The Space Trilogy by C. S. Lewis

First published: 1975 (includes Out of the Silent Planet, 1938; Perelandra, 1943 [also published as Voyage to Venus, 1953]; and That Hideous Strength, 1945 [also published in shorter form as The Tortured Planet, 1958]); also published as The Cosmic Trilogy, 1990

Type of work: Science fiction/fantasy

Time of work: The late 1930’s and the 1940’s

Locale: England, Mars, and Venus

Principal Characters:

• Ransom, a philologist/adventurer, the protagonist of the three novels that form the trilogy
• Dick Devine, Ransom’s adversary in Out of the Silent Planet, who returns in That Hideous Strength
• Dr. Weston, Ransom’s adversary in Out of the Silent Planet, who becomes the diabolical “Un-man” in Perelandra
• Mark Studdock, an unwitting accomplice of the National Institute of Coordinated Experiments (N.l.C.E.) in That Hideous Strength
• Jane Studdock, the wife of Mark and a foe of N.I.C.E.
• The Green Lady, the unfallen Eve of Perelandra
• Lord Feverstone, an evil Devine in Out of the Silent Planet

The Novels

The first novel in Lewis’ series of “interplanetary romances,” Out of the Silent Planet, introduces Ransom, an English philologist who finds himself kidnaped and forcibly taken to the planet Malacandra, or Mars, by the evil physicist, Dr. Weston, and Dick Devine, a rich eccentric who had attended school with Ransom. During the voyage to Malacandra, Ransom overhears that they intend to deliver him to the sorns—who, he assumes, are like the horrible monsters in H. G. Wells’s science-fiction tales.

When a sea monster attacks the trio’s campsite, Ransom escapes. As he encounters representatives from each of the three species on Malacandra, he begins to learn the language and history of the planet. The sorns, he discovers, are a wise, peaceable race whom he can trust and from whom he can learn much. Most important is what Ransom learns about Maleldil the Younger, righteous ruler of the universe and the head of the eldila, the angel-like creatures of light who serve him. He finds that each planet has its own special eldil, or Oyarsa, who rules it—every planet except Earth, or Thulcandra, the silent planet, whose Oyarsa is “bent.”

The novel reaches its climax when Ransom is called into the presence of the Oyarsa of Malacandra, who explains, to Ransom’s surprise, that it was, in fact, the Oyarsa himself who had engineered Ransom’s voyage in order to prepare him for service to Maleldil. He is being called to battle against the treachery of Devine and Weston. Lured with the promise of riches, the two villains were tricked into bringing Ransom along as a human sacrifice. The Oyarsa declares that Devine and Weston must be banished from Malacandra; the three of them are then ordered to return to Earth, undertaking the perilous voyage back.

Out of the Silent Planet ends with a framing narrative written by “Lewis,” a friend of Ransom, who explains that he has recorded Ransom’s adventure so that Weston and Devine, and the forces behind them, may be thwarted before they can further corrupt Earth and spread their evil to other planets. This same “Lewis” begins the narration of Perelandra within a similar framing device. He is rushing to meet Ransom at his cottage at an appointed time and discovers that Ransom has just returned from a successful mission to Venus, or Perelandra, where he assisted its King and Queen in warding off an attack on the planet by the Dark Oyarsa of Earth.

Perelandra, a beautiful, unspoiled planet filled with vivid colors, flora, and fauna, features an amazing landscape of fixed and floating lands. After a day or two of exploring, Ransom meets the Green Lady, the unfallen “Eve” of Perelandra, whose husband, the King, is away. Ransom recognizes in her face a quality of peace and security he has never seen before; she exists in perfect innocence, and Ransom discovers that Maleldil speaks to her directly in a way that he cannot fathom. Ransom is called, presently, to prepare her to face his nemesis from Malacandra, Weston, who will attempt to undermine her faith in Maleldil. Her only “commandment” is to avoid spending the night on the “Fixed Lands”—an act of disobedience which would parallel Eve’s eating of the forbidden fruit.

Weston eventually arrives on Perelandra, his identity completely swallowed up by dark forces. He is the “Un-man,” spokesman for the Dark Oyarsa, who attempts to persuade the Green Lady that her destiny lies in establishing her independence from Maleldil and her husband, the King. As she clearly weakens, Maleldil places a deep sleep over the land and Ransom and the Un-man are left to their final battle alone. In a mighty struggle—first with words and then, later, with sheer physical force—Ransom defeats the Un-man. King and Queen are reunited and Ransom returns to Earth.

The third book of the trilogy, That Hideous Strength, is set entirely on the planet Earth. A corrupt scientific organization, N.l.C.E., the National Institute of Coordinated Experiments, plots the takeover of the planet from its outpost in Great Britain. The key villain here is Lord Feverstone, the evil Devine from Out of the Silent Planet. Caught in the middle of the intrigues and schemes of N.I.C.E., are two newlyweds, Mark and Jane Studdock.

