Perelandra

“There was an exuberance or prodigality of sweetness about the mere act of living which our race finds difficult not to associate with forbidden and extravagant actions.”

The fruit gives such incredible feelings when eaten that Ransom wonders if it would be considered sinful to eat it on Earth. This idea that all pleasure is sin is a recurring problem that Lewis considers each time Ransom eats. Later, when Ransom realizes that it is good to feel hatred toward corruption, we are meant to learn that shame is not a righteous concept but one that pushes us away from true knowledge.

“It was like the discovery of a totally new genus of pleasures, something unheard of among men, out of all reckoning, beyond all covenant. For one draught of this on earth wars would be fought and nations betrayed.”

Ransom tastes the fruit and thinks of its impact on his state of mind. As with the previous quote, this calls up the human reaction to things we consider pleasurable. Rather than abhor it as sinful, here Ransom fears that mankind will see the fruit as something to war over, to take control of.

“The itch to have things over again, as if life were a film that could be unrolled twice or even made to work backwards […] was it possibly the root of all evil?”

Ransom considers the human desire for excess. The concept of excess is explored throughout the novel, with Ransom coming to this conclusion that it is not money but the desire for excess money that may be the root of all evil. We see throughout how Ransom learns to deny himself this human desire and instead gain an awareness of the feeling of being refreshed, of the knowledge that comes with moderation.

“He realised that the word ‘human’ refers to something more than the bodily form or even to the rational mind. It refers also to that community of blood and experience which unites all men and women on the earth.”

Ransom is unsure if he can truly communicate with the Queen. This speaks to the idea of alienation and how humanity tends to resist the “other” due to perceived differences. Here, Ransom accepts humanity as one whole, but struggles to accept what cannot be defined as “human.” On Earth, World War Two is raging, and much of the conflict is due to groups who are unwilling to accept thoughts that do not fit with their ideologies.

“It was suddenly borne in upon him that her purity and peace were not, as they had seemed, things settled and inevitable like the purity and peace of an animal--that they were alive and therefore breakable, a balance maintained by a mind and therefore, at least in theory, able to be lost.”

Ransom realizes that the Queen is not perfect, that her seeming perfection comes only from her ignorance. As he instructs her, he tries to give her only that knowledge which will lead to perfection, though he finds this increasingly difficult. She begins to show sadness and confusion as he explains difficult concepts. This confusion, he realizes, can quickly turn into something much more dangerous.

“It—the Force—has pushed me on all the time. I’m being guided. I know now that I am the greatest scientist the world has yet produced. I’ve been made so for a purpose. It is through me that Spirit itself is at this moment pushing on to its goal.”

Professor Weston explains to Ransom his concept of individual purpose. Weston, driven by his own ego, fails to see good and evil and only desires this power. Lewis uses this to comment on how man bends God’s will to his own wants, suggesting that we try to understand our purpose by crafting it to our desires. This Force, we later learn, is much simpler: Weston’s own self-regard has led him down the path toward enslavement.

“Your Devil and your God are both pictures of the same Force. Your heaven is a picture of the perfect spirituality ahead; your hell a picture of the urge or nisus which is driving us on to it from behind.”

Weston argues that there is no duality of good and evil. The argument here is that all things lead to the same outcome. Weston regards good and evil as self-portraits, arguing that we call some actions “good” and others “evil” simply because it helps us understand life. However, his rejection of this duality also rejects consequence. Lewis uses this to show how the acceptance of both good and evil in the pursuit of the ego’s desire leads downan evil path.

“There is no possible distinction in concrete thought between me and the universe. In so far as I am the conductor of the central forward pressure of the universe, I am it. Do you see, you timid, scruple-mongering fool? I am the Universe. I, Weston, am your God and your Devil. I call that Force into me completely.”

Weston concludes his lecture by claiming complete power. This is in contrast to Maleldil, who chose to sacrifice himself for the worlds. We see here the illusion of power that comes from a self-regarding intellect. Not only does Weston believe in the importance of his own power, he also believes that he has come to this understanding by himself and that he is thereforepower incarnate. As we soon learn, this is why the Un-Man is able to take control of him.

