Tag Archives: modern worldview

THAT HIDEOUS STRENGTH: Chapter 7

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If Chapter 6, Fog, focused at length on Mark’s miserable struggle to establish himself at Belbury; Chapter 7, The Pendragon, shifts the focus to Jane and how her self-understanding is challenged and begins to unfold in a wild roller coaster ride of new discoveries about herself and her potential as a human being in a very different kind of community at St. Anne’s.

THE PENDRAGON

Overview Question

From the opening sentence of THS, and scattered throughout the chapters, we encounter various clues concerning Jane’s ideas about marriage and sexuality, and these are always unresolved ideas. In the opening paragraphs of the story, for example, we find Jane struggling with her ideas about romantic love and with the reality of her marriage to Mark in comparison to the high ideals of the marriage rite in the Church of England. Then, when Jane first goes to St. Anne’s, she is caught up in a train of thought about sex and gardens, Freud and female beauty that leaves her rattled and ill-at-ease until, embarrassed and trying to compose herself, she pulls herself together to meet the people she has come to see. And then, clearly, when she finally meets Ransom, the Director of St. Anne’s (aka the Pendragon) she goes into a bewildering spate of emotional reactions that includes overpowering attraction to him as an almost mythical figure of masculinity and, at the same time, a strange disloyalty and indifference to her own husband, Mark. And all of this happens to Jane, of all people–a woman who wants, above all, to be (or at least to appear to be) in full rational control of her own thoughts and passions, and to write a cutting-edge dissertation on John Donne’s “triumphant vindication of the body.”  Overview Question:

Given what you know already about Jane’s worldview and her personal self-image as an independent, rational, egalitarian woman, how would you explain this meltdown in her composure and self-control when she first meets the Pendragon?

Of course, the wild career of Jane’s story in this chapter doesn’t end with her interview. Ransom tries to help her by introducing her to the role of faith, faithfulness, obedience, and submission in religion and in marriage. And when she leaves, she finds that she is indeed beginning to see her own beauty in a very new, though still confused and conflicted, light. And then she is subjected to physical and sexual abuse by Fairy Hardcastle upon her return to Edgestow, before deciding to go straight back to St. Anne’s to seek recovery.  The whole chapter, then, pulls back the curtain on the deep conflict in Jane between her preferred outward self-image, on the one hand, and the inward terrain of a still very disordered and confused though seeking self, on the other. And so, again, how would you explain this? Keep in mind the two worldviews (modern and traditional) and the two lifeworlds, including both the principles and the practices of each, that either prepare the soul or leave it unprepared for various kinds of challenges.

 

An English manor house that may, in some ways, suggest the kind of place where Jane went to seek help with her troubling dreams. And she found help that both challenged her self-understanding and welcomed her into a new sense of human calling and purpose.

DEEPER-DIVE QUESTIONS

1. “Pendragon” is, of course, the traditional name in the Arthurian legend for the line of kings that descend from King Arthur himself. Jane has not really wanted to meet with this man, this “Director,” also called Ransom and the “Fisher-King.” But her encounter with Prof. Frost in Edgestow, after having seen him first in a troubled dream, has jolted awake her sense of danger. Then, when she does meet with Ransom, she is “undone,” as the narrator tells us in Part 1; and she becomes distracted, giddy, “all power of resistance . . . drained away.” Given what you know about Jane so far (her feminism, her desire for rational control, her distaste for vulnerability, her modern worldview) what do you think could explain this sudden meltdown?

2. In a way, Jane’s conversation with the Director goes from bad to worse. She finds herself attracted to him. She argues with him about the nature of her marriage to Mark and the role of equality in marriage. And then when he tries to explain to her the connection between obedience to God and love for one’s spouse in marriage, she seems to lose herself in a kind of seductive fantasy about Ransom himself, until Ransom tells her to “Stop it.” He then goes on to try to help her understand the role of “obedience” (humility, faithfulness, submission) in romantic or erotic love (Part 2). What does this conversation suggest about the relevance and value of Ransom’s traditional worldview for Jane?

3. When Jane leaves the Director in Part 3, the narrator tells us that she is divided within her own mind and emotions between four different “Janes.” Identify these, and try to explain what each one means in terms of the spiritual journey that Jane now finds herself embarked upon.

