The Great Divorce Essay

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

There has been a long history regarding reform proposals and recommendations surrounding the law of divorce. The first legislation which was introduced in divorce law was the Matrimonial Causes Act 1857, which allowed people to obtain a divorce. However, today the provisions within that act are outdated, yet, it represented society in 1857. In 1937, legislation altered to catch up with societal changes and additional grounds of divorce were introduced. This again occurred in 1973, where legislation changed altering the grounds and facts in which a divorce could be obtained. This is the current legislation relied upon today.

in divorce. There is a lot of stress on all the people involved. The man has

“But afterward the townspeople, theretofore sufficiently unfearful of each other to seldom trouble to lock their doors, found fantasy re-creating them over and over again—those somber explosions that stimulated fires of mistrust in the glare of which many old neighbors viewed each other strangely, and as strangers.”

Heaven is a conceptual place where the human race will end up after their life on earth. It is a place where no sin is found causing everyone to live in complete peace. But what if living a life without sin is unimaginably difficult? And what if being confronted about your sins made you want to turn away from a life of perfection? C.S. Lewis makes a claim about this concern in his book, The Great Divorce. He analyzes the behavior of humans in accordance with their sinful habits. The Great Divorce focuses on the point of view of the Narrator who lives in a gloomy and dismal Hell when an otherworldly bus stops by and takes the passengers to Heaven. Everyone is eager to get on the bus when promised an oasis from the gloomy setting of Hell. Once

I can hardly shut my eyes without the guilt of a dishonest man pressing upon me. God has forsaken me in this Hell. And now my body lays here while my soul is left for the demons from hell to tear the goodness that is left after what awaits me. I will no longer know of light or goodness or of my wife and sons fate.

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

Hell was also described as rainy, gloomy, and gray. The people who reside there have a continual hope for morning, so that the darkness shall be

C. S. Lewis discusses this topic by saying “The choice of ways is before you”. Everyone has the choice to choose eternal life just like how everyone in Hell in The Great Divorce has the option to ride the bus to Heaven. The only difference between the situations is that the characters in the book must ride the bus to Heaven and choose to stay there. When the inhabitants of Hell reaches the Gates of Heaven, they notice everything is solid and hard, while they are merely ghosts. This shows how God’s heavenly kingdom is stronger, denser, and more solid because it has been built on a strong foundation, God himself. Hell and its residents are weak, airy, and hollow because they are grounded in the earthly world, which provides no eternal substance. Because Heaven and a relationship with God is obviously the preferable option, the previous residents of Hell should stay in Heaven. This is much like how the unsaved people should happily accept God’s gift of salvation. However, the solid world in Heaven is hard to live in for a

And every state of mind left to itself, every shutting up of the creature within the dungeon of its own mind, is, in the end, Hell. But Heaven is not a state of mind. Heaven is reality itself.” (Lewis 70) Hell is nothing compared to Heaven and Hell is for the ones with the vale of misery.

Upon entering an antechamber to hell, Dante and Virgil come upon large gates. Dante hears screams from souls that were damned and rejected by God, but also not accepted by hell. The “nowhere” souls are punished because of their refusal to make a choice in life. Tormented by flies and hornets on a furious pace forever, the souls are held captive by these large gates. Crossing through the gates, Dante and Virgil are met by the boatman Charon at the windy River Archeron. Rescinding from the boat, they enter the First Circle of Hell, known as Limbo. Dwelling in this circle are the honorable and righteous souls known as the “virtuous non-Christians”. The souls here are free of torment and live in desire, but will never see

Initially, the narrator only offers physical descriptions of hell. The narrator portrays hell as “A Dungeon horrible, on all sides round / As one great Furnace flam’d, yet from those flames / No light, but rather darkness visible / Serv’d only to discover sights of woe, / Regions of sorrow, doleful shades,” (Paradise Lost, Book I, lines 61-5). The audience is introduced to a new land that evokes misery from every angle. Yet, in order to comprehend why the narrator fosters such a specific, horrid description of Hell, it is imperative to understand who the narrator truly is. The epic poem is told through a third person omniscient perspective. Therefore, the narrator severs as an external observer who is able to give us the thoughts and feeling of each character present in the epic poem. This is crucial to the audience because it allows for the exposure of a character’s internal perspective. The audience is able to contemplate and predict the plot and gain information the other characters are not immediately exposed to themselves. During conversation, the narrator is able to reveal the inner thoughts of all characters. This is especially important in regards to Satan’s first interaction with Zephon as he caught intruding in paradise. The narrator states, “Abashed the devil stood/ And felt how awful goodness is and saw/ Virture in her shape how lovely, saw and pined/ His loss, but chiefly to find here observed/ His luster

With all the criticism directed at Lewis’ books for inconstancies. Two sides exist to be taken. Firstly, many say to avoid these books altogether, because they are false doctrines and should avoided. Secondly, the changes are fine since without these modifications the stories would be vague and bland. Several of these doctrines that do not line up with the Bible are plain different beliefs or ignorance. C. S. Lewis himself wrote, “Speaking personally, if I demanded that a person’s views on every subject under the sun be identical to mine as a condition to be helped by them, then if I had met myself 20 years ago, I’d have to disfellowship myself!”() Clive knows that humans are fallible and that no one’s beliefs are one-hundred percent correct, people continue to grow spiritually thus changing their beliefs. Later writes “We are all in process. None of us gets everything right all the time. That stands true for every Christian who has ever breathed oxygen.”() He knew that just because he was a famous writer of Christian literature he would still make mistakes. Before

The Cleavers. Wise and wonderful Ward. A pal as well as a Dad. June. The perfect wife and mother. Big brother Wally. Popular, smart and athletic – one tough act to follow. And last but definitely not least, hapless, irrepressible Theodore, a.k.a. “the Beaver,” just a regular kid trying his best to stay out of trouble while finding a thousand ways to place himself at trouble’s doorstep. Leave it to Beaver. It was the television hit in the ‘60s that hallmarked the phrase, “ The American Family” and made it its own.