“The world is made up not only of what is but of what might be. Maleldil knows both and wants us to know both.”

Here, the Un-Man tells the Queen why stories exist. The desire for knowledge is one of the main things that the Un-Man uses to try to convince the Queen to go against Maleldil. Again, we see the ego in his claim that we can create our own story rather than just following truth. He also argues that the purpose of story is to change the world, rather than to understand it, which, again, suggests that our ideas are powerful enough to alter a set plan.

“He is making you a full woman, for up till now you were only half made— like the beasts who do nothing of themselves. This time, when you meet the King again, it is you who will have things to tell him. It is you who will be older than he and who will make him older.”

Weston tells the Queen that her disobedience will be for her benefit. This idea of knowledge acquisition over everything is constant in his arguments. It reflects Weston’s ideals and therefore the Un-Man’s, who has taken control of him. This concept of “growing older” through knowledge speaks to the Queen’s desire to leave her innocence behind for her true purpose. Lewis uses this to show how we can lose our path when we seek knowledge while not in possession of a moral center.

“It was irrevocable. The milk-warm wind blowing over the golden sea, the blues and silvers and greens of the floating garden, the sky itself—all these had become, in one instant, merely the illuminated margin of a book whose text was the struggling little horror at his feet.”

Here, Ransom comes upon the frog that the Un-Man harmed. We see in this moment a loss of the idealism that Ransom had when he first came to Perelandra. He avoided telling the Queen much about death, as he wanted to keep her unsullied, but now, as death enters Perelandra, he is struck by the power of it. Death is so taboo that the sight of it makes all the good around him invisible before it. This of course is in contrast to Maleldil’s sacrifice and the promise of life after death.

“This creature was whole-hearted. The extremity of its evil had passed beyond all struggle into some state which bore a horrible similarity to innocence. It was beyond vice as the lady was beyond virtue.”

Ransom watches the Un-Man kill innocent animals with great focus and interest. We see the Un-Man work in equivocation to try to convince the Queen, but here we see that there is no compromise, only the total opposite of virtue. Ransom loses hope in this moment as he realizes that simple debate cannot defeat a creature of pure evil, as compromise will never be found. Lewis uses this image to argue against the idea of balancing good and evil.

“And though there seemed to be, and indeed were, a thousand roads by which a man could walk through the world, there was not a single one which did not lead sooner or later either to the Beatific or Miserific Vision.”

Ransom considers the end result of all choice and rejects Weston’s concepts of a unified purpose. In relation to the previous quote, this tells us that there is no gray area or middle ground, only choices which lead to Heaven or Hell. Ransom recognizes that this understanding is vitalas he tries to help the Queen take the right path. Lewis uses this to argue against the idea that all paths lead eventually to joy.

“It is a great branching out, 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?”

The Un-Man argues that the Queen’s rejection of his change to Maleldil’s will is a rejection of a gift from Maleldil. This tactic is used in the Adam and Eve myth, as well, by Satan. Lewis places it here to show how easily we can be persuaded to go against what we know is right when we believe in the possibility that the end result justifies us. By using the image of stories and poetry, he suggests that we create our own path by our own interpretation, retelling, and fictionalization.

“If I try to make the story about living on the Fixed Island I do not know how to make it about Maleldil. For if I make it that He has changed His command, that will not go. And if I make it that we are living there against His command, that is like making the sky all black and the water so that we cannot drink it and the air so that we cannot breathe it.”

The Queen responds, arguing that Maleldil’s will cannot be altered. She accepts that stories can be told for enjoyment and personal fulfillment, but to tell a story that changes the direction of Maleldil’s plan would be wrong. Lewis seems to critique the notion of interpretation to serve individual will, suggesting that the path of righteousness is fixed. We see throughout the novel that, while it does serve as allegory, Lewis also means for it to be read as though it were a continuation of the Bible story itself.

“I think He made one law of that kind in order that there might be obedience. In all these other matters what you call obeying Him is but doing what seems good in your eyes also. Is love content with that? You do them, indeed, because they are His will, but not only because they are His will. Where can you taste the joy of obeying unless He bids you do something for which His bidding is the only reason?”

