by archenland_knight » August 18th, 2010, 9:37 pm
An interesting thought, Steve. But I think she must have been genuinely unattractive. The other girls in the choir giggled with the king tells the priest that the girls will be veiled for the wedding hymn, and indicates Orual's face as one of the reasons.
Moreover, Bardia who clearly sees and appreciates Orual's good qualities (and who doesn't appreciate a woman who can wield a sword?) still seems to treat her more like one of his male recruits than like a woman. And after she becomes queen, treats her as a comrade, not as a woman who needs his protection. I know this can be attributed to her abilities to fight and rule like a man, but a man never says to an attractive woman, "It's too bad you weren't born a man," unless he means it as an insult.
Of course, one answer to that would be, "Maybe Bardia didn't really see Orual as unfeminine; maybe Orual just assumed he would and took the things he said that way." It's hard to argue for or against that as the whole story is told from Orual's point of view. We can only see her world through her own eyes.
It seems to be the story would loose a great deal of Orual were not genuinely ugly.
Romans 5:8 "But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us."