Perelandra

C.S. Lewis- Perelandra

Perelandra is not a horror novel. It is not a science fiction novel, either, despite what you might at first assume. Perelandra is best described as Religious Fiction. The book includes a brilliant, challenging discussion on the question of good and evil set in on a most original background, presented as a direct contest between the Beast and hero, Dr. Ransom. Ransom is brought to Venus by the powers he met on Mars, for a mission that was not explained to him, but remains a mystery only for a short while. Once on Venus, Ransom finds himself in a re-telling of the story of the Garden of Eden. On Venus, man had not fallen yet, but here again the Beast (this time, not in the form of a snake but rather in the form of a physicist) tries to tempt Eve (the Green Lady) into breaking the only taboo set by God. The taboo is not avoiding a certain fruit, but rather never staying after sundown on the only solid island on the planet. The point of God, subconsciously, wanting us to sin to show we are our own person is the point Weston attempts to prove. Ransom was the only one in the Garden to argue against Weston while he is tempting the Green Lady. And so, as the Beast tries to convince the Green Lady to sin, Ransom does his best to tell her otherwise. At first, it seems this being persuading sin is Weston until finally the reader understands what Lewis is illustrating. By replacing Weston's soul with evil, we see the comparison. Lewis seems to be warning us of scientific theories completely replacing religious belief. But quickly enough, it becomes obvious that it is only Weston's body that is present. Weston is clearly no longer human, being totally possessed by the evil one himself.

In the Green Lady's struggle to find truth we experience with the pain of knowing which character, Ransom or Weston, is telling or living the truth. The Green Lady and her husband have lived in an unfallen world, and therefore are unaware of the consequences following willful defiance. These interchangeable characters know nothing of good and evil making it hard to know there is a difference between the two. Weston tried explaining himself in a very persuasive way making it even more difficult for the Green lady to distinguish right from wrong. Perelandra is partly an attempt to illustrate how obedience means more than obeying an arbitrary rule; in this story, breaking the rule