4. When she arrives back in Edgestow, Jane is caught up in a riot that has been ginned up by the activists from Belbury. Jane is then taken prisoner for interrogation by Fairy Hardcastle, and subjected to painful physical and sexual abuse. In the turmoil of the riot, Jane manages to escape and to ask some strangers to take her “home” to St, Anne’s.  After this day of wild extremes and emotions—both of deeper good and of really horrible evil—how would you assess Jane’s decision to regard St. Anne’s as her home, rather than her own flat in Edgestow?

THAT HIDEOUS STRENGTH: Chapter 5

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Once again, the pre-covid cast for the THS movie directed by Antione Fuqua included a promising actor, this time for the role of John Wither, that creepy embodiment of prevaricating obfuscation and manipulating control.

ELASTICITY

Overview Question

In Parts 1 and 2 of Chapter 5, Mark is drawn yet further into the manipulations of the lifeworld of Belbury. Deputy Director Wither continues to flatter Mark’s vanity while refusing to give him a clear job description or to make a solid job offer. Fairy Hardcastle warns Mark not to expect a clear job description from Wither; and then explains how, if only Mark will do as he is told, he can begin to rise as a kind of activist journalist swaying public opinion for the NICE. And then Mark learns that his position at Bracton College is in jeopardy because Lord Feverstone has informed them that Mark is joining the NICE. When confronted, Feverstone simply shrugs Mark off with a dismissive comment. All of these passages portray in some detail how the modern worldview operates at the level of personal and interpersonal relationships. And this leads to our Overview Question for the week:

How do the different actions of Wither, Fairy Hardcastle, and Lord Feverstone in relation to Mark’s own servile mentality illustrate the basic principles and practices of the modern worldview and lifeworld at Belbury?

For additional help in answering this question, remember the brief outline that I provided with the Chapter 3 Overview Question: Yoram Hazony’s analysis of the “practices” that characterize both the modern and the traditional worldviews. In particular, keep in mind how the modern worldview valorizes above all individual freedom and reason, and rejects the need for religious, moral, or even familial traditions of loyalty, honor, and acknowledged hierarchy to guide and shape the freedom or the reason of the individual.    

As artfully evoked in the expression of actor Ewan McGregor, Mark’s lack of a transcendent religious and moral point of reference, and his desire above all to be counted among the elite, leaves him imminently vulnerable to the manipulations of nearly everyone at Belbury.

DEEPER-DIVE QUESTIONS

1. In Part 3 of Chapter 5, Arthur and Camilla Denniston take Jane on a picnic, and treat her in a manner that is quite opposite of how Mark is treated at Belbury. They propose a specific role for Jane: namely, to consider her dreams as a special gift that can be of great help to the community at St. Anne’s. When Camilla begins to put pressure on Jane to decide right away, however, Arthur reminds her that the Director of their community would not want Jane to join them under that kind of pressure or coercion. In contrast to Mark’s interview, what interpersonal conditions are given priority in Jane’s interview, and how do these reflect the principles and practices of the traditional worldview? (see again Yoram Hazony)   

2. How do the conditions of the two interviews reflect the customs and values of the two groups of people and the two worldviews that inform Lewis’s story, the modern worldview and the traditional worldview? In particular, what role do the values related to the family and religion at St. Anne’s play, in contrast to the emphasis at Belbury on the individual and his or her “freedom.”

3. Where, in our current cultural and political turmoil in 2022, do you see signs of the kind of individualism, disunity, coercion, cancellation, and manipulation of power that characterize Mark’s job interview at Belbury? Where are there signs of the open discussion, debate, transparency, and the freedom to deliberate and practice informed consent that are given to Jane?

THAT HIDEOUS STRENGTH: Chapter 4

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Sub-Warden Curry and Rev. Busby look on as the NICE police watch while rioting workers destroy the grounds of Bragdon Wood and Bracton College. When these two college administrators first manipulated the faculty into selling Bragdon Wood at a profit, they hadn’t realized that the NICE would destroy the college grounds. Now they must try to put a good face on their own short-sighted leadership. Collusion with an authoritarian state can have hidden costs! (This is a screenshot from the pre-covid THS movie that has now, I believe, resumed production with a new cast.)

