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"Surprised by Joy": C.S. Lewis' Changing Attitudes Toward Women

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Volume 4 Number 1 Article 5 9-15-1976 "Surprised by Joy": C.S. Lewis' Changing Attitudes Toward Women Margaret Hannay Follow this and additional works at: https://dc.swosu.edu/mythlore Part of the Children's and Young Adult Literature Commons Recommended Citation Hannay, Margaret (1976) ""Surprised by Joy": C.S. Lewis' Changing Attitudes Toward Women," Mythlore: A Journal of J.R.R. Tolkien, C.S. Lewis, Charles Williams, and Mythopoeic Literature: Vol. 4 : No. 1 , Article 5. Available at: https://dc.swosu.edu/mythlore/vol4/iss1/5 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Mythopoeic Society at SWOSU Digital Commons. It has been accepted for inclusion in Mythlore: A Journal of J.R.R. Tolkien, C.S. Lewis, Charles Williams, and Mythopoeic Literature by an authorized editor of SWOSU Digital Commons. An ADA compliant document is available upon request. For more information, please contact [email protected]. To join the Mythopoeic Society go to: http://www.mythsoc.org/join.htm Mythcon 51: A VIRTUAL “HALFLING” MYTHCON July 31 - August 1, 2021 (Saturday and Sunday) http://www.mythsoc.org/mythcon/mythcon-51.htm Mythcon 52: The Mythic, the Fantastic, and the Alien Albuquerque, New Mexico; July 29 - August 1, 2022 http://www.mythsoc.org/mythcon/mythcon-52.htm Abstract Presents “those chauvinistic elements which have irritated so many women” who encounter Lewis’s work, and argues that Lewis’s attitude toward women altered in his life and his work as he matured. See also a letter and response in Mythlore #15, p. 27–28, 30. Additional Keywords Davidman, Joy—Influence on C.S. Lewis; Lewis, C.S.—Attitude toward women; Lewis, C.S.—Characters—Women This article is available in Mythlore: A Journal of J.R.R. Tolkien, C.S. Lewis, Charles Williams, and Mythopoeic Literature: https://dc.swosu.edu/mythlore/vol4/iss1/5 "Surprised by Joy": C . S. Lewis' Changing Attitudes Toward Women by M argaret Hannay C. S. LEWIS’ BIOGRAPHERS c o n c e d e t h a t "T hough L e w is ’ a t t i ­ domesticated, fussy, kind woman gets an occasional pat on tude was to alter considerably after his marriage, it her little head—(Mrs. Beaver in The Lion, the W itch, and is probably true, as Owen Barfield said in a meeting of the the Wardrobe, Ivy Maggs in That Hideous Strength.)" G ib b o n s New York C. S. Lewis Society in 1972, that Lewis could prop­ points out that the Un-man works on the Lady's weakness by erly be called a misogynist on at least the ’theoretical imparting a dramatic conception of herself. "He also (worse level’, though decidedly not so in his personal relations and worse—but then he is a devil) gives her a l o o k i n g - with individual women."1 It is the intent of this study to g l a s s "2 (italics hers). Stella Gibbons also objects that document that the obvious "theoretical misogyny" of Lewis' Lewis is "narrow and unkind" when Jane is rebuked "for try­ earlier works did indeed change, particularly after he ing to stick to her books" and "rather donnishly lectured encountered Joy Davidman. for her lack of wifely obedience" (93). "What is a woman to Lewis has emerged as one of the most prominent spokesmen do," she asks? "If women are not to enter into the world of for twentieth-century evangelical thought. "St. Clive", as men, nor stay in their own world of foolish vanity" what can he was affectionally called in my undergraduate days, is they do? "I am afraid Lewis implies that if they cannot be cited as an authority on almost every aspect of Christian goddesses they are to go on suckling fools and chronicling life and doctrine, including, unfortunately, the "place" of small beer, and.be disapproved of." She concludes, "There women. The more Lewis' works are used to enforce the idea seems no way out of the situation and I prefer not to think of the domination of men and the subordination of women, the any more about it" (94). less attractive these works become to the intelligent Chris­ But "not thinking any more about it" is no longer suffi­ tian men and women who are intensely concerned with articu­ cient reaction to the apparent chauvinism in Lewis' works; lating an ideal of "the godly woman" which is based on many women have grown so sensitive to the underlying preju­ Scripture rather than on tradition. This is particularly dice that they no longer appreciate Lewis' work as a whole. distressing since there are so few novels w ritten from a Therefore, this paper will first present those chauvinistic Christian perspective which repay serious critical atten­ elements which have