Orual as Ungit

“Without a question it was true. It was I who was Ungit. That ruinous face was mine. I was that Batta-thing, that all-devouring womblike, yet barren, thing. Glome was a web—I the swollen spider, squat at its center, gorged with men’s stolen lives” (276). In Till We Have Faces, Lewis writes how Orual realizes that she herself is Ungit—but what does this mean? How she can be both Orual and Ungit—a mortal and a god?

In Orual’s vision, she is climbing down farther and farther until her father takes her to a mirror and she sees the face of Ungit reflected back at her. This action of going deeper and deeper into the earth parallels the journey Psyche must make into the Underworld to acquire beauty for Ungit. We are told countless times of Orual’s ugliness but now we know that in this way she matches Ungit. But it is not simply external appearances that match Ungit and Orual together.

Orual, like Ungit, is extremely jealous of Psyche’s beauty; however, while this is explicit in Psyche’s relationship with Ungit, her relation to Orual is more complicated. Orual loves Psyche, but it is a twisted love, a jealous love. She wants to keep Psyche for herself. As long as Orual holds Psyche’s complete love (in Orual’s mind), she is also holding part of Psyche’s beauty. Or, as long as Orual has someone she feels is completely devoted to her and loves her exclusively, Orual does not feel the sting of her ugliness. It is only after Psyche has been punished to wandering and is fully separated from her that Orual decides to veil herself, both physically with a piece of cloth and mentally with a new persona—the Queen.

It is Orual’s vision that finally forces her to realize her likeness to Ungit—a god that she despises. She does not wish to be like Ungit and resolves to cease such an existence. Orual will no longer devour those around her—sucking dry their lives in her search for intense, unswerving love. Thus, she begins her transformation. But what it took for her to do so was an epiphany that her love was based on jealousy, resentment of the person she loved—an ugly, distorted love.