Summary of C.S. Lewis’s The Great Divorce

C.S. Lewis’s The Great Divorce is a profound allegorical exploration of the choices that shape our eternal destiny. The unnamed narrator embarks on a dreamlike journey from a dreary, grey town, representing a state of spiritual purgatory, to the outskirts of Heaven, a realm of vibrant beauty and solid reality. He witnesses encounters between ghosts, clinging to their earthly attachments and self-imposed miseries, and solid people, representing redeemed souls who embody selfless love and joy. Through these encounters, Lewis explores the nature of sin, forgiveness, and the transformative power of grace. Lewis, a famed author and theologian, reveals how pride, self-pity, and possessive love can become chains that bind us to our misery. The allegory’s title refers to a poem by William Blake, “The Marriage of Heaven and Hell.” In Lewis’s view, Hell, though seemingly vast to those trapped within it, is ultimately insignificant compared to the immensity of Heaven. The choice between the two is real and the consequences eternal.