognize the bigger picture of life such as a bright future and life goals. With a sincere relationship that a woman provides a man, she is able to put him in a miraculous position to pursue all his ambitions and dreams. A loving woman as a life partner will provide a man with a new outlook in life. In addition, Rhea argues that men desperately need women to help them straighten out their lives but they never confess to it. Men don’t seem to understand that women know them, perhaps better than they know themselves!