Perelandra

Lewis, the book’s author, is also the narrator and a friend of Ransom. Lewis is jumpy and forgetful, but loyal to his friendship as evidenced by his willingness to stay for an indefinite period of time, awaiting Ransom’s return. He serves as both our interpreter of Ransom’s story and as a stand-in for the audience, as he struggles to understand the issues outside of his narrow perspective. He tells us that, upon learning about Malacandra and the eldila, “The distinction between natural and supernatural, in fact, broke down; and when it had done so, one realised how great a comfort it had been—how it had eased the burden of intolerable strangeness” (11). As we journey through Perelandra, we do so with Lewis as our guide, and are as surprised and unsettled by the strangeness of it as he is. We see early on the intellectual discussions on Earth with Ransom after his return, but these only serve to highlight how intellectualism must be left behind to understand the allegory ahead.

Weston is the antagonist, a physicist and Satanical figure who works in opposition to Maleldil. While both Ransom and Weston seem to believe in predestination, Weston’s interpretation is ego-driven. As Ransom tries to reason with him, Weston says, “In so far as I am the conductor of the central forward pressure of the universe, I am it...I am the Universe” (82). Because of this desire to be all-powerful, Weston has become susceptible to Satanic influence and serves as a body to be used for evil. As he becomes the Un-Man, Weston uses tactics of equivocation to try to talk the Queen into disobedience. Rather than try to turn her away from Maleldil, Weston tries to create in her “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” (113). Weston’s self-regard in the scheme of the universe is what made him a slave to evil.

The Queen is the Eve of her world, an innocent being with no desire except to serve Maleldil and her King. Ransom sees that she is“beyond virtue,” meaning that she is so wholehearted in her desire to do good that it does not register on a scale between virtue and vice. This makes her an interesting opposite to the Un-Man, and it is her perfect innocence that he preys upon in his attempts to destroy Maleldil’s plan. After she is reunited with the King, she helps Ransom to understand this plan: “It is like a fruit with a very thick shell […] The joy of our meeting when we meet again in the Great Dance is the sweet of it. But the rind is thick--more years thick than I can count” (189). This is in contrast to Ransom’s need to accomplish Maleldil’s will immediately, showing instead that patience is the key virtue to accomplish the work ahead.

The King is the Adam figure of Perelandra. He gains wisdom, along with the Queen, and teaches Ransom the meaning of this mission. He says, “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). By learning of evil without doing evil, the King argues that their knowledge of it is greater. He speaks in absolutes, fully aware of the paths of right and wrong, and Lewis uses this characteristic to illustrate Christian ideals: “Though a man were to be torn in two halves […] The living half must still follow Maleldil” (181). This allows Lewis to make concrete the concepts Ransom is learning throughout.

The Oyarsa of Malacandra, or simply Malacandra, is the highest eldila of Mars. He takes on a masculine form to greet the King and Queen and Lewis uses this to discuss gender and sex. He claims, “Sex is, in fact, merely the adaptation to organic life of a fundamental polarity which divides all created being […] Masculine and Feminine meet us on planes of reality where male and female would simply be meaningless” (172). This sense of masculine and feminine energy expands on the ideas of “dualism” that Weston rejects earlier, showing that, in fact, there is a duality to the universe that makes it flow.

The Oyarsa of Perelandra is the eldila of Venus. Upon completing her work and taking on a feminine form, Perelandra relinquishes her power to the King and Queen, who become the dual Oyarsas of the planet. She says, “My word henceforth is nothing: your word is law unchangeable” (177). Lewis uses this to show the opposite of Weston’s ego-driven approach. Here, Perelandra happily plays her part in the Great Dance and moves on to her next role as mentor for the new Oyarsas.