Differences between original story and C.S. Lewis' version.

[Melissa]

The first thing that jumped out at me was the fact that one of the sisters is "ugly." For me, this changes so many aspects of the story. In the original, all of the sisters are comely-- but Psyche is brilliant. Nevertheless, the other two are pretty, they are princesses, and they are married to kings. They are living good lives. The fact that they stoop so low as to try to destroy Psyche's life is made all the worse by the fact that they are doing well enough themselves.

Making one of them ugly changes this. I could almost understand the jealousy of the sisters, if they had to live all their lives being told they were ugly, while their other sister is worshiped for her beauty. It doesn't make what they do better, but it makes it more understandable.

[Christine]

I actually got a little annoyed with the ugly idea. What got me upset was the fact that Psyche is beautiful, god , and in touch with the god. Her sister was ugly and lacked faith. It's cliche but it irked.

[Melissa]

I hadn't even thought of that. I can see how that would be annoying. Considering it is a C.S. Lewis book, there are certain things that are going to seem biased. Although, it seems that he conceived the idea for this book in his pre-Christian days-- Orual was going to be in the right.

I think it is interesting that she formed for herself an image of beauty-- not necessarily intentional, but most people DID think she was beautiful. Plus, even if her face was plain, her voice was lovely. There are different ways to be beautiful.

I don't know if that was part of his reason for having her be "ugly" or not, but it helped keep me from being too annoyed about her stated physical appearance. I still think it changes the story a great deal, and I didn't really like that element, but it did play into his version of the story well enough.

[Melissa]

I hadn't even thought of that. I can see how that would be annoying. Considering it is a C.S. Lewis book, there are certain things that are going to seem biased. Although, it seems that he conceived the idea for this book in his pre-Christian days-- Orual was going to be in the right.

I think it is interesting that she formed for herself an image of beauty-- not necessarily intentional, but most people DID think she was beautiful. Plus, even if her face was plain, her voice was lovely. There are different ways to be beautiful.

I don't know if that was part of his reason for having her be "ugly" or not, but it helped keep me from being too annoyed about her stated physical appearance. I still think it changes the story a great deal, and I didn't really like that element, but it did play into his version of the story well enough.