Love
One of the major themes in the novel is the idea of love between Orual and her sister Psyche. The two are very close to one another and they always protect each other. Orual behaves almost like Psyche’s mother and she tries to do everything in her power to protect her little sister. She puts herself in the path of danger just to make sure that Psyche is well and she disobeys her father and goes looking for her sisters even though she know that there is a possibility that she is already dead. This type of love does not exist between other characters and the fact that the two girls failed to receive affection from their parents made them become even closer. This type of love pushes them to behave irrationally at times and makes them take rash decisions.
Fear and religion
Another important theme analyzed is the connection between fear and religion and the main character connects the two and analyzes how one influences the other. For Orual, religion and fear are always connected and she always associated religiousness with fear of disobeying or fear of the unknown. From a young age, she was thought that Gods should not be loved but rather they should be feared and thus she grew up with this idea in her head. Because of this, it was hard for her to believe that Psyche could actually feel loved and protected by a God Orual believed to a tyrant. Thus, she did everything she could to try and save her sister even if that would implied killing her.
The power of beauty
Another important theme in the novel is the idea that beauty equals power. The characters who possessed a certain amount of physical beauty were better received than those who were considered as being ugly and the ones who were not considered attractive enough were thought that because they lack physical attractiveness, they are not worthy of being loved or of being considered useful in life. Oural suffered all her life because of this belief and she grew up to believe that the only way through which she can live a happy life is if she hides her face from the rest of the world.