THE LIQUIDATION OF ANACHRONISMS

Overview Question

This chapter portrays a truly nightmarish attack by the NICE on the basic rights of the English people who live around Edgestow. The Dimbles lose their home in an abrupt and legally questionable cancellation of their lease. Bracton College loses its landscaped buffer zone (Bragdon Wood) and its historic stained-glass window as rioting workers run amok. And the village of Cure Hardy is scheduled to be razed by the NICE to make room for an “improved” state-run model village. Furthermore, all of these abuses of private property are accompanied by a psychological assault on the legal traditions and moral sensibilities of the people (all of which are seen as “anachronistic” by the NICE). The people can’t quite believe this is really happening.  Overview Question:    

Given what you already know about the “long march through the institutions” (from Chapter 2), what makes it possible for the NICE, with little if any resistance from public authorities, simply to ignore and run over the basic rights of the people? And what parallels can you see in America today for this kind of government action that routinely ignores and runs over the basic constitutional rights of the people?

Screenshot from pre-covid THS film. Are the NICE police trying to stop the rioting, or are they egging it on? No one will know for sure until the local papers, now controlled by the NICE, clarify the story. O, that story is already in print, and the riot would have been much worse except for the NICE intervention. O.K. got it.

 To get at the heart of this problem in Lewis’s story, I suggest that you combine what you have learned about the “long march” in Chapter 2 with what we discussed in the Introduction concerning Yuri Bezmenov’s description of the stages of cultural revolution. In particular, the first two stages: 1. Demoralization, and 2. Destabilization. These should help you discover a very plausible interpretation for what takes place in Lewis’s story.   

This may also be a good time to consider the larger shape of Lewis’s story as it spreads out before and behind us. A quick glance at the Table of Contents reveals a definite trajectory in Lewis’s plot. In general, the story moves from a.) the early chapters where the NICE at Belbury are expanding their reach and power over both people (including Mark) and institutions; to b.) the middle chapters where Mark and Jane are discovering the challenges of their “callings” at Belbury and St. Anne’s; and then c.) the final chapters where both Mark and Jane come to a crossroads as the spiritual battle is fully joined. The following diagram shows this dramatic sequence at a glance:

1. Sale of College Property

2. Dinner with Sub-Warden                            a. The Taking and Holding

3. Belbury and St. Anne’s                                            of Territory

4. Liquidation of Anachronisms

5. Elasticity

6. Fog

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7. The Pendragon

8. Moonlight at Belbury

9. The Saracen’s Head                                    b. The Calling and Inward Battles

10. Conquered City                                                       of Mark and Jane

11. Battle Begun

12. Wet and Windy Night

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13. They Have Pulled Down Deep Heaven

14. Real Life Is Meeting                                   c. The Road of New Creation

15. Descent of the Gods                                           and the Way Ahead  

16. Banquet at Belbury 17. Venus at St. Anne’s

A photograph of an English village by a river that looks a lot like the description of Lewis’s Cure Hardy. This is the kind of village, note well, that the NICE plan to relocate in the novel in order to reroute the river and make a new model village somewhere on the higher ground nearby. (Photo by Colin Braidford.)

DEEPER-DIVE QUESTIONS

1. In Part 1, the Dimbles lose their cottage. In Part 6, Mark works with the NICE to condemn the quaint village of Cure Hardy. And in Part 7, Bracton College loses its Wynd River, its land, and its famous stained-glass window. In the conversation between Mark and Cosser at Cure Hardy (Part 6), Lewis portrays the kind of thinking (the basic premises of the modern worldview) that warrant these actions. What are these premises, and where do you see them at work in American politics today? (The “Four Stages of Revolution” in the introduction should also help with this analysis.)   

2. In Parts 2 and 5, we find Jane continuing to have dreams, and wishing that she could somehow just get rid of them altogether. At the same time, her experiences with Mother Dimble expose her to a worldview where prayer and a desire to grow in virtue demon-strate a kind of faith that Jane simply does not possess. How might Jane’s aversions to her dreams and her discomfort with Mother Dimble’s traditional faith be related?

3. In Part 3 of Chapter 4, Mark finds himself confronted with the religious views of the Rev. Straik, who serves as a kind of advisor for the NICE. How do Rev. Straik’s views on Christianity fulfill the requirements of the modern worldview and of the “long march” at NICE? (Consider your answers in the light of the “disestablishment” clause of the First Amendment to the US Constitution.)

4. In the Discarded Image, Lewis explains how, in the medieval worldview, everything is mediated in the relations between God and man. We see an example of this when, in the midst of his work with Cosser, Mark’s conscience is awakened to the beauties and virtues of Cure Hardy by memories from his past experience with family and friends. As a consequence of these “messages” mediated from the past, Mark’s conscience is awakened, and he almost turns against the mentality of the NICE. What are the thoughts, experiences, and memories that mediate this awakening, and why does Mark turn away from them?   

