The Great Divorce By C.S Lewis: The Themes Of Pleasure, Greed And Pain
The Great Divorce has characters that are unwilling to let go of objects in return for the love of God. Characters decide their destination in the afterlife by how they trust God with all their heart. These towns people are often stuck at the bottom of the mountain or the grey town. They live for pleasure which often leads to self-destruction. The artist is obsessed with his artwork and is unwilling to trust God with his possessions. Pam is a mother that is too worried for her son to focus on God’s plan for her life.
C. S Lewis wrote The Great Divorce to portray his view of Heaven, as well as, Hell. He compares Hell to the land that the townspeople are sent to after they die as “smaller than one pebble of your Earthly world: but it is smaller than one atom of this world, The Real World”. This thought shows the readers that Lewis views the afterworld as “The Real World”. Lewis does not directly tell the reader where the townspeople are sent, but his words paint a picture for us to visualize Tthe “Grey Town” that is the first stop in the afterlife. The Grey Town was portrayed as neither Heaven nor Hell, but Purgatory. Each soul was stuck in the Grey Town until they gave their sins to God. The townspeople got off the bus and landed in the Grey Town. Their faces were “distorted and faded”. They were broken people that were held out of Heaven, and people that were living for pleasure. The pleasure they received often led to sin. The pleasure was not enough for these townspeople, and they had to find another way to fill their pleasures they chased. The pain and hatred they pursued took over their lives and they were left hopeless and guilty.
Lewis tells us that when people are always seeking pleasure they will soon seek more than a pleasure to fulfill their desires. Greed and pain will take over their pleasures. This then turns people into sinners and they can not help themselves anymore. These sins held them back from Heaven and they were left in the Grey Town. The artist stuck in the Grey Town was fighting to get to Heaven with his artwork. He was so obsessed with his artwork that “he cared nothing about joy”. The artist described his work to the ghost as when people paint on Earth that is because they caught glimpses of Heaven. He could go to heaven but he had to let go of his belongings. This was the only thing holding him back from Heaven, but he didn’t understand what Heaven had in store for him. The ghosts tried to tell him that he wouldn’t need his artwork in Heaven, but his artwork is what defined him. The joy that he no longer cared about was what was suppose to be important in life. His family, morals, and self-worth were no longer important to him because the painting was his new identity. The painter was a sinner because he believed his belongings was more valuable than what God and heaven had to offer him. Pam is a mother that is stuck in The Grey town. Her son did not die so they are separated. Pam loves her son too much to go on without him. This holds her back from going to have an eternal life with God, but now she is stuck in the Grey Town. One of the ghosts is trying to tell Pam why she should let go of her son and trust God. It told her that “everything will be yours. God Himself will be yours. But not that way. Nothing can be yours by nature”.
Pam is another character that does not know what Heaven has to offer her. If she would let go of her son she would be able to experience Heaven and one day reunite with her son. If she waits for her son she will suffer the effects of They Grey Town. The ghosts triedy to convince her that she must let go of her son, in order to, to receive God’s free and eternal gift of life in Heaven. The ghost can try to convince her, but in the end, it is her decision and she isn’t willing to give up her son for something that she doesn’t firmly believe in.
Lewis shows us that good intentions can soon turn into hatred and pain. This makes many of us sinners, but when we fully trust God we will have a more fulfilling afterlife. Many characters are stuck suffering because they do not understand what a fulfilling afterlife looks like. Lewis suggests that we let go of our belongings in return for God’s unfailing love.