Ransom argues that the purpose of Maleldil’s law is to find joy in obedience. Here, we see opposition to the idea that we must fully understand all commands of obedience. Ransom also seems concerned with the idea that we must find our own purpose in that obedience. The purpose, he argues, is joy, regardless of the command.

“Before the mothers of the mothers of his mother were conceived, I was already older than he could reckon. I have been with Maleldil in Deep Heaven where he never came and heard the eternal councils. And in the order of creation I am greater than he, and before me he is of no account. Is it not so?”

The Un-Man tells the Queen that she should rely on him because he is so much older than Ransom. This argument of “older” and “younger” crops up often, as any acquisition of understanding is seen as “growing older” by the Queen. The Un-Man places himself beside Maleldil in order to create credibility for himself.

“In our world to be older is not always to be wiser.”

Weston responds to the Un-Man’s claims of age and wisdom. He combats the Queen’s ignorance by replacing her desire to be “older” with a desire to be “wiser.” This allows him to fight against the Un-Man’s false authority. Here, too, we see Ransom relying on his knowledge and understanding of humanity, something he has thought of as a burden up to this point. He recognizes that, while imperfect, his experience can help the Queen overcome the pitfalls of learning.

“Is Maleldil a beast that we can stop His path, or a leaf that we can twist His shape? Whatever you do, He will make good of it. But not the good He had prepared for you if you had obeyed Him. That is lost for ever.”

Ransom argues thatwhile good comes eventually after sin, it does not come through sin. Here we have a direct comparison to the idea that Adam and Eve sinned for the benefit of mankind. Lewis argues that it is better to do good and be obedient and receive the benefits of that good.

“The idea that He might not really wish to be obeyed to the letter was the sluice through which the whole flood of suggestion had been admitted to her mind. But mixed with this response, from the moment when the Un-Man began its tragic stories, there was the faintest touch of theatricality, the first hint of a self-admiring inclination to seize a grand role in the drama of her world. It was clear that the Un-Man’s whole effort was to increase this element.”

Ransom realizes the core idea behind the Un-Man’s approach. This concept of self-regard and ego-driven obedience comes early on as Weston explains his concept of his place in the universe to Ransom. We see how the Un-Man uses the same tactic that allowed him to take control of Weston, in order to attempt to persuade the Queen. This idea that we should obey only if it is to serve a greater role than others mixes the unselfish desire to follow Maleldil with the selfish desire to gain power through that obedience.

“The image of her beautiful body had been offered to her only as a means to awake the far more perilous image of her great soul. The external and, as it were, dramatic conception of the self was the enemy’s true aim. He was making her mind a theatre in which that phantom self should hold the stage. He had already written the play.”

The Un-Man changes his tactics to try to get the Queen to regard her external beauty over her internal worth. Lewis uses this to comment on the nature of man and the price we place on external things, rather than self-sacrifice and internal belief.

“Then an experience that perhaps no good man can ever have in our world came over him—a torrent of perfectly unmixed and lawful hatred.The energy of hating, never before felt without some guilt, without some dimknowledge that he was failing fully to distinguish the sinner from the sin,rose into his arms and legs till he felt that they were pillars of burning blood. What was before him appeared no longer a creature of corrupted will. It was corruption itself to which will was attached only as an instrument.”

Ransom experiences pure hatred for the Un-Man, which gives Ransom the power to defeat him. Throughout the novel, Ransom is surprised by the lack of guilt he feels when eating fruit, seeing the Queen naked, and here, when he feels hatred. This is because Perelandra allows him to feel pure emotions without the addition of a sinful perspective. His hatred is for the corruption rather than for Weston, and it is in this separation of the two that he is able to find balance.

“There is an ignorance of evil that comes from being young; there is a darker ignorance that comes from doing it […] Maleldil has brought us out of the one ignorance, and we have not entered the other. It was by the Evil One himself that he brought us out of the first. Little did that dark mind know the errand on which he really came to Perelandra!”

The King explains to Ransom how he overcame the Evil One’s attempts to persuade him. Lewis sets out two types of ignorance here: one prior to knowledge, and the other after the individual partakes in sinful behavior. He does so to illustrate the ways in which we can trick ourselves out of true knowledge by giving in to ‘evil’ desires.