THAT HIDEOUS STRENGTH: Chapter 3

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Ewan McGregor was well chosen, in my opinion, as Mark Studdock in the pre-covid 19 cast for the THS film directed by Antoine Fuqua. MacGregor would have helped us see, I can well imagine, how the manipulative and unaccountable atmosphere of alleged “equality” at Belbury was perfectly suited to exploit Mark’s obsequious desire to please those in power.

BELBURY AND ST. ANNE’S ON THE HILL

Overview Question

In this chapter we encounter the very different social and interpersonal dynamics that characterize Belbury and St. Anne’s on the Hill. What is most striking is how nearly opposite these two groups of people are in terms of how they treat Mark and Jane. Indeed, the contrast is so sharp that it begs for some kind of explanation. And this provides the focus for our overview question this week:       

Why do the people at Belbury (who hold the modern worldview, as we have seen) confound and manipulate Mark the way they do; while the people at St. Anne’s (who hold the traditional worldview) make every effort to behave with candor, transparency, and informed consent toward Jane? 

 

Rose Byrne, as Jane Studdock, has also been replaced in the post covid 19 cast for the new THS film. But these screen shots give us an opportunity to reflect on these characters, Mark and Jane, and how different they are from each other though both begin as holders of the modern worldview. And then how differently Jane is treated by Grace Ironwood and others at St. Anne’s in comparison to Mark’s entry into an arena where “every man for himself” is the unspoken rule.

Note well, I am asking you (with the overview question, above) to think about why each worldview–lifeworld seems to produce such starkly opposite results at the level of personal and interpersonal relationships. Of course, Lewis doesn’t do this analysis directly in the story itself; but his very consistent portrayal of both groups, which only gets sharper and clearer as the story proceeds, suggests a definite set of observations on his part. In order to clarify this contrast, let me recommend another interpretive tool that you may at your choosing find helpful: A brief sketch of Yoram Hazony’s analysis of worldview practices from Conservatism: A Rediscovery.

Hazony gives a remarkable history of what he calls the Anglo-American Conservative paradigm with its traditional worldview, on the one hand, and the Liberal Enlightenment paradigm with its modern worldview, on the other. Of particular interest in this regard are Hazony’s observations that the traditional worldview valorizes specific principles and practices such as loyalty, honor, family, hierarchy, religion, and empirical knowledge (based on evidence); while the modern Enlightenment worldview valorizes the opposite: freedom and independence of the individual, the alleged “self-evident” truths of reason and nature, and the rationalistic approach to knowledge (based on a priori first principles rather than evidence). As such, the modern individualistic worldview rejects the need for religious or moral traditions and practices to guide or inform its use of reason; while this is precisely what the traditional or conservative point of view calls for. Are there clues here about the two opposing “styles” of Lewis’s two groups?

I think Hazony’s observations are in close alignment in many ways with what Lewis is trying to show us in his fictional portrayals of the very different worlds of Belbury and St. Anne’s on the Hill.

The cover illustration of Scribner’s 2003 edition of THS portrays the landscape of the moon with its dark cold side (pointing toward earth where the marriages are “barren and cold”) and its bright living side (pointing toward the joys and creativity of deep heaven) as Ransom describes this to Merlin later in the story. Are there hints here of the two very opposite ways of living–specifically in this case related to marriage and sexuality–that are reflected at Belbury and at St. Anne’s on the Hill?

 

DEEPER-DIVE QUESTIONS

1. In Part 1 of Chapter 3, Mark has a long conversation with John Wither about the possibility of taking a new job with NICE. How would you describe the “style of communication” that Wither uses with Mark? What seems to be Wither’s purpose for using this style? How does this style tie in with what you already know about the larger social vision, lifeworld and worldview at Belbury?    

2. In Part 3 of Chapter 3, Jane tells Miss Ironwood about the strange dreams that she has been having. How would you describe Miss Ironwood’s style of communication with Jane? How does Miss Ironwood’s style and manner differ from that of Wither? What does Miss Ironwood’s different communication style suggest about the different values of the worldview embraced at St. Anne’s?

3. In Parts 2 and 4 of Chapter 3, we are introduced more fully to Professor Hingest (chemist at Bracton) and Fairy Hardcastle, head of the NICE institutional police. We learn that Hingest and the NICE hold nearly opposite views of what science is really all about. Why do the NICE regard Hingest as “the wrong sort of scientist” while he regards their work, including Mark’s sociology, as not really science at all? How are the two worldviews reflected in these different approaches to “science,” and how are the differences also reflected in the politicization of science in America today?

