Into the Wardrobe

I read The Great Divorce, and I really liked it. I will have to read it again and maybe I will get it the second time, but input would be appreciated. The novel was written to contredict The Marriage of Hevan and Hell. I don't understand how Lewis proves his point, his rightness in the matter. So, if any of you got it and could tell me, or push me in the right direction, it would be greatly appreciated. Thank you in advance :D

In The Great Divorce, Lewis illustrates that it is impossible for a soul to enter heaven if he has even the tiniest "souvenir" of hell from which he is unwilling to part, the most memorable example being the man and his lizard-- which represents lust.

Thank you. Now that you've said it it totally makes sense.

I may be wrong here, but I don't believe his purpose in writing was to contradict Blake's poem. He definitely contrasted his views with Blake's, but the scope of the book was much more broad, as far as I can tell, than responding to Blake and even beyond the philosophies therein contained. I think he just wanted to write a book that captured his ruminations on heaven, and to do a really delightful job at it.

Its a great novel.

I got something completely different (although very similar) out of the book. I didn't get the idea that you couldn't enter heaven, I got the idea that they didn't want to enter heaven for all the various reasons presented. Of course I see that they wouldn't be able to enter heaven, because it was much too real, but that was because they preferred to be as they were. Napoleon was constantly moving away, not because he wasn't permitted in, but because he preferred to move away. I think it's a very profound point. Understood we are not worthy of ourselves to enter, but the price has been paid, and it's up to us to want to enter, and to prefer its reality to the false comfort of Hell. The Great Divorce is my favorite book hands down because of that image; because of the realness of Heaven that is presented, and because of the wretched selfishness of Hell.

I think Blake proposed the idea that ultimately there was no difference between good and evil. The Marriage of Heaven and Hell suggests as much. "Tiger, Tiger" and "Little Lamb Who Made Thee" are poems about a predatory animal and a gentle, harmless animal and emphasizes