If you are looking for the beginning of the study for C. S. Lewis’ Till We Have Faces then you can go HERE for a brief introduction. At the bottom of the introduction you will find the links to each section of the study guide as it becomes available. If you would like to see the growing list of book studies available for free on this site you can go HERE. Enjoy!
Virtues/Vices/Great Ideas: (Find these in the Text and Note them in the Margins)
Pride, Battle of the Wits, Indifference, Despotism
Grammar Questions: (The Information of the Text)
What did the Fox do when he first heard the news that Psyche was alive?
What did the Fox quickly conclude about Psyche once Orual had told him “the whole story” save one thing?
What did Orual ask the Fox as to whether or not such things might exist?
What kind of thing did the Fox believe Psyche’s lover to be?
What news did the Fox relate which gave them a little more time to try to figure out what to do about Psyche?
What did Orual say which made the Fox retort, “You darken our counsels – and your own soul – with these passions?”
What criticism did the Fox have toward Bardia?
What did Orual and the Fox say they would do together in order to attempt to save Psyche?
How did the Fox react to Orual’s statement, “If there is no other way, I will kill her?”
What did Orual say about “even the trustiest” of men?
What did Orual attempt to do “not in a temple, and without a sacrifice?”
What did Orual say about both Bardia’s and the Fox’s explanations of the situation?
What had Orual determined to do by the end of this reading?
Logic Questions: (Interpreting, Comparing/Contrasting, Reasoning)
In the previous chapter Orual asked whether the vision of the god’s house told against her or against the gods. She did not tell Bardia what she saw in the last chapter and in this chapter we see she does not tell the Fox. How might her reticence (reluctance/unwillingness) to relate this sight to the two men, whose judgment she respects most, play into the original question Orual asked?
Why would the Fox say that he wished he “were Odysseus, aye, or Hermes?”
Why did the Fox say, “I begin to think, daughter, that if I can get that hellebore, yours had better be the first dose?”
What did the Fox mean by saying, “Oh, child, child, when shall I have washed the nurse and the grandam and the priest and the soothsayer out of your soul?”
Orual said, “The Fox’s explanation seemed too plain and evident to allow me any hope of doubt. While Bardia was speaking, his had seemed the same.” Compare and contrast the Fox’s reaction to Orual’s story with that of Bardia in the previous chapter. Why might their responses be so different? Why might Orual have found herself equally convinced by opposing explanations? What should we learn from all of this?
Why might the presence of the lions have put King Trom into such good spirits?
Why might Orual have said, of Bardia’s wife, “She must be a very vile woman, grandfather” when the Fox seems to think she is of no importance to be thinking about at all?
What did the Fox mean when he said to Orual, “There’s one part love in your heart, and five parts anger, and seven parts pride?”
How does Orual’s hatred for the man, whom she presently believes has deceived Psyche, not fit well with her love for the Fox?
Why might Orual have tried to talk to the gods in the way that she did? What can we infer about her from this attempt?
What is it about Orual that makes her so torn between the wisdom of Bardia and the wisdom of the Fox? Why is she seemingly equally convinced by both of them, depending on who is talking to her presently?
Rhetoric Questions: (The Analysis of Ideas in the Text)
Orual asked the Fox, “You don’t think – not possibly – not as a mere hundredth chance – there might be things that are real though we can’t see them?” and also “Are there no things – I mean things – but what we see?” Consider the ways in which the Fox replied to each of these queries also. Do you think there are things which are truly real and, yet, have no material (tangible) existence? If so, what are some examples of such things? If not, why not?
Define the concept of jealousy. How might jealousy be playing a role in our present story and the actions of Orual? Can jealousy ever be appropriate or is jealousy always wrong? In your opinion, is Orual’s jealousy (or jealousies) just or unjust? Why?
The Fox said to Orual, “What you call marriage is by law and custom not nature. Nature’s marriage is but the union of the man who persuades with the woman who consents.” Define the concept of marriage? What makes a relationship between a man and a woman a marriage? What are some false portrayals of marriage? Is marriage only a social construct (a custom), or is it something more than that? How important is the idea of marriage within a healthy and thriving civilization? Why?
Some thinkers have referred to the concept of a person believing two opposing and contradictory ideas at the same time as “a sibling rivalry.” What sibling rivalry seems to be going on inside Orual’s mind (or heart)? How likely is it that you and I have inconsistent beliefs that we are unaware of at present? How might we attempt to locate and root out such inconsistencies in our own thinking? If we identify that two or more of our ideas are inconsistent with one another, what logically are the options concerning these competing ideas? How can we help other people, in a way that is constructive, see and let go of inconsistencies in their own thought?
Theological Analysis: (Sola Scriptura)
Read Proverbs 18:17 and relate it to our present reading. What principle for life ought we to derive from this proverb?
Read Exodus 20:4-6 and Romans 11:11-14 and relate it back to the second Rhetoric question. How does this impact the discussion on jealousy?
Read Exodus 20:12, Ephesians 6:1-4, and Genesis 2:24 and relate these to our present reading and the determined course of Orual towards Psyche.