Facilitating dialogue to promote open and multi-faceted discussion and awareness

The second addition to the C.S. Lewis review series: Building Narnia

Lewis’ famous quote, “Aim at heaven and you will get earth thrown in. Aim at earth and you get neither,” echoes throughout this work of fantasy written about the choices people make that keep them from accepting Heaven. A speculative fiction written in response to Blake’s “The Marriage of Heaven and Hell,” Lewis’ aim was not to arouse curiosity in the afterlife, nor to depict it in any actual sense. This work is full of allusions and citations from various famous resources and works, and contains a good many literary easter egg. You’ll find that references to the works of St. Augustine, John Milton’s Paradise Lost, Dante, Swedenborg, Lewis Carrol, George MacDonald, and John Bunyan abound throughout the tale. Lewis even takes the time to mention Aristotle in a disdainful way.

In order to understand the style of the story and the method of which Lewis conveys the moral of his tale, one must first gain a simple and brief understanding of Blake’s work. In his most influential work, Blake establishes a relationship of a “stable” and “totalitarian” Heaven and a “energized” and “Dionysian” Hell. Blake wrote his tale in response to Swedenborg’s Manichean view, weaving into existence a depolarized and unified vision of the cosmos, where all that encompasses Sin is, in fact, a part of the divine order. Hence, the Marriage. Lewis takes and allows the unified concept; yet, at the same time, he draws the borders of Heaven and Hell within Man’s own nature. The battle of the Divorce courts ultimately lies in the hearts and decisions of people.

Next, let us touch on the story itself. The Narrator, presumably Lewis, finds himself in the “Grey Town.” It is a place of mean and empty streets and perpetual twilight, where it is believed to be dawn or dusk, depending on the nature and hopes or fears of who you ask. It is later revealed that the Town is either Hell or Purgatory depending on the decisions that the souls make. Our narrator finds himself in an impossibly long queue at a bus station after a long and dispiriting journey through the city. Here, he witnesses others commit acts of violence, treachery, and deceit to gain position in the line, where likewise he watches people leave of their own accord due to stubbornness, impatience, lifestyle choice (I’m assuming he meant to comment on the salvation of homosexuals with this one)or mere frustration. It’s revealed that most people don’t know where this bus is going and those that do look to either exploit the destination, feel entitled to it, or look with elitist disfavor upon the others in the line. Eventually, the length of the wait is culled down to manageable level. This was all for no reason, for when the narrator finally boards the bus, he finds that less than half of the occupancy is filled.

While on the bus, he converses with a few of the other travelers. The sins of greed, pride, envy, and vanity come into play as foreshadowing of future events. One such sinful character explains the nature of the Grey Town to the narrator, saying that all people living there continuously move away from each other, falsely fulfill their every need on a mere wish, though their houses keep out no rain, the food cures no hunger, and the drink slakes no thirst. He speaks of how the people staying in the town grow to despise each other, quarrel ceaselessly, and keep moving away from each other until there’s no one within a million miles of another.

After a time, the bus finally brings them to the foothills of Heaven, depicted as an endless green country under a slow sunrise, full of streams, forests, fields, glades, and astonishing beauty. It also reveals the travelers to be ghosts. Such ghosts, that they can not change even the most minute detail of Heaven, such as walking on grass or lifting a leaf without the utmost pain. This speaks of the idea that Hell can not change Heaven. During some short time, it becomes clear that solid people are approaching: the spirits. They turn out to be men and women that the ghosts have known on Earth. The purpose of these Spirits is to convince the ghosts to let go of whatever Sin or emotion they hold on to that keeps them from achieving Heaven. Lewis’ mentor, George MacDonald, plays Dante’s Virgil to the narrator, explaining that these people can make the fundamental decision to allow Heaven to have become an extension of their time on Earth or reversely, Hell. This reveals the basis of Lewis’ tenet that we all must give up ourselves completely if we are ever to attain Heaven. The story wraps up with most of the ghosts denying Heaven, the revelation turning out to be a dream, and Lewis waking up during an air raid in London.

The morality of the tale may seem pretty simple to understand on the surface, but let’s dive deeper into the waters. In looking at his preface, you’ll see that Lewis criticizes the mindset that somehow, through compromise and avoiding to renounce yourself and Earth for God, you will still be allowed to retain Heaven. “You can not take all your luggage with you. On one journey, your right hand and right eye may be among the things you need to leave behind.”

He believes we’re not living in a world of circles, where if one wanders along the same path his whole life, he’ll eventually come back to a place that is reconcilable. Rather, much like the roads of the real world, every decision we make splits us off onto a new fork in the road, and that, though it may be hard and require a large amount of backtracking, we must do so if we can hope to retain grace. He goes further to say that it isn’t even enough to be merely a good person or how benevolent or malevolent we are in life is even a slight determining factor. It’s all in the heart. He makes this claim not under the basis of God rejecting us if we do not follow the right path. He claims that unless we put ourselves to right, we will be the ones who reject God. “If we accept Heaven, we shall not be able to retain even the simplest souvenirs of Hell or Earth.” Lewis feels that even in our most depraved wishes we are searching for a part of Heaven and that those things that we desired on Earth will be revealed to us in abundance in Heaven.

To expound further, Lewis illustrates throughout the interactions of the Spirits and the Ghosts in the story that Heaven and Hell are also the relinquishing of a mindset or resigning oneself to one in their own right. Heaven is the “opening-up” and acceptance of love, peace, etc. It is a learning experience in which we truly learn to love and are corrected; made perfect. Hell, on the other hand, is the closing up, the narrow-mindedness which disavows grace and love of God. The locking-up of the mind and retreating into one’s self denies reality and therefor, makes it Hell. Lewis does allow for hope, however, stating that the higher one becomes; the lower one can go, even down into Hell, and that Jesus had been the one to preach to all the souls lost there. So, even a man who “hates goodness,” has a chance at salvation at the End.
However, Lewis also gives several warnings. He calls out against narrow-mindedness and fanaticism by saying that, with these attitudes, even the greatest of works or ideas bear spoiled fruit.

To illustrate – “There have been men before now who got so interested in proving the existence of God that they came to care nothing for God Himself… as if the good Lord had nothing to do but exist! There have been some who were so occupied in spreading Christianity they never gave a thought to Christ. Man! Ye see it in smaller matters. Did ye never know a lover of books that with all his first editions and signed copies had lost the power to read them? Or an organizer of charities that had lost all love for the poor? It is the subtlest of snares.”

He warns against Universalism, perhaps his most heavily rallied against topic of discussion, in a lengthy-dialogue that can be summed up with the line, “Every disease that submits to a cure shall be cured: but we will not call blue yellow to please those that insist on still having jaundice, nor make a midden of the world’s garden for the sake of some who cannot abide the smell of roses.” His final warning is against those that would be falsely merciful towards others, which is little better than an act of blackmail in itself.

Lewis’ final message was one of how to live or more importantly…how to feel. He calls us to love, for love is Heaven and to deny love is, in essence, Hell. “You can not truly love until you love God.” This is one of the most important concepts of the story. It reinforces everything for which he makes a case: the nature of Heaven and Hell, the nature of the Human spirit, and the nature of the Human mind.

On the all and all, the Divorce was an enjoyably light read, yet was packed full of morality. The layers of each interaction can be read and re-read, still allowing for the observant reader to take away fresh commentary and new lesson.