4. In Parts 3 and 5 of Chapter 3, Jane struggles through her interview with Miss Ironwood. Everything that happens–Jane’s wandering thoughts about Camilla’s beauty, her premonition of a passage on sex and sexual attraction in a book she picks up while waiting to see the Director, and Miss Ironwood’s unwelcome advice about her dreams—seems to go against how Jane wants to see herself. What pattern, if any, can you detect in what Jane wants for her own self-image, and what keeps happening to her to interfere with this?

THAT HIDEOUS STRENGTH: Chapter 2

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Screen shot of Pierce Brosnan as Lord Feverstone in the 2019 pre-covid cast for what was then planned as a new THS movie directed by Antoine Fuqua. In my view, Brosnan would have made a convincing, cold-blooded Lord Feverstone.1

DINNER WITH THE SUB-WARDEN

Overview Question

Having accepted Sub-Warden Curry’s invitation to dinner after the all-day faculty meeting (where Bragdon Wood was sold!) and hoping to strengthen his position in the “progressive element” at the college, Mark attends the gathering in Curry’s rooms with several elite college faculty and sponsors including Rev. Busby the bursar, Curry himself, and Lord Feverstone, the latter an important political figure with connections in London.2   

As the evening progresses, it becomes clear that these men do not really know each other in a personal way, nor are they loyal to each other. Both Busby (as a representative of the college) and then Feverstone (as a representative of the NICE) expound their views on “man, nature, science, and society,” and then speak at length about how the elite leaders of the NICE will take over all of the major institutions of society. All of this echoes what we saw in the introduction (8/3/22) concerning the modern worldview with its administrative state and its neo-Marxist “long march through the institutions.” Meanwhile, Mark is watching every move to see where his best opportunity will arise to join the “inner ring,” if he can only figure out where the real “ring” is.    

Question: As you read the speeches of Busby and Feverstone in Part 1, what specific cultural institutions do they name or allude to as they spin out their visions for the influence of the NICE in the college and in the wider world? How are these same institutions at play today in the culture wars of America?

Cover for the 1965 Simon & Schuster edition of THS illustrating the different levels of local, global, and spiritual forces at work in the story.3

DEEPER-DIVE QUESTIONS

1. At the faculty dinner, after Curry and Busby have left, Feverstone belittles them and declares them to be mere pawns in the grander scheme of the NICE, which is global in scope, not just local or academic. What parallels for this two-tiered struggle for power between the local (regional or national) focus, on one hand, and the global (or interplanetary!) focus, on the other, can you discern in the geo-politics of the world today? And why is it important (for us as for Lewis) to mark these levels?

2. Still in Part 1, Mark becomes flushed with excitement as Feverstone verbally runs down the college men and goes on to paint a picture of the administrative state in which “some men have got to take charge of the rest.” What does this scene tell us about the pattern of loyalty and honor that one may expect (not only between Mark and Feverstone) but also in an administrative state that is based strictly on natural reason and individual freedom, as opposed to the values of religion, family, congregation and community that guide the traditional lifeworld?

3. In Part 2, after lunch with the Dimbles, Jane hoped her anxieties about her dream would go away. But they didn’t. So, when Mark comes home from his dinner, he finds her in an unusually vulnerable mood. But then in Part 3, the next morning, Jane is angry and defensive about having let herself get upset in the first place. What do these layered reactions say about Jane’s struggle with her own personal formation? Are there hints about her own nature that she has a hard time accepting given her preferred self-image?

4. In the final Part of chapter 2, Jane and Mark are moving in opposite directions, one by fast sports car to Belbury, the other by slow train to St. Anne’s. How do the details of Lewis’s descriptions reveal not only the two very different geographic destinations, but also the two opposing worldviews (modern and traditional) that are, so to speak, hidden in the landscape?

A train trailing smoke through the English countryside may help to remind us of the kinds of beautiful, agrarian places Jane would have seen on the way from Edgestow to St. Anne’s on the Hill. Photo from stock images online at Flickr and Pinterest.

