Notions About The Hell In "The Great Divorce" By C.S. Lewis

The Great Divorce by C.S. Lewis talks about the story in which the unnamed central character finds himself in the middle of Purgatory and Heaven. He realizes that he is in the Grey Town, waiting along with other passengers for the bus. They get on the bus and the bus wheels the Grey Town. The Narrator had one to one conversation with other passengers on the bus. One writer chose to get on the bus because he thinks that in a Grey Town one cannot find a bright life. Another came below the bus to get away from his an unhappy life; his faith is that no matter where ever the bus will go, it will help him feel known and valued. The other passenger with a bowler hat is upset with the service of the Grey Town and wishes a much better of life.

The bus landed on the huge cliff, and the passengers exit the bus. They look around and discover that the beautiful streams of water and meadow have surrounded them. Nevertheless, the narrator quickly realizes that the entire place is stationary, and the edges of the grass are sturdy and stiff, which makes it difficult to walk. They all realize that they do not have a solid body and have transformed into Ghosts. The narrator understood that he and other passengers are in the state of the life after death. They saw a group of Spirits coming near to them.

The book describes that the Spirits have beautiful and bright solid bodies. These Spirit began to approach these transparent Ghosts trying to bring them to the beautiful mountains, but they denied doing so. There is one aggressive man who became a Ghost recognizes one of the spirit named Len who he knew from before. He murdered someone when he was alive and still transformed into the spirit with solid bodies. While the ghost lived allegedly righteous life, and he still is sent to a dull Grey town. The spirit convinces him to “love,” but he rejects and goes back to the bus, keen to go back to Grey town.

After Several encounters amid Spirit beings and Ghosts occur. The Ghost taunts the Spirit for the belief of Heaven and Hell. The ghost with bowler hat attempts to take a golden apple with him to the bus, regardless of knowing it is of no worth in Hell. Another ghost lady worries about the way she looks in front of the glory of Spirits, and because of that, she rejects to journey forward with them. These encounters characterize several sins. The number one is a heretic whereas the second one is guilt-ridden of greediness and the female ghost is vain. All these sins stop these ghosts from traveling onward, and because of that, they come back to the Grey town.

As the Narrator is planning to return to his bus; he looks around and sees George MacDonald, his favorite author has become Spirit. The McDonald receives the Narrator joyfully and shows him around. MacDonald tells the Narrator that he is here on a trip from the Grey Town, and is in the “Valley of the Shadow of Life.” Many of the transparent ghosts from the Grey Town visited the Valley and came back forever. To these transparent ghosts, Grey Town is Hell, but some decided to stay there instead of returning to the Grey Town. And to them, the Town is simply Purgatory: place where one stays before ascending to the Heaven.

MacDonald explains to the Narrator people who are persistent to go to Valley and love God are as stubborn children who reject humbleness and chooses to be miserable. Later in the book, MacDonald takes the Narrator around, and show him the conversations among the transparent ghosts and Spirit with solid bodies. The narrator in the first discussion notices that the Spirit is persuading a well-known Artist to stay there and go to Heaven. He refused to go and said that he could not live in a place without his possessions, and His work is not valued or cherished. And then the narrator looks at female ghost completely disappearing because she was criticizing her spouse.

She is full of triviality and obsessiveness, and in results, to this, she has a soul anymore. Then the narrator sees another ghost with the lizard on his shoulder which is representing lust. The male ghost then allows an angel to destroy the lizard on his shoulder and as soon the angel destroyed it, the man was free from the bondage of sexual desires. The lizard on his shoulder became a beautiful horse and ran away with the man. The Narrator’s favorite author MacDonald explains to him when one submits their fleshly desires even for their precious ones. They then are turned out to be a beautiful, authoritative and devoted than they could have ever thought.

The narrator meets a beautiful and bright female Spirit named Sarah Smith, in the final chapters. Sarah was generous to everybody and extremely sincere to receive the access to the Heaven. Sarah speaks to Frank, a man she knew from before. Frank divided into two separate ghosts because of his alienated and self-loathing nature. One ghost is tall, and the other one is a dwarf. The dwarf is obnoxious, and self-contempt and the tall one is overdramatic. The small ghost controls the big ghost with the help of heavyweight shackle. Sarah tells the dwarf that he should not hate himself because the place he is standing in is the land of endless love. The dwarf is to laugh with her and thought of staying, but he pulls the shackles and the tall one furies melodramatically, and he then condemns her for not loving him. And then the dwarf starts to shrink till he is not evident and the other one vanishes as well.

