...First thing one notices about Orual is that she refers to herself as ugly. She is really physically ugly, as I have understood Orual is a kind of manly looking woman. And this fact plays a great role in shaping her character. She seems to be afraid of the women of her royal father. I think she also hated them because they were beautiful and she was not given this most important female feature. Orual is raised without mother who died. Her main teacher is the Greek slave called Fox. Fox is the adherent of Stoicism. He opposes the passionate and primitive religion of the kingdom of Glome with his rational mind and Stoic belief in cause and effect relationships between all phenomena.

The other main character of the book Psyche is born to the king's wife who dies soon enough after giving birth to her child. On the contrary to Orual Psyche grows up as a stunningly beautiful girl. She is even deified by the citizens of Glome. Orual raises her younger sister as if she is her mother and thus she has a maternal affection towards Psyche. I also think that Orual's affection for Psyche has a light shade of lesbian one. My opinion is based on the fact that Orual is ugly and therefore deprived of men's attention and affection, and being a little bit masculine she may have a lesbian love towards beautiful Psyche. However, it is only my personal thought.
 When the citizens decided to sacrifice Psyche to the "brute" Orual is disappointed because of two reasons. First is that she believes more in the Stoicism of Fox then the official religion that demands the sacrifices to goddess Ungit or her son "brute". The other is that she loves Psyche and does not want to give her even to the gods and even for the sake of entire city safety from plague. In this situation Orual behaves in the way that may seem egoistic from the point of view of the other citizens. She thinks more of herself and her love to Psyche then of the city's safety.

 So Orual blames Gods for taking her sister from her. The sacrifices to the gods of Glome are made in a strange way. The victim is left bound to the tree on a mountain, and then it is believed that if the victim is male he becomes the husband of Ungit, and if the victim is female she becomes the wife of "brute", the son of the goddess. So Psyche is left there and is considered to be dead. Later on Orual comes to the holy tree to gather Psyche's bones but find nothing and soon is surprised to see Psyche alive. Psyche told her that she was living in a palace and was wearing beautiful dresses. But all these Orual could not see, as well as Psyche never saw the face of the god she was living with...