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  1. A new cast has recently been announced for this movie version of THS which will, at the time of this writing, feature Hugh Grant as Feverstone. Other new cast members include: Daniel Day-Lewis as Ransom, Emily Blunt as Jane Studdock, Emma Thompson as Grace Ironwood, and Jeremy Irons as Frost, plus a host of other great picks. Should be a worthy effort if our government, in contrast to Feverstone’s vision for 1940s England, can wean itself from further lockdown and emergency powers.
  2. Lord Feverstone is also the Richard Devine of Out of the Silent Planet, the first volume of the space trilogy. Devine/Feverstone is an old classmate and enemy of Dr. Ransom, the Director at St. Anne’s. In the first book, Devine and his partner Edward Weston kidnap Ransom and try to use him to gain control of the creatures on the planet of Malacandra (Mars). But Ransom fights back and makes some surprising discoveries about interplanetary spiritual powers. The portrayal of good and evil in the first two books will add much to the understanding of these themes in THS; but as Lewis himself says in his Preface, though the stories form a sequence, each “can be read on its own.”
  3. The illustration for this 1965 Simon & Schuster cover with its picture of a) the college, b) the chess game pieces, c) an interplanetary map, and d) a symbol of mysterious power floating overall, suggests the various “levels” of interest and engagement for the different kinds of actors who support the NICE (in keeping with Lord Feverstone’s own description in Chapter 2). At one level, there are those, like the college faculty, who support the NICE simply because it promises to increase their salary. And then there are those somewhat higher up, like the administration of the college or Mark himself, who see an opportunity to rise within the frame of regional politics. And then, yet higher (or spiritually lower as the case may be), there are those like Lord Feverstone and the leaders at Belbury who represent forces that want to use the NICE to dominate and control the whole world or even the universe. One reason it is important to mark these levels is that, as in Dante’s Inferno, they reveal different motivations and degrees of evil that betray people at each level. This is also relevant as we try to take stock of the spiritual forces at work in the geo-politics of our own time. Some people at the lower levels of involvement are what the Marxists have called “useful idiots,” for they do the regime’s dirty work and are later dispensed with. One such group was the Red Guard in Mao’s China who were banished to the wilderness after helping to oppress the general population into subservience. Lewis was clearly aware of these different levels in the culture war of his time. And he explores this issue in greater detail as the story proceeds.

THAT HIDEOUS STRENGTH: Chapter 1

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Illustration by J. P. Cokes

Illustration by J. P. Cokes.

SALE OF COLLEGE PROPERTY

Overview Question

Mark and Jane Studdock are in many ways a typical young modern couple: college educated, with professional aspirations. One might look at them, whether as characters in Lewis’s 1940s story or as people we meet on the street today and conclude that they have everything going for them. What more could they ask? Given this, who would think that Jane’s feminism, or Mark’s professional ambition, could lead either of them into any serious trouble? And yet, spoiler alert, that is what happens.

Likewise, who would think that the long description of Bragdon Wood and Merlin’s Well in Chapter 1, or the account of the Wood’s devaluation by Mark and the “progressive” element at the college, could have any special import for our story as a whole? But what if the Wood represents that whole sense of sacramental and mediated life in creation which we find both in the Bible and in the Middle Ages—including the importance of obedience to God, submission in marriage, humility toward creation, and the disciplined practice of the virtues and affections of the Christian community? For that is what the Wood does symbolize already at this early stage in the story.

Question: What conflicts can you see brewing between the worldview/lifeworld of Jane and Mark, as well as the “progressive” element at Bracton College, on the one hand, and the values and traditions represented by the history of Bragdon Wood, on the other?

DEEPER-DIVE QUESTIONS

  1. From the beginning of the story, how does Jane view marriage and family life? How does she see these traditions fitting into her larger plan for her own life?
  2. What seems to be Mark’s strongest motivation in life? How does this affect his relationships with other faculty at Bracton? With Jane? (For a major clue into Mark, if you are able, look up Lewis’s short essay “The Inner Ring” in The Weight of Glory.)
  3. Given what you already know about Jane, why do you think she becomes so troubled by: a.) her dream, and b.) Mrs. Dimble’s womanly attentions? Do these somehow interfere with or “trigger” her desired self-image and life-world?
  4. What impressions of Arthur and Merlin do you get from Dr. Dimble’s descriptions, and how is this reinforced by the narrator’s sketch of Bragdon Wood and Merlin’s well?
  5. What signs of the opposition between the modern and the traditional worldviews can you identify in the story so far?

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The illustration (above) of Bragdon Wood and Merlin’s well, with the college and Merlin’s visage rising on the horizon, was the cover for the 1983 Pan Books edition of THS.