Tag: C.S Lewis

The Great Divorce: Chapter 4

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Summary

Anticipating “affecting scenes”, our protagonist wanders away from the group. He discovers that the grass, “hard as diamonds”, makes progress slow and painful. He is followed by The Big Ghost and one of the solid people. It turns out that, on earth, the ghost was the boss of the bright, solid man, who is named Len. Len had murdered a common acquaintance, a man called Jack. The Big Ghost is horrified Len has been allowed into this land. Len explains that his victim is there too and that he will see him soon.

The Big Ghost then asks Len if he’s ashamed of himself, to which Len replies “Not as you mean. I do not look at myself. I have given up myself” and explains that this began following the murder. The Big Ghost asks Len why “a bloody murderer” is here, while he had been living in the Grey Town. Len says that, although he’ll come to understand, it’ll be difficult to comprehend for the time being, so best to not bother about it.

But the Big Ghost says “I gone straight all my life. I don’t say I was a religious man and I don’t say I had no faults, far from it. But I done my best all my life, see? I done my best by everyone, that’s the sort of chap I was. I never asked for anything that wasn’t mine by rights” Len explains that the situation is far better than he thinks, saying “I haven’t got my rights, or I should not be here. You will not get yours either. You’ll get something far better. Never fear.” The Big Ghost says he’s “not asking for anybody’s bleeding charity”, but Len exhorts him to do just that: “Ask for the Bleeding Charity. Everything is here for the asking and nothing can be bought.”

At this point, we begin to see that the Big Ghost is not going to accept a Heaven where someone like Len is also welcome. Len attempts to correct this attitude without much success. He points out that the Big Ghost was neither a decent man, nor did he even “do his best”. The Big Ghost was hard on his employees, as well as on his wife and children. Len goes on to explain that murdering Jack wasn’t actually the worst thing he did: “I murdered you in my heart, deliberately, for years. I used to lie awake at nights thinking what I’d do to you if ever I got the chance”. He explains that, because of this, he has been sent to the Big Ghost to ask for his forgiveness and to serve him for as long as he would like.

The Big Ghost angrily tells Len to stay out of his “private affairs”, even though Len says that “There are no private affairs”. It is at this point the Big Ghost declares that he’s not going to go to the mountain at all: “Tell them I’m not coming, see? I’d rather be damned than go along with you”

Questions

Q1. What do we learn about the relationship between the Big Ghost and the solid person who meets him? Who is Jack?

Q2. Why is the Big Ghost surprised to see Len?

Q3. Why does Len say he isn’t ashamed? What virtue is he displaying?

Q4. On what basis does the Big Ghost think he should be granted admission? According to Len, would he get in on that basis?

Q5. What does Len say is the worst thing he’s ever done? Why is it worse than killing Jack?

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The Great Divorce: Chapter 3

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Summary

The bus climbs over a cliff and travels across “a level, grassy country through which there ran a wide river” where it lands. All the passengers push and shove to get out.

Lewis leaves the bus where “the light and coolness that drenched me were like those of summer morning, early morning a minute or two before the sunrise”. He has the sense of “being in a larger space…which made the Solar System itself seem an indoor affair”. This gives him a feeling both of freedom, but also of exposure to possible danger.

Looking at his fellow-passengers, Jack sees them as almost transparent. The “grass did not bend under their feet: even the dew drops were not disturbed”. At this point he realizes that “the men were as they always had been” and that “it was the light, the grass, the trees that were different; made of some different substance, so much solider than things in our country that men were ghosts by comparison”. He tries to pluck a daisy and fails, it being “heavier than a sack of coal”. One ghost runs back into the bus, screaming “I don’t like it!”.

The Big Man asks the Driver when they’ve got to go back, but he replies that they can stay as long as they please. One of the quieter and more respectable ghosts comments to Lewis that personally he left the Grey Town to get away from this riff-raff!

Our protagonist looks around and sees some great mountains with “cities perched on inaccessible summits”. In the same way that the Grey Town seemed to be frozen in time, here the light does not change, with “the promise or the threat of sunrise”.

He then sees “bright” people coming to meet them, whose “strong feet sank into the wet turf”. Some of these people are naked, others robed, but it seemed to make very little difference, “the naked ones did not seem less adorned, and the robes did not disguise in those who wore them the massive grandeur of muscle and the radiant smoothness of flesh“. Although some had beards, they all seemed ageless. Two more ghosts scream and hide in the bus. The remaining phantoms huddle close together.

Questions

Q1. How is this new land described? What do you think is the significance of these descriptions?

Q2. What does Lewis come to realize about himself and the other passengers?

Q3. What does the Bus Driver say about their stay in this new land?

Q4. What annoyed the Respectable Ghost?

Q5. How are the “bright” people described? What do you think is the significance of this?

Q6. Why do some of the phantoms hide in the bus?

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The Great Divorce Notes and Discussion Guide

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I thought it would be good to pull together all of my notes from our reading group’s discussion of The Great Divorce by C.S. Lewis.

Chapters

Below are links to the blog posts for each chapter which contain my notes and discussion questions:

Preface
Chapter 01 | Chapter 02 | Chapter 03 | Chapter 04 | Chapter 05 | Chapter 06 | Chapter 07
Chapter 08 | Chapter 09 | Chapter 10 | Chapter 11 | Chapter 12 | Chapter 13 | Chapter 14

Downloads

Below are PDF versions of the above notes, one for the facilitator (which contains the discussion questions) and one for participates (which just contains an extended summary of each chapter).

Facilitator NotesDownload
Participate NotesDownload

The Great Divorce: Chapter 1

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Summary

We open with Lewis standing in a bus queue. He’s been wandering in continual twilight through The Grey Town in the rain. Other than the bus queue, the town appears to be deserted.

As he joins the queue, a couple argue and they both leave.  

The Short Man in front of him makes a disparaging comment about “the sort of society” in the bus queue. After Lewis fails to respond to the slight, The Big Man  punches The Short Man who limps away.

Next, a young, seemingly androgynous, couple leave arm in arm, “it was clear that each for the moment preferred the other to the chance of a place in the bus”.

A woman four places ahead complains “We shall never all get in”. A man offers to change places with her for five shillings, but he then double-crosses her. The rest of the group throw her out of the line.

We get the impression that events like this continue to happen for some time until “the queue had reduced itself to manageable proportions long before the bus appeared”. The bus is a stunning vehicle, driven by a driver who is “full of light”. To our protagonist’s puzzlement, the driver’s appearance raises the ire of those in the queue. They all push and shove to get into the bus but, in the end, there is plenty of room for all.

Our man sits at the back of the bus, a good distance away from the others, but is immediately joined by “a tousle-headed youth” who sees in our protagonist a kindred spirit. He comments on his bewilderment at the other passengers, saying they “won’t like it at all when we get there, and they’d really be much more comfortable at home” where “they’ve got cinemas and fish and chip shops and advertisements and all the sorts of things they want”. He says he ought to have taken the bus as soon as he arrived, but he’d “fooled about trying to wake people up”. It becomes clear that this man is a poet and, to our protagonist’s horror, he is about to show him some of his poetry… It is at this point Lewis realizes that the bus is now airborne and he looks out of the window to see the Grey Town disappearing below into the rain and the mist.

Questions

Q1. What words would you use to describe The Grey Town?

Q2. What do you make of the different members of the queue? The arguing couple, The Short Man, The Big Man, The Androgynous Couple, The woman who pays to change places with the man who cheats her…

Q3. In what way do the characters in the line each display one of the Seven Deadly Sins? Envy, Gluttony, Greed, Lust, Pride, Sloth, Wrath

Q4. In what ways are the members of the bus stop similar? In what ways are they different from each other?

Q5. Why do you think the line for the bus is so short? Why do people so easily leave the line?

Q6. Why do you think the members of the queue react so badly to the driver?

Q7. Do you think the tousle-headed youth represents anyone in particular?

Q8. Why does the tousle-headed youth think that the others would be happier staying in the town?

Q9. Who do you think Cyril Blellow was?

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