The Great Divorce: A Literary Analysis

In C. S. Lewis’ The Great Divorce, Lewis is arguing that Hell is not necessarily a place where wicked people who detest God end up; Hell is a place that offers people exactly what they want. The Great Divorce presents “the reason for Hell,” which is people choosing their own wishes over God (Gibson 110). This novel reveals that the self-imprisonment of one’s greatest dreams can lead to infernal results (Gibson 113). In The Great Divorce, Lewis uses Dantean structure, the nature of Grey Town, and the various Ghosts’ interviews to prove that to live in Hell is to receive and accept everything except God and his will.

The structure and organization of The Great Divorce can initially appear confusing and nonsensical, yet with closer investigation, it can be ascertained that Lewis actually drew from Dante to structure this work (Christopher 89). There are a total of ten Ghost inteviews in this novel; the narrator encounters the first five

On the bus, the narrator encounters various people who reveal what the nature of Hell is. First, the narrator meets a youth. After a puzzling comment from the boy, the narrator asks, “Do they like [Grey Town]?” (Lewis 469). The youth is convinced that the damned like Hell “as much as they’d like anything” (Lewis 469). These words ring true over and over again as the narrator talks with MacDonald and observes the ten interviews between a Ghost and a Solid Being. In Chapter 2, the narrator converses with the Intelligent Man. This man tells the narrator that people have no “Needs” in Hell because they can obtain anything they want by simply imagining their desires (Lewis 473). Hell, according to the people on the bus, is a listless abyss where everyone’s wishes are granted; the narrator sees throughout the interviews how each Ghost would be satisfied with Hell if they refused to give up their selfish