by Paul F. Ford » February 2nd, 2005, 3:43 pm
I think Lewis's greatest insights about feminine and masculine, women, and man, begin in That Hideous Strength, Chapter 7, Section 3, and reach a climax in Chapter 14, Sections 5 and 6. Lewis is saying that all humans, women and men, are basically feminine in relation to God. Here he is reflecting the medieval tradition of describing the human soul as anima. This insight deeply influences Till We Have Faces, a book that Lewis writes from his own femininity, so to speak. The Psyche and Eros myth was perhaps Lewis's longest generative story; next would be the Pygmalion-Galatea story.
Yes, he was something of an old school don, but he did have dear women friends, evident in his correspondence with the poet Ruth Pitter, with Dorothy Sayers, with his women students and those who sought his spiritual direction.
Notice, too, the women characters in the Chronicles written before The Horse and His Boy are old-fashioned; after HHB, the women are more modern. The difference: the advent of Joy Davidman Gresham in Lewis's life, the real Aravis.