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)
Death, Pride, Happiness
Grammar Questions: (The Information of the Text)
How long did Orual’s fight last, versus the preparation for the fight?
What squabbles were there about clothing when it came to what everyone should wear on the day of the fight?
What made Orual say “Perhaps…this is what the god meant when he said You also shall be Psyche?”
What was the difference in demeanor between “the lords” and “the common people” leading up to the fight?
Prior to the fight, what was each contestant required to “on behalf of [their] peoples?”
What did Orual say “she never blamed” Trunia for?
What did Orual say she “shall remember forever?”
How did Orual prevail over Prince Argan?
How did Orual feel immediately after her victory?
What did Bardia tell Orual was now “an absolute necessity?”
What occurred which made Bardia ask to be excused from the feast?
What did Orual say became her practice concerning hosting feasts after that night?
What was Orual’s “fool’s dream?”
What did Orual hear as she went to bed, but this time dismissed?
Logic Questions: (Interpreting, Comparing/Contrasting, Reasoning)
Orual noted how long it took just to get to the actual battle itself. Why might all of those things leading up to the battle have been necessary (or considered so)?
Why might Orual have chosen not to tell Prince Trunia that it was she who was fighting for him?
Concerning Orual’s thought about going through the gate of the palace and through the city with the lords being the way in which she “also shall be Psyche,” do you think this is what the god meant? Why or why not?
What should we infer from the very different behavior of the noblemen and the common people during the time leading up to the fight? Why is there such disparity there?
What might have been the purpose in each of the contestants receiving a “tiny morsel” of the sacrifice to eat before making oaths?
Why did Orual say that she “never blamed” Trunia for “turning pale” when she drew her sword “and stepped out onto the open grass?”
What did Orual mean when she said, “For my part, I felt no fear because, now that we were really at it, I did not believe in the combat at all?”
Orual said that though she was barely even out of breath that she, nevertheless, “felt of a sudden very weak” and her “legs were shaking” and that it was “as if something had been taken away from” her. Why might she have felt this way?
Why did Bardia deem it essential that Orual “should bid some of [their] notables and some of those from Phars…to a feast in the palace?”
What did Bardia mean by saying, “You must let the King’s cellar blood to some purpose tonight?”
Why did Orual say, “I understood in that moment all my father’s rages” when Bardia asked leave to go home to his wife who was in labor?
Why might Orual have said that Bardia and Psyche were “not separable” in her “fool’s dream?”
What did Orual mean by saying, “I was a great, sad queen in a song?”
What did Orual mean by saying, “I am the Queen; I’ll kill Orual too?”
Rhetoric Questions: (The Analysis of Ideas in the Text)
Orual observed, “Arnom was there in his bird-mask and there was a bull to be sacrificed; so well the gods have wound themselves into our affairs that nothing can be done but they have their bit.” Define religion. What role does religion play in a society? Is a society stronger if it has only one religion or is it strengthened by the presence of multiple religions? Is it possible for a society to sustain itself without any religion at all? If so, what kind of thing could take the place of religion in society? If it is not possible for society to exist without religion, why not?
Consider the notion of single combat, in which one contestant from each of two opposing forces fights alone and the outcome decides the whole conflict. What are the potential pros and cons of such a solution to a conflict? Why might it be that we read about single combat in the ancient and medieval world, but this does not seem to be practiced today? Do you think that such a practice is ultimately just and good or is it a relic of the past that deserves to stay there? Explain why you think as you do.
Theological Analysis: (Sola Scriptura)
Read 1 Samuel 17 and compare and contrast our present chapter with the biblical story of David and Goliath. What is similar and what is different? What lesson might we draw from the comparison of these two stories?