Analysis Of Surprised By The Feminine

In her book Surprised by the Feminine, Monika Hilder makes “theological feminism” the lens through which she evaluates C.S. Lewis’ portrayal of women in his works. She discusses this term as the understanding that, according to Christian theology, that “the subordination of ego as well as of concerns of worldly power to the ultimate authority of divine love is liberating” (Hilder 21). Whereas in her essay “A Sword Between the Sexes,” Mary Van Leeuwen expresses her frustration with Lewis’ portrayal of “archetypal femininity and wifely obedience in a universe that, at its core, is one continuous hierarchy” (Van Leeuwen 397), Monika Hilder argues that Lewis understood gendered terms as “reciprocal” in that “the human hero must be like Christ, …show more content…
As mentioned earlier, Lewis encourages readers to question the validity of Screwtape’s descriptions; in Surprised by the Feminine, Hilder discusses some of the obvious contradictions in Screwtape’s rant, such as, “If the girl is so insignificant, why does she inspire his rage? Or if she is monosyllabic, how can she demonstrate a satirical wit?” (Hilder 58). Instead of assuming that Screwtape’s misogynist rant reflect Lewis’ attitudes, Hilder correctly concludes that Lewis is instead portraying “the idiocy of Screwtape’s denunciation of the girl … because of the grave threat she poses to the diabolical agenda” (Hilder 58). What strength, then, does she possess that she presents such a threat? The answer must be pieced together from the descriptions within Screwtape’s rant. The accusation that she “looks as if she 'd faint at the sight of blood and then dies with a smile” refers to how “her appearance of weakness belies her true strength” and her confidence in the afterlife promised to her (Hilder 59). Screwtape inadvertently further affirms her spiritual strength by complaining that she’d find him “funny”; she knows the power of her God makes the powers of hell look hilariously incompetent. She is not without her flaws — Screwtape notes with little satisfaction her sense of superiority, the other side of the coin to her confidence in the rightness of her beliefs — and so she does not stand as an ideal. More importantly, her humility, as seen in Screwtape’s accusation that she is “simpering, demure, monosyllabic, [and] mouse-like,” defines her as a spiritual hero in theological feminism, “the paradoxical elevation of the ‘feminine’ through obedience to the ‘masculine’ divine, as it is an echo