Perelandra Chap. 10
Posted: February 14th, 2005, 11:37 pm
Synopsis : The Un-man continues to annoy Ransom with the repition of his name while he is not filling the Green Lady's head with his dubious stories. Ransom's impression of the Devil's personality is changed by experiencing his spirit first hand. Whatever positive traits he may have, they are only warped to destroy good. At one horiffic point the soul of Weston breaks through to tell Ransom of his condition. After Weston's personality is resubmerged the Un-man returns to tempting the Green Lady with his stories. Ransom exclaims "This can't go on" in frustration. Ransom sleeps late and thinks all is lost when he catches the Un-man and the Green Lady both dressed in robes made of feathers. But instead of teaching her shame, the Un-man seems to be instilling vanity in her. Next the Un-man pulls a hand mirror out of Weston's backpack and the real motive behind the Un-man's actions come to Ransom. He wants the Green Lady to think of herself before all others.
The Un-man continues with his stories of heroines who go against authority for the good of their family and friends. This sleepless nagging and unending harassment of Ransom with the repetiton of his name has pushed Ransom to the edge of his own sanity. It has also shattered his image of the Devil being an impressive character. This illustrates how empty of goodness of any sort the Devil is. It is also somewhat different from what C.S. Lewis said about the nature of the Devil in "Mere Christianity". He said in that book that it was impossible for any being to be totaly bad because existence itself was a form of goodness. And yet the Un-man come very close to rejecting every possible form of good including his own intelligence. To me the repetition of someone's name sounds like a mental breakdown rather than a diabolical torture. Maybe Lewis simply wanted to contrast this nihilistic center of the Un-man with the noble story telling fac'ade presented to the Green Lady.
I found it more interesting when Weston's soul took back control of his voice for a few minutes. His words were no doubt meant to convey the nonsense and confusion of a decaying soul. But there are curious referencs in it. Weston mentions his misplaced press clippings and something called "the first Fifteen". Does Weston mean the first fifteen pages in some periodical? Weston also comments "What enormous bluebottles. They say you get used to them." I remember the mention of a dead bluebottle fly in the room with the wardrobe in "The Lion, The Witch And The Wardrobe. But I doubt that there's any connection. The huge bluebottles could be a reference to the "Lord of the Flies" or Lord of lies himself.
The chapter picks up again when Ransom awakens from sleep to discover the Un-man and the Green Lady wearing robes made of feathers. First Ransom fears that the Green Lady has been taught shame for here naked state. But that is not the case. She has no idea where the Un-man got the feathers to weave the robes and thinks they were simply found. We are left to imagine how the Un-man could have ripped the feathers from living birds. But there is another prop used by the Un-man. A simple hand held mirror. It allows the Green Lady to see herself, something she had thought impossible up to this point. This has me wondering why she has not observed her reflection in the water before. Putting this discrepency aside, the Un-man's motive behind having the Green Lady see herself in the mirror is to imagine her own self first before considering others. This could be the begining of the Green Lady's turning from Maleldil and following her own ego at the expense of others.
The Un-man continues with his stories of heroines who go against authority for the good of their family and friends. This sleepless nagging and unending harassment of Ransom with the repetiton of his name has pushed Ransom to the edge of his own sanity. It has also shattered his image of the Devil being an impressive character. This illustrates how empty of goodness of any sort the Devil is. It is also somewhat different from what C.S. Lewis said about the nature of the Devil in "Mere Christianity". He said in that book that it was impossible for any being to be totaly bad because existence itself was a form of goodness. And yet the Un-man come very close to rejecting every possible form of good including his own intelligence. To me the repetition of someone's name sounds like a mental breakdown rather than a diabolical torture. Maybe Lewis simply wanted to contrast this nihilistic center of the Un-man with the noble story telling fac'ade presented to the Green Lady.
I found it more interesting when Weston's soul took back control of his voice for a few minutes. His words were no doubt meant to convey the nonsense and confusion of a decaying soul. But there are curious referencs in it. Weston mentions his misplaced press clippings and something called "the first Fifteen". Does Weston mean the first fifteen pages in some periodical? Weston also comments "What enormous bluebottles. They say you get used to them." I remember the mention of a dead bluebottle fly in the room with the wardrobe in "The Lion, The Witch And The Wardrobe. But I doubt that there's any connection. The huge bluebottles could be a reference to the "Lord of the Flies" or Lord of lies himself.
The chapter picks up again when Ransom awakens from sleep to discover the Un-man and the Green Lady wearing robes made of feathers. First Ransom fears that the Green Lady has been taught shame for here naked state. But that is not the case. She has no idea where the Un-man got the feathers to weave the robes and thinks they were simply found. We are left to imagine how the Un-man could have ripped the feathers from living birds. But there is another prop used by the Un-man. A simple hand held mirror. It allows the Green Lady to see herself, something she had thought impossible up to this point. This has me wondering why she has not observed her reflection in the water before. Putting this discrepency aside, the Un-man's motive behind having the Green Lady see herself in the mirror is to imagine her own self first before considering others. This could be the begining of the Green Lady's turning from Maleldil and following her own ego at the expense of others.