53 pages • 1 hour read
C. S. LewisTill We Have Faces
Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 1956A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Chapters 16-18
Part 1
Chapter 16 Summary
When Orual returns to the palace, she discovers her father is still away hunting, but she is more concerned with hiding from the Fox. Orual hides her arm and her method of coercing Psyche from him, knowing he would not approve. She also decides not to tell him about the god—he wouldn’t believe her—so she just tells him about the great storm that made the river impassable and the sound of Psyche leaving Glome, weeping.
When he learns about Orual’s test, the Fox is distraught, pointing out the danger to Psyche had her husband been a murderous criminal, and Orual wonders how she failed to consider that. The Fox then asks how Orual persuaded Psyche to perform the test, but she refuses to tell him. He accepts that she has a secret from him and reassures her that he still loves her.
Before she sleeps, Orual resolves to always remain veiled, against the custom of her country, where women leave their faces bare. The Fox is the last man to see her face.
Orual’s arm heals well and, when the King returns seven days later, she joins her father and the Fox in the Pillar Room. The King immediately demands that she remove her veil, but she refuses. She wins the battle of wills against her father and never fears him again. Instead, she begins to make demands of him, and he agrees that Orual and the Fox are no longer in charge of keeping Redival out of trouble.
As the days pass without any sign of punishment from the gods, Orual begins to think she might be doomed to live. She refuses to speak of Psyche to anyone.
She returns to her sword training with Bardia in an attempt to build up her “hard and joyless” (88) strength and “to drive all the woman out of me” (88). This is a success, as she ruefully notes that Bardia increasingly treats her like a man.
That midwinter, after attending a great feast, the King returns to the palace drunk and falls and breaks his thigh. It seems likely that the King will die when Orual learns that the Priest of Ungit is also on his deathbed. Glome is weak and Orual and her advisers fear that an enemy will try to take advantage of the situation if they don’t act quickly.
Orual appoints herself queen. The Priest’s successor, Arnom, tries to object, pointing out that she is unmarried and that a woman can’t lead an army to war. However, Bardia tells the Priest that Orual can. Speaking with the “king’s mouth” (90), Orual gifts the House of Ungit a piece of prize land on the condition that Ungit’s guards will come under the control of the palace guards in future. Impressed by her negotiating skills, Arnom accepts her as queen, an important step to securing her throne.
At that moment, Orual realizes that her father’s death will mean her freedom. She is overwhelmed and even briefly forgets her grief about Psyche. Just then, she hears the sound of a girl’s weeping and, convinced it is Psyche, goes to search for her. Instead of her sister she finds a cloaked figure skulking in the palace grounds who asks, in a male voice, to be taken to the King.
Chapter 17 Summary
At first Orual thinks the stranger must be one of Redival’s lovers, but he tells her that he is “a suppliant” (92). He attempts to kiss her and she is tempted by his flirtation but she draws her dagger instead. He repeats his request to be taken to the King, and Orual tells him that she is the queen.
The stranger reveals himself to be Trunia, a prince of the neighboring kingdom of Phars; he is at war with his father and brother over his claim to the throne and is looking for shelter.
Orual knows that accepting Trunia as a suppliant might lead to war. She can’t risk war with Phars so she offers him shelter as a prisoner instead. He refuses and tries to walk away but then trips and sprains his ankle. Orual calls her guards and tells them to take him to the tower room, where his identity is to be kept hidden. She assures him she will do what she can to help him.
She then returns to the King’s chambers where she learns that Trunia’s brother, Argan, has crossed Glome’s borders with a small army; Argan claims to be looking for his brother, but Bardia is concerned that it is an act of aggression against Glome. Orual reveals that Trunia is in the palace, and they retire to the Pillar Room to plan their next move.
Orual, Bardia and the Fox agree that, given the chance, Trunia is likely to win the war in Phars and it will be to Glome’s advantage to help him now. Orual suggests that, instead of going to war with Phars, they challenge Argan to single combat: if Argan wins he can take custody of Trunia without going to war with Glome; if Glome’s champion wins they have essentially given Trunia the throne and earned a powerful ally.
Orual intends to shame Argan into agreeing to this arrangement by being Trunia’s champion herself. The Fox is amazed; he didn’t know she could wield a sword, and thinks it is a bad idea. Bardia is inclined to agree, but Orual reasons that if she defeats Argan, it will win her the people’s favor as the new queen of Glome. Eventually the two men agree to her plan and a herald is sent to Argan. Orual retires to bed and finds it a relief to be herself again, instead of the “Queen” (96).
Orual begins to doubt that she can defeat Argan and worries that cowardice will set her apart from Psyche, who accepted her fate as the accursed so bravely. She wonders, too, if Argan is the gods’ executioner; the thought of death doesn’t scare her but she resolves to be a good queen if she survives.
