40 pages • 1 hour read
C. S. LewisPerelandra
Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 1943A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Themes
Duality
Our first direct encounter with duality, or “dualism,” in the novel comes from Weston. He tells Ransom, “In my view no real dualism in the universe is admissible” (80). Where Ransom thinks of God and the Devil, Weston is concerned only with the universe and what he calls the Force moving everything forward. In his interpretation, by transcending good and evil, man can become all-powerful. As he says, “I call that Force into me completely” (82). This is in opposition to what Ransom realizes later, as he ponders the duality of choice. We read that all paths “lead sooner or later either to the Beatific or Miserific Vision” (96). In this sense, there is no middle road; rather, there are many pathways funneling into two final options. This sense of duality serves as a dividing line between good and evil, eventually leading Ransom to stop going back and forth on his emotions and accept pure hatred toward the Un-Man. He recognizes in this hatred not a negative emotion, but one that helps him fully resist evil and combat it without fear of giving in.
Later, we see duality as the force that creates order. With Perelandra and Malacandra’s new forms, we see the duality of gender (172). This is further developed as the King and Queen become dual rulers, neither able to do the work without the other (177). This sense of the positivity of opposing forces suggests that we are more in harmony with the universe when we accept those differences. Ransom considers humanity and the sense of togetherness implicit in their similarities (49). This, along with the backdrop of World War Two, suggests that humanity’s refusal to accept the differences between different races causes these rifts in their harmony. It is that connection between opposing forces, Lewis suggests, that creates unity and, in the case of gender, life.
The Forbidden
Throughout, we see characters dealing with forbidden things, from the Fixed Land to excessive consumption of fruit. This ties directly to the Adam and Eve myth and the fruit of knowledge. Lewis also uses this to discuss predestination. This temptation to gain knowledge is used as a major tactic by the Un-Man, who early on argues, “He is making you a full woman […] when you meet the King again, it is you who will have things to tell him. It is you who will be older” (90). This desire to be more knowledgeable seems at first to be at odds with Maleldil’s commandment. The Un-Man is focused on making the Queen believe that disobedience is actually a higher obedience, and that by gaining new knowledge on her own, she is fulfilling Maleldil’s wishes. He presents it as making one’s own story, and claims, “This making of story or poetry about things that might be but are not. If you shrink back from it, are you not drawing back from the fruit that is offered you?” (97). While this commandment to not live on the Fixed Land seems to go against Ransom’s earlier concept that “Predestination and freedom were apparently identical” (127), we learn at the end that the forbidding of this island “had been to lead them to this their destined throne” (174). Lewis uses this to argue that commandments are set in place to guide individuals toward freedom, as Weston’s failure to follow them leads to slavery, while Ransom’s willingness to follow leads to this new knowledge.
The King and Queen, after they have gained their new knowledge, teach Ransom how they can gain it while serving Maleldil’s will. The King states, “We have learned of evil, though not as the Evil One wished us to learn. We have learned better than that […] There is an ignorance of evil that comes from being young; there is a darker ignorance that comes from doing it” (179). Lewis suggests that the pathway to this pure knowledge the new Oyarsas have gained is strict obedience to Maleldil. Since Lewis’s work is allegorical, for the purpose of teaching Christian ideals, we can take this to mean that God’s will is that we gain knowledge by staying on a righteous path. While it’s most directly applicable to Christian theology, we can also apply it to the general pursuit of pure knowledge, instead of taking shortcuts to gain partial knowledge based on our interpretations.
Sacrifice
Throughout the novel, Ransom notices that he is fulfilled when he eats and has no desire to do so in excess. This is our first small glimpse of the larger theme of sacrifice. By sacrificing the desire to eat the fruit again when he is not hungry, he avoids making it more important than it is. Considering the ways of humanity, he thinks, “For one draught of this on earth wars would be fought and nations betrayed” (37). By choosing to sacrifice desire, he gains perspective.
When Weston argues with Ransom, he brings up the same topic, in order to justify his own ego. He asks, “Will you always try to press everything back into the miserable framework of your old jargon about self and self-sacrifice? That is the old accursed dualism in another form” (82). By claiming that self-sacrifice is selfish and vice versa, Weston seeks to break down moral duty in both Ransom and the Queen. But, in the end, it’s the sacrifice of Maleldil that allows mankind to do the same. He “died for each man,” we are told (186). In doing so, he shows that sacrifice is necessary for progress. The last image of sacrifice brings us back to the fruit, to consider how the expanse of time and the universe requires sacrifice of the ego and desire so that the individual can find joy and purpose: “It is like a fruit with a very thick shell […] The joy […] is the sweet of it […] If we had listened to [the Evil One] we should now be trying to get at that sweet without biting through the shell” (189). Lewis makes the sacrifice of immediate satisfaction a vital virtue, suggesting that the path to true knowledge is one that takes more effort than we are usually willing to put forth.
Ransom’s willingness to sacrifice his own comfort and, in his fight with the Un-Man, his own life, stands in contrast to Lewis the narrator’s interpretation of humanity. As Ransom finds himself distant from the guilt and shame he felt on Earth, and as he no longer engages in excess, Lewis uses the contrasting behavior of humanity to understand the strangeness of Perelandra. If Perelandra is meant to be a perfect planet, or at least one untouched by excess, Lewis uses this comparison to show how distant humanity has become from this concept. Ransom changes as he learns to make sacrifices, suggesting that this is the remedy for humanity’s problems.
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By C. S. Lewis