Jane’s terrifying dreams are all the more so because the morning newspapers are filled with the real characters which populate them. Visiting trusted friends, she becomes convinced that her dreams have a purpose and that they somehow link N.l.C.E. with demoniac forces. Meanwhile, Mark is favorably impressed with N.[.C.E. and their utopian agenda for saving mankind from itself and is flattered by their invitation to join them.

The complex plot begins to unravel when Jane meets Ransom, or, as he is now known, Mr. Fisher King—a link to the Arthurian myth. He is in constant pain because of the injury to his heel which he suffered in battle on Perelandra; his role is to advise Jane and her friends of what their next steps should be. Mark is imprisoned and it appears that N.I.C.E. will triumph. Merlin, the ancient sorceror, however, is called upon by the assembled Oyarsas of all the planets to battle against the evil eldila of Earth. With the help of Ransom, Jane, and her friends, the evil plans of N.I.C.E. are turned back, their leaders destroyed, and their prisoners freed. Moral order is restored, and Ransom prepares to return to Perelandra.

The Characters

Lewis’ space trilogy is populated with many memorable characters. The eldila are among the most delightful and intriguing aliens ever created for science fiction and fantasy, and Lewis’ villains, Weston and Devine, convincingly embody a thoroughly diabolical nature. Ransom, the protagonist in Out of the Silent Planet and Perelandra, is Lewis’ most fully developed character. Though he steps to the background in That Hideous Strength, he emerges later in the narrative as a catalyst in the plot’s final resolution.

Ransom’s very name indicates the source and power of his mission: He ransoms and redeems individuals and whole races in his battle against the forces of evil. His role is most clearly focused in his battle with the Un-man on Perelandra; like the deliverer prophesied in the third chapter of Book of Genesis, he succeeds in “bruising” the “Bent One’s” head, while suffering a bitten heel. Ransom’s injured heel comes to symbolize his preparedness for his advisory role in the climactic confrontation in That Hideous Strength when N.I.C.E. is finally destroyed.

Lewis’ other characters are generally less developed, serving primarily to further the themes he wishes the plot to explore. Mark and Jane Studdock, for example, lack the depth that Ransom and even the Oyarsa of Malacandra evince. The one exception to this generalization may be the Green Lady of Perelandra. Here Lewis takes on the difficult task of depicting a character who has been given knowledge of good and evil without experiencing the Fall. Lewis’ most successful effort, within the constraints of science-fiction writing, is commendable and is one of his more significant achievements.

Critical Context

Lewis was a prolific writer who published more than fifty volumes of stories, novels, literary criticism, and Christian apologetics. He is best known in scholarly circles for his The Allegory of Love: A Study in Medieval Tradition (1936), a then ground-breaking study of the medieval view of courtly love, and among contemporary religious readers for his study of Christian faith, Mere Christianity (1952). If anything, Lewis has become even more popular than he was during his own lifetime; his space trilogy continues to be read and enjoyed by thousands each year.

He saw his task as “translating” the theological ideas and ideals of Christianity into a common, accessible language for the twentieth century. For his fictional “translation” work, he chose primarily the genres of science fiction and children’s fantasy. As a science-fiction novelist, Lewis was less capable of and less interested in crafting a plot with scientific verisimilitude than such notables as H. G. Wells or Jules Verne. Readers of the trilogy will not find, for example, extensive or detailed descriptions of the mode of space travel Ransom enjoys; one simply observes that Ransom departs the Earth and gets where he is going.

On the other hand, Lewis was a master of describing “other worlds”; his depictions of Malacandra and Perelandra are marvelous triumphs of the imagination that excite the senses and achieve a fantastic or mythopoeic realism that only the very best science-fiction writers have evoked. While critics are divided over which among the novels constituting the trilogy is the more successful, they generally agree that Out of the Silent Planet is probably the most effective of the three. By placing its unlikely, ordinary hero, Ransom, on a convincingly alien planet populated with visually and morally interesting creatures, and by pitting him against two truly villainous fellow earthlings, Lewis succeeds in weaving plot, characterization, theme, and setting into an entertaining and thoughtful interplanetary romance.

Bibliography

Edwards, Bruce L. A Rhetoric of Reading: C. S. Lewis’s Defense of Western Literacy, 1986.

Hannay, Margaret Patterson. C. S. Lewis, 1981.

Howard, Thomas. The Achievement of C. S. Lewis: A Reading of His Fiction, 1980.

Purtill, Richard. Lord of the Elves and Eldils: Fantasy and Philosophy in C. S. Lewis and J. R. R. Tolkien, 1974.

Schakel, Peter J., ed. The Longing for a Form: Essays on the Fiction of C. S. Lewis, 1977.