Orual and Psyche's relationship

Psyche and Orual’s relationship November 29

The sisters in Till We Have Faces have such a strange relationship that it intrigued me. I have an older sister so in a way I am Psyche. But for some reason I don’t understand her. My sister was a lot older than me so until I got older she was like a mom to me. Orual is the same way with Psyche. She tries to mother her. However, as I got older the relationship that my sister and I have grew to be more like sisters and less like a mother daughter relationship. Orual does not understand how to let go of the maternal ways she has. But she is also like a sister in a sense that she is jealous. If it is one thing that sisters have in common is their jealousy. Sisters are always jealous of something the other has. However, it seems that Psyche was never jealous of Orual she just wanted Oruals approval which she never really got. She wanted Orual to approve of her marriage and the palace she lived in. Orual could not even give her that.

The relationship that Lewis creates for these two sisters is very different and I think that is what makes this story intriguing. As a person that has a sister, I wanted to know how these two sisters ended up. The story just grabbed you in. It was so unrealistic and realistic at the same time. Lewis makes it so you hate Orual so much that you almost feel bad for Psyche. However, I did not feel bad for her. Psyche let her sister make decisions for as if she was not capable of doing so on her own and that is why Psyche never received Orual’s approval. To me, if I was Orual I would not give her my approval either if the decision was basically made by me. That defeats the purpose of wanting approval. Do you think that these two sisters relationship weird or just their own version of normal?