irritated so many women, and then demon­ tion; Lewis' do. Therefore, it matters that the magnificent strate how Lewis' attitude toward women altered in both his Green Lady descends into ignorance to provide a foil for the life and his work as he matured. He finally came to per­ King's wisdom. Few Christian books for Children merit the ceive that women are indeed fully human, as Dorothy Sayers international recognition given to the Narnian Chronicles: had claimed, and that women can be f r i e n d s in the rich sense The Last B attle fully deserved the Carnegie Medal it that Lewis gave that word. When Joy Davidman became first received. The Narnian books deal with the significant issue his friend and then his wife, she radically altered his of sin and redemption, of the need for valour in the strug­ presentation of women in his fiction, his use of masculine gle against evil, and of the difficulty in combatting hypoc­ as a term of praise, and perhaps most significantly, his risy. Therefore, it matters that young girls see Mrs. Bea­ pronouncements on marriage. Those who object to the narrow v e r i n The Lion, the W itch, and the Wardrobe commended for view of women in Lewis' early works should delight in the her fussy domesticity, while the leadership roles are given deeper understanding of such later works as T ill We Have to the Pevensie boys. Lewis' literary criticism has signif­ F a c e s an d The Four Loves. The gradual awakening of the icantly affected the way in which such great Christian w rit­ evangelical community to the fact that Man is both male and ers as Milton and Spenser are read; therefore, it matters to female, equally acceptable to God, need not detract from our the Christian scholar that the words "masculine" and "vir­ appreciation of the writings of C. S. Lewis, when those w rit­ ile" appear so often as eulogistic adjectives, with the ings are viewed chronologically. obvious implication that "feminine" is a dyslogistic term. ("Feminine" is never used eulogistically by Lewis, even in In his younger days Lewis certainly would have provided an reference to women authors.) excellent case study of the "typical male chauvinist." His Lewis' attitude toward women is important precisely attitude toward women is clearly shown in the otherwise b e c a u s e his work is so good. Christian parents, anxious to delightful romp "Abecedarium Philosophicum": have their children read something "good for them" give them the Narnian Chronicles, which a r e good for them, both good M is the Many, the Mortal, the Body, fun and good doctrine. Christian adults seeking construc­ The Formless, the Female, the Thoroughly Shoddy. tive leisure reading, and non-Christians interested in space N is Not-being which sinks even deeper. fantasies are entranced by Lewis' interplanetary trilogy, More formless, more female, more footling—and which follows the medieval adage of "teaching by delight." c h e a p e r .3 The scholar studying Milton, Spenser, or medieval allegory finds in Lewis a balanced and profoundly Christian critical theory and interpretation. But the parent handing out Nar­ 2 Stella Gibbons, "Imaginative Writing" in Jocelyn Gibb, nian books, the adult reading the space trilogy, and the e d . , Light on C. S. Lewis (New York: Harcourt, Brace and scholar studying The Allegory o f Love need to be aware of World, 1965) , p. 93. Lewis' background so that they can separate what is sound 3 "Abecedarium Philosophicum," Oxford Magazine, 30 (N ov. doctrine from what is personal prejudice against women. 1933), p. 298. Father Walter Hooper says that Owen Barfield Stella Gibbons, writing in Light on C. S. Lewis in 1 9 65, does not remember writing the lines, but thinks that they was probably the first to articulate that attitude toward were mocking another poem published earlier, and therefore women which underlies Lewis' fiction. She says she receives do not mean what they appear to say. (Letter from Father from the novels "an impression that Lewis disapproved of Hooper to me, 29 Sept. 1975). It is difficult to understand women...of so m e women; women who have entered rather boldly how Lewis and Barfield could have written this, however, if into the world that men have reserved for themselves. The they were at a ll concerned about the chauvinistic inferences which could be drawn from the poem. The matter needs fur­ ther clarification. In fact, the lines may echo Spenser's 1 Roger Lancelyn Green and Walter Hooper, C. S. Lewis: A statement: "The one imperfect, mortal, feminine, / "Th'other B io g ra p h y (London: Collins, 1974), p. 214. immortal, perfect, masculine" Faerie Queene II.ix .22-23.
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