She goes to the King’s chamber and realizes that her greatest fear is that her father should live. However, the thought that “he will never have his mind again” (97), comforts her, and she returns to bed and sleeps soundly.
Chapter 18 Summary
The next day, while checking on the King, Orual meets Redival who asks what will happen when the King dies. Orual explains that she will become queen and her sister’s behavior changes immediately; she fawns over Orual and asks that she find her a husband.
Bardia informs her that Argan’s herald has arrived to discuss the terms of their combat, and they go to the Pillar Room to meet him. Argan has accepted her terms, and they work out the details of the combat.
Next, Arnom arrives with the news that the old Priest of Ungit has died. Unlike the old Priest, Orual is not afraid of Arnom; “there was no feeling that Ungit came into the room with him” (99).
Bardia speaks to Orual privately, about the courage it takes to kill a man and insists that she kill a pig, as practice. Once she has killed the pig, she returns to the Pillar Room and, with Bardia and Arnom as witnesses, sets the Fox free. When the other men start wishing him well on his journey home, Orual is overcome with sorrow and regret; she had not considered the possibility that he would leave her. Bitterly she thinks that he would stay for Psyche, but no for her.
The Fox goes to his room to contemplate what he will do and later that night, he tells Orual that he will stay. She is overjoyed, but later, she feels restless and cannot feel anything, not even her great grief about Psyche.
On the eve of her battle with Argan, crowds of people gather at the palace gates, and some lords and elders come to wait on her and accept her as their queen.
In the Tower Room that evening, Orual tells Trunia their plan but not who will fight Argan. She calls for wine and is annoyed, but not surprised, when Redival brings it; she knows that her sister wants to catch Trunia’s attention so they might be married. Trunia does offer to marry into their house, but asks for Orual’s hand first. She refuses, telling him “There’s no room for two on my throne” (102). He then asks for Redival’s hand, and Orual reluctantly agrees.
Later, Orual and Bardia practice and he advises her not to heed any fear she might feel. He also suggests that she wear something better fit for a queen than a rusty old hauberk. They are searching for something appropriate in the King’s chamber when the Fox tells them that the King is dead. Orual is surprised by how little she feels at this announcement. She simply orders her hauberk to be polished until it looks silver.
Chapter 16 – Chapter 18 Analysis
These three long chapters trace Orual’s transformation from grief-stricken sister into powerful queen in the wake of her second return from the mountain. Her grief at losing Psyche defines Orual, but she finds that part of herself receding as she is forced to take control of Glome after her father’s accident: “One part of me made to snatch that sorrow back; it said ‘Orual dies if she ceases to love Psyche’. But the other said, ‘Let Orual die. She would never have made a queen’” (101). Psyche must become part of Orual’s past if she is to rule Glome’s future.
Her decision not to tell the Fox how she got Psyche to agree to perform the test—by threatening to kill herself—means keeping part of herself hidden from him, a part she is deeply ashamed of. While he accepts that she has a secret from him, and assures her that he still loves her, her lie of omission means she becomes less comfortable in his company. Her instinctive knowledge that he would rebuke her for coercing Psyche is proved right when he later apologizes for trying to persuade her not to fight Argan, saying, “Love is not a thing to be so used” (98).
Despite his assurances, the extent of Orual’s insecurity about the Fox’s love is made evident when she frees him from slavery. Though the possibility that he would return to Greece never occurred to her, the moment it is raised she becomes convinced, not only that he will go and leave her, but that he would have stayed for Psyche. Orual considers herself unlovable, perhaps even more so since she lost Psyche’s love by forcing her to test her husband.
Orual’s decision to veil herself is an important part of her transformation. Wearing her veil allows her to cover over the ugliness that her father had always exploited as a way of hurting and undermining her. When she refuses to remove her veil as he commands, she also refuses to be the person he thinks she is. Similarly, though less happily for Orual, her veil allows Bardia to treat her more and more like a man, and her ability with a sword and on a horse rapidly improves.
Given that these masculine skills are important in helping her to secure the throne, the novel points to the ways in which disguising her gender identity enables Orual to fulfill her potential. At the same time, Orual is free of the vain pride that marred her father’s rule. Her ability to negotiate and compromise with people is key to her success in these chapters. Her old hurts remain, however, as evinced by the fact that she is briefly tempted by Trunia’s proposal and resentful of Redival’s strategic intrusion into the Tower Room. Orual understands that, as a woman, she must choose between love and power, and, ultimately, she chooses to rule Glome alone, seeing her father’s death as a kind of “freedom” from male authority.
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By C. S. Lewis
