Heaven And Hell In C. S. Lewis The Great Divorce

    Hell is said to be the worst place to ever exist, and it is greatly feared about on earth and in the minds of people. “Hell is gaping for them, the flames gather and flash about them, and would fain lay hold on them and swallow them up,” this illustrates personification in giving the flames of hell the live ability to hold and swallow us. It portrays how we will be consumed by our own sins if we do not act on them to better ourselves. If we let our sins pile up they will weigh us down and we will eventually be brought down to hell to pay for our wrong doings.

This dark, decayed, disgusting and risky place makes the character confused and makes him feel inside hell. He feels despair and does not understand the cruelness of his captors (even though he had heard some stories, being there was worse).

The author’s use of imagery also leaves the listeners crying at their misfortunes. To fully illustrate the burning, agony of Hell, the author frequently uses the phrases “glowing flames” and “Hell’s wide gaping mouth open”. This depict that Hell is very “hot” to endure

In The Great Divorce, it is all about being lost and showing how hard it is to find the way to the right path. C.S. Lewis puts a new spin on how someone will see hell, satan, and purgatory. There is not much happiness in life when there is nothing but temptation and hatred in front of that person. Many people forget that Earth is just a place to begin not a place to begin. Having belief in heaven is not possible when doubt fills a person’s

Lewis writes about his version of Heaven and Hell trying to create a completely just version of it. To begin, Lewis writes about a hell that is not eternal. A significant difference of his idea of justice is that the gates of Hell are locked from the inside. Ones who are in Hell may leave at any time if they simply choose to. This also means that people may choose to go to Hell, it is a place of self-exile. “The demand of the loveless and the self-imprisoned that they should be allowed to blackmail the universe: that till they consent to be happy (on their own terms) no one else shall taste joy: that theirs should be the final power; that Hell should be able to veto Heaven” (p.124). A key point about this afterlife is that Heaven is a reality and Hell is a state of mind, rather than a physical place. In “The Great Divorce”, Hell takes place in a grey town, if someone leaves this grey town, they enter Purgatory. The idea that Hell is a state of mind would also mean that salvation is too; a damned soul can achieve salvation by desiring to be close to God, traveling to Heaven and leaving Hell behind. This is what would make Heaven and Hell seem just, being able to leave Hell by getting closer to God and achieving

“The Great Divorce” by C.S. Lewis chronicles the events that take place after a busload of souls from Hell are taken on a ride to Heaven, where they are a given a chance to explore the greatness that is there, then decide whether or not they want to stay there or return to Hell. What the reader will be surprised to find out is that most of these souls that Lewis refers to as “Ghosts,” choose to return to Hell instead of stay in Heaven. As George MacDonald, explained to the narrator in chapter nine, “The “damned” remain in Hell because they are too closed-minded: “There is always something they insist on keeping even at the price of misery. There is always something they prefer to joy” (71). This turns out to be one the main ideas of the novel, showing that the damned need to want to achieve salvation and happiness in Heaven; if they prefer to “reign in Hell

Love, generations, cultures, and family are the main theme to talk about in shorts stories, and in the story of “Hell-Heaven” by Jhumpa Lahiri, that is not the exception. However, it is an unusual and very enjoyable story where readers can identify themselves with it because the main characters are common people who have the same problems as many of us. If I have to summarize the story in one sentence, I can say that it describes the experiences of people who come from other cultures to the USA, and it is nuanced with an impossible love to make it more interesting and real. Also, the author divided the different parts of it with four important events which mark the transition

In The Great Divorce, Lewis depicts a man’s encounter of Heaven and Hell where he interacts with and witnesses many different beings and opinions. In the beginning of the novel, the narrator is wandering around aimlessly through a miserable and dismal town. As he walks he sees a bus stop and proceeds to get in line, not knowing where the bus would take him. The narrator quickly notices the hostility of the others in the line and observes the strife between the passengers as they struggle to board the bus, once on, the narrator begins to have a conversation with one of the passengers that quickly gets interrupted by other passengers and their quarrelsome behavior. Upon arrival, many of the passengers realize that they are no longer solid, but

For thousands of years, people have had numerous different viewpoints of the characteristics of Hell. Some people believe that Hell is hot and fiery while others believe Hell is cold and frozen over. Although numerous people believe that Hell is fiery because many religious texts describe Hell as that, Hell is frozen because it provides a fair punishment, it surprises the readers, and it represents being far from God.

Robert Herrick, an English poet, once said, “Hell is no other but a soundlesse pit, where no one beame of comfort peeps in it.” Picture any type of Hell with relief, happiness, or even the smallest crack of a smile. There is no place. In fact, one can only think of the complete opposite, whether it is a Hell filled with neglect, pain, disgust, or a never-ending life of horror. This is the place created by Dante Alighieri; The Inferno is exactly the type of Hell where no person would want to be. Even those who acted upon the lightest of sins suffered greatly. While each realm contained a different sinner, the punishment that each were forced to face was cruel, repulsive, and sometimes rather disgusting. Through grieving tears without an

Dante's depiction of Hell is not meant to entertain but to change the behavior of his readers so that they will choose behavior which will lead them to the "city" of Heaven, rather than behavior which will lead to the dark wood and, eventually, damnation: A place is there below, stretching as far from Beelzebub as his tomb extends. . . . My Leader and I entered by that hidden road, to return into the bright world; and . . . we mounted up . . . so far that a round opening I saw some of the beautiful things which Heaven bears, and thence we issued for again to see the stars (Dante 52).

Paradise Lost by John Milton thrives off the implicit and explicit aspects of Hell offered by the narrator and the physical and psychological descriptions offered by various characters. Their separate perspectives coincide to expose the intentions of Milton and the purpose Hell serves in this epic poem. Each character adds a new element to the physical and psychological development of this alternative world. The narrator and Satan provide the greatest insight into the dynamics of this underworld by attempting to redress the issues of accommodation.

The opening scene sets the atmosphere of physical conflict because when the second witch says that the witches will meet next “when the battle’s lost and won.”, it implies that there is some kind of war/battle going on as the witches speak. This is proven true in Act 1, Scene 2, when Macbeth, Duncan, Malcolm and other characters talk about Scotland winning a battle to Norway. As for moral conflict, the last line “Fair is foul, foul is fair, hover through the fog and filthy air.” represents the internal confusion between right and wrong they will try to instill in Macbeth in Act 1, Scene 3.

In both the old times and modern time of Christianity, one of the main controversial topics has surrounded one single word. Hell. Some people hear it and thing noting of it. Others shutter at the name. But everyone has questions about it, whether hell is real or a fable, eternal or temporary, physical or spiritual. Being in the Baptist community since birth, I have believed in a hell since I can remember because “to believe in God and not in hell is ultimately to disbelieve in the reality of human choices.” (Ross Douthat). My definition of hell comes straight from the Bible. That there will be “weeping and gnashing of teeth” (Mathew 13:42) and that God will say, “Depart from me, you who are cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil

The idea of making up a "Hell", or inferno, is not an experience in which I, even in my wildest thoughts, had started to imagine. Call me an optimist, but the idea of imagining Hell never appealed to me. However, as I read through the Bible, I have come across many images of hell and will now attempt to create a partial picture.