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

C.S. Lewis’ descriptions of heaven and hell in the book The Great Divorce are mainly metaphorical, as he wants to illustrate the fundamental differences between the two places that we have all grown up knowing about. To do this he uses the typical illustrations such as light and dark, sunrise and sunset, and mountains and valleys, or deep ravines. However, I think many things that are spoken about in the book are very similar to the actual places. Several differences are the people, the weather and environment, and the size. I think the descriptions of the nature of the people can be taken quite literally, whereas the weather and environment and the size are more metaphorical.
One of the biggest differences between heaven and hell in C.S. Lewis’
book is the people. The people from the Grey Town are called ghosts whereas the people from heaven are called spirits. They are very different in appearance. The ghosts are thin, grey, and insubstantial. C.S. Lewis described the ghosts’ faces on page 17: “They were all fixed faces, full not of possibilities but impossibilities, some gaunt, some bloated, some glaring with idiotic ferocity, some drowned beyond recovery in dreams; but all, in one way or another, distorted and faded. One had a feeling that they might fall to pieces at any moment if the light grew much stronger.” On the other hand, the spirits are depicted as large, glowing, beautiful forms. They are strong and perfect, and are substantial so they can stand up to the environment in heaven. Some of them are clothed and some are not, but neither one looks less resplendent than the other. They look ageless and have perfectly formed bodies. This is how I believe people will look in heaven, since everything will be perfect there.
The behavior and dispositions of the people in heaven and hell are also very different. The ghosts are very irritable, angry, and discontent. They are quick to jump to violence, overreact, and they hold on to grudges and negative emotions from their previous lives. C.S. Lewis illustrates a scene that is not uncommon among the ghosts on page nine: “One of the quarrels which was perpetually simmering in the bus had boiled over and for a moment there was a stampede. Knives were drawn: pistols were fired: but it all seemed strangely innocuous, and when it was all over I found myself unharmed, though in a different seat and with a new companion.” Such fights happen often among the ghosts, but in the end they seem to mean nothing and accomplish the same. I think this is how those in hell act, although I do believe they will be able to understand the folly of their life decisions, and will wish to be in heaven. However, by then it will be too late. The spirits in heaven, however, have the complete opposite disposition. They emit a radiant joy and peace. They never react or give in to the negative taunts, complaints, and verbal abuse from the ghosts. Those types of comments seem to just roll off them without affecting them, and they continue to to offer hope, peace, and an invitation to come further into heaven. The people in heaven are clearly only focused on God and their heavenly life. The past does not matter to them anymore, they have moved on.Their main object is to help the ghosts, and they have turned back from their journey further into heaven and traveled long distances to try to convince the ghosts to come with them.
Another difference between C.S.
Lewis’ metaphorical heaven and hell is the weather and environment. Hell is described as an endless town, always dirty, rundown, and dingy. There are very few people to be seen. One of the Ghosts tells the narrator that all of the people in the Grey Town keep moving further and further apart and building houses as they go, because they cannot stand their neighbors after a few days. Another interesting aspect of the Grey Town is that the people can create everything they need just from their imaginations. However, the things that they can create are always imperfect, damaged, and insubstantial. For example, the roofs of their houses always leak in the rain and the windows are often broken. As for the weather in the Grey Town, it is constantly raining and the town seems to be stuck in an endless evening, but with a very dark night coming soon. Many of the people who live there are terrified of this night and what creatures will come out in the darkness. This pending night in hell signifies the finality and ending of our lives, and the lack of hope experienced by the people in hell. On the other hand, heaven is a beautiful place filled with flowers, fruit trees, green grass and clear streams. The place where the Ghosts’ bus arrived is in the foothills of a range of huge mountains. This is the heart of heaven, where it is assumed that all the spirits (and God) live. Heaven is so real and beautiful that it physically hurts the insubstantial ghosts. The blades of grass in heaven hurt their feet, and items such a apples weigh almost too much for the ghosts to carry. Things such as raindrops and sunlight could kill the ghosts. However, if they choose to say and go further into the mountains they will become solid like the spirits and be able to live comfortably. Heaven is also suspended in the moment just before the sun peeks over the horizon. This signifies that something better is coming, and that the people there have an eternal and
glorious future ahead of them. While I do not believe that this is exactly how heaven and hell will look, the general themes will probably be the same.
Another difference between this fictional heaven and hell that I noticed was the size. At one point in the book, George MacDonald, who takes the narrator under his wing and teaches him throughout the book, shows him a tiny crack in the earth. He explains that this crack (or one very like it) is the one that the bus came up out of, and that it is smaller than a pebble on Earth and smaller than an atom in heaven, or what he calls the Real World. The narrator is confused, so George MacDonald continues, and his explanation is one of my favorite quotes from the book. “And yet all loneliness, angers, hatreds, and envies, and itchings that it contains, if rolled into one single experience and put into the scale against the least moment of joy that is felt by the least in heaven, would have no weight that could be registered at all. Bad cannot succeed in being bad as truly as good as good.” (p. 138) The narrator then realizes why none of the spirits ever go down into the Grey Town. They will not fit because “A damned soul is nearly nothing: it is shrunk, shut up in itself.” (p. 139) But, as George MacDonald explains, the “Greatest of us all” (p. 139) can go down there, and did once. He spoke to the souls in hell, but because time for Him does not work the same as time in the world, He was able to reach every soul that had been and will be in hell. This is obviously the parallel for Jesus descending into hell after he was crucified as it is spoken about in the Apostles Creed.
As I have read The Great Divorce it has come to my attention that C. S. Lewis seems to believe in some sort of Purgatory. The ghosts are placed in The Grey Town, but they can leave and go the the “foothills” of heaven and then decide whether to continue all the way into heaven or go back to the Grey Town. I do not believe in any sort of purgatory. I think that once we die we go to one place or the other, and that is where we will stay for eternity. Our lives on Earth are when we get to decide.
Overall I loved reading The Great Divorce and learning and thinking about all the themes explored in it. C.S. Lewis is a fantastic author and is great at communicating complex theological ideas through a story.