That’s the effect of selfishness, is that it actually stops us from experiencing joy, in this life and the next. She can’t accept it, because she has an inordinate focus on self. And yet if we looked beyond ourselves, to God and neighbour, we’d discover unspeakable joy. In the same conversation the bright spirit says to the woman “Friend, could you, only for a moment, fix your mind on something not yourself.” So often we consider how hard it will be to endure some aspect of Christian life.
Whereas the shame that simply sits on the outside telling us that we’re bad for whatever action or choice we may have taken, simply burns us and has no positive impact. What a vivid and brilliant way to put it! Shame that tells us we’re embarrassed and weak, or even more like guilt, can be so good for us if we choose to let it in and be consumed and transformed by love. If you will accept it – if you will drink the cup to the bottom – you will find it very nourishing: but try to do anything else with it and it scalds’. The light spirit tries to encourage her, assuring her that everyone here has been through this, and it will get easier if she only steps out. The ghost is so preoccupied with focusing on self, and refuses to step out into the light. S.Chapters 7 -11 Chapter 8 – PRIDE AND SHAMEĪ female ghost is hiding and is met by another light spirit.
Lewis attempts to refute Blake by explaining the clear difference between Heaven and Hell and by showing that Heaven is the true source of human enlightenment and happiness.Ĭheck out our Educational Resources for more by C. The Great Divorce is a response to William Blake’s famous work, The Marriage of Heaven and Hell, in which Blake says that good and evil are but two sides of the same coin and equally necessary to sustain life. This gives rise to the revolutionary idea that the gates of Hell are only locked from the inside and that those who want to leave for Heaven may do so at any time-if only their will is strong enough. The rest of the novel involves conversations in which the spirits of Heaven try to convince the ghosts of Hell to join them in paradise.
The Great Divorce opens with an unnamed narrator in the “grey town.” He soon boards a bus for those who wish to leave and, upon departure, realizes he is a ghost in the afterlife on a “vacation” from Hell.
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