This excerpt from C.S. Lewis is about a girl, Jane, who is seeing Venus enter her room. Venus enters with a torch and little dwarf men. The dwarf men begin to tear the room apart while Venus sets various items in the room on fire. The fire could represent passion because just like the fire, passion can burn very intensely. The fire turns out not to be fire at all, but becomes vegetation. Perhaps this is suggesting that beauty can come out of passion, if the fire is representative of passion.
While Venus is sharing this moment with Jane, she is also keeping herself apart as Jane says that Venus seemed to have some sort of joke that she, Jane, was not invited to share. This shows that while gods and goddesses mingle with mortals, they always hold themselves apart in some way or another. Also, Jane mentions that she is afraid of Venus, as she should be of someone that is a supernatural being. Venus is larger than a normal person and she has a flame robe and a torch. Also, Jane can’t make sense of the whole scene, which no doubt made it scarier for her.
In the end, Jane’s body is not able to take in everything. The goddess entering her room, the dwarfs with Venus, the fire turning into plants and all the sights and smells. Being in the presence of a goddess is too overwhelming for her and she eventually passes out. I think that most people would pass out if they had the same sort of experience. Being in the presence of a supernatural being is no small thing and is generally treated very serious in any religion.
No comments:
Post a Comment