Orual gives C.S. Lewis’s Till We Have Faces its narrative voice. The novel retells the myth of Cupid and Psyche through the perspective of Orual, the eldest daughter of the king of Glome.
Orual becomes queen and writes a complaint against the gods, recounting her family’s history and her troubled relationship with her beloved half-sister Psyche. The first-person structure makes Orual’s understanding, jealousy, grief, and eventual self-knowledge central to the story.
Psyche is the myth’s beautiful young woman, while Orual is the figure whose perspective reshapes the familiar legend. Lewis published Till We Have Faces in 1956. The novel is often described as his last completed work of fiction and is distinct from the Narnia books in setting, tone, and intended audience.