Orual is the narrator of C.S. Lewis’s novel Till We Have Faces.
Published in 1956, Till We Have Faces retells the ancient myth of Cupid and Psyche from the perspective of Psyche’s older sister. Lewis names the narrator Orual and presents her as the queen of Glome, a fictional kingdom. Her account examines jealousy, love, accusation, religious ritual, and the difficulty of seeing oneself honestly.
Psyche remains central to the plot, but she is not the narrator. That distinction is the key to identifying the answer and separates Lewis’s version from a straightforward retelling of the classical story. The novel was Lewis’s final completed work of fiction and is often regarded as one of his most psychologically complex books. Its title refers to the idea that a person cannot fully speak or be understood until identity and inner truth have been revealed.