Genre
Fiction
Setting and Context
The action takes place in a distant past in the fantastical realm of Glome.
Narrator and Point of View
The narrator of the story is also the main character, Orual and she presents the events from a subjective first person point of view.
Tone and Mood
Tragic, violent, hurtful
Protagonist and Antagonist
The protagonist in the story is Orual and the antagonists are the Gods worshiped by her people.
Major Conflict
The major conflict is an internal one and is the result of Orual’s desire to protect her sister and the knowledge that her sister does not want to be saved.
Climax
The story reaches its climax when Orual convinces Psyche to try and see her husband’s face and when Orual learns that Psyche was really married to a God.
Foreshadowing
When Orual visits Psyche, she tells her sister that she will do everything she can to come visit her again but that she doesn’t know wheatear she will be able or not because the King will not let her leave. Psyche then tells Orual that the King will not be a problem for her, foreshadowing thus the fact that the King will leave the palace for a few days, something that happened immediately after Orual reached the palace.
Understatement
When Orual tells the reader that he will kill Psyche is an understatement because Orual does not have enough courage to kill her sister.
Allusions
It is alluded that one of the reasons why Orual wanted to get Psyche back was because she was jealous of her husband.
Imagery
One of the most important images in the novel is the image of the castle and the way it is described by Orual. She sees the castle when her sister agrees to do everything she can to see her husband’s face and the image of the castle is important because it represents all the things in which Orual doesn’t believe and yet things that exist.
Paradox
Orual was always afraid of the brute in the mountains, thinking that nothing can be more terrifying than it. Paradoxically, towards the end of her life, Orual transforms into a brute as well, forcing those under her to work until exhaustion.
Parallelism
In numerous occasions, Orual draws different parallels between herself and her sister and she usually makes reference to different deities form the Greek mythology. The reason why she draws this parallels is because she wants to emphasize the idea that
Metonymy and Synecdoche
N/A
Personification
N/A