The Narrator questions MacDonald asking what will happen to people in the Hell will they stay in there for the rest of eternity or is God going to set them free and take them with Him Heaven. MacDonald explains to the Narrator that Heaven is open to one genuinely wishing for it. Nevertheless, one should not raise questions on what will happen to humans in the future. The nature of human is designed to live in a period, and do not know what the future holds. The Narrator suddenly wakes up three in the morning and finds himself sleeping in his study.

EVALUATION

The book is not to be engaged as a theological discourse or interpreted as a dispute for any definite conception of Heaven or Hell (or Purgatory). The primary themes of the book are a moral choice and the complete disunion of hell and heaven. These themes established inside a narrative outline providing by an incomprehensible Christian perception, the Trip of the Damned, which contains in Lewis’s version the exertions of the Sacred Spirits to change those ghosts who have selected to spend their trip in the Valley of the Shadow of Life than on Earth. Lewis defines heaven and hell with intense clarity: the vast, indifferent, narcissistic, dullness of hell compared to the bright, penetrating beauty of Heaven.

Stepping back one step from the illusory aspect of the text and presenting an outline of human delusions regarding salvation and heaven. The characters which the narrator come across in his trip each show a different misunderstanding. One demonstrates the works uprightness of trying to value heaven; the character demands his ‘rights’ given, all the although disregarding that his ‘rights’ gain him nothing further than damnation.

One more shows the idea that if we are just truthful and honest in our views then all which can be questioned of us, overlooking the earnestness does not primarily involve innocence or any goodness. Another state that intolerance and sluggishness which must happen if any final fact should be reached, choosing endless skepticism, disregarding that the main purpose of questioning is to find answers. And the rest characters, rather than indicating misapprehensions, demonstrate approaches may keep the person from accepting the truth. Such outlooks comprise that of disgrace, of self-centered love, and of lust.

Perhaps the only thing in contradiction of Lewis, in this book which spins so profoundly round man’s pathway to heaven, is the discrete lack of grace and that is the distinct absence of Christ. People in heaven come out to see those staying on heaven’s coasts to convince to stay and ride inward, looking for ways to persuade them to come in. It would be somewhat irrational to pick to one side the theological implications of it being up to the efforts of heavenly beings to save souls. No word said regarding the fact that is Christ who saves, and He alone, thus these individuals are supposed to be ‘saved’ by the efforts of these people. One may write this as the persons just acting as the means through which Jesus Christ is saving them, but this view is found nowhere in this book.

INTEGRATION

There is no doubt that C.S. Lewis was a brilliant man. He used his deep thoughts to syndicate great theological understandings, and which undoubtedly makes Lewis writing styles unforgettable. I want to highlight some of the ideas from this story, touching some of the specific spiritual implication. The first one is a contradiction of the “grandeur” and voiding Hell. He explains to us that the ways and dwellings of Hell are in such a depth that it takes centuries to get from one side of the place to the other hand. This enormity is because the inhabitants of that dreadful place wish to stay as distant to each other. The journey of the bus from Hell to the Valleys appears to in-flight up and travels a significant distance.

Nevertheless, when the narrator, is talking to the Spirit, marvels where exactly Hell is about the Heavenly Kingdom, the Spirit turns down, tugs a single edge of the grass and uses the tip to show a tiny, hardly perceptible, crack in the ground. He explains “This is where you came in.” According to the narrator, the Hell which appeared to be vast. In actual fits in a virtually tiny area of Heaven. The Author is exemplifying the belief of Augustinian; sin curves around oneself. And this discounts the certainty to the substantially minor space of the self-worth’s apprehensions and concerns. On the opposing side love, is the life of Heaven is foundational to realism in its fullness; it sums to breaking through of the cushioned and oppressive self. One thinks that their self-centered worlds are awe-inspiring, but to those genuinely exposed to reality, are less than nobody.

This book determines great imagination and not destined to be an assumption of what the afterlife might look. This story is imaginary to develop our minds about the subjects and possibilities regarding hell and damnation. It did that for me. For a long time the only notions I had, were the traditional ones taught in the Church about hell, but after reading the book, it changed my concepts. C.S. Lewis did not give anything new, but he only proposed alternative conducts of thinking about hell.

Something that seized my thinking was the idea that if one detached from God in the afterlife, it is because we pick that for us not because of one getting punished. Ever since then, after studying more, I am influenced that this is not a mere prospect but the absolute truth of the matter. One more idea was that even after refusing everlasting life with God, one might think again. Still, consider this to be a possibility, but who can tell for the firm? One may take away whatever from this book; I am sure it will stretch one person’s mind on the matters of hell. This influential book by C.S. Lewis gives a clue of treasures confined.