In an introductory note to the English edition of the novel not included in the American editions, Lewis presents four themes which "suddenly interlocked: the straight tale of barbarism, the mind of an ugly woman, dark idolatry and pale enlightenment at war with each other and with vision, and the havoc which a vocation, or even a faith, works on human life." Each of these themes is explored throughout the two-part retelling of the Psyche/Cupid narrative. The barbarism of Glome is personified in the king, Trom, with his arbitrary and thoughtless cruelty toward his daughters. Glome's goddess, Ungit, expresses the barbarism even as her worship has about it depths of significance which indicate that the opposing rationality of Fox, the Greek tutor of Orual, although more humane is not necessarily the correct alternative. Finally, in the character of Orual, the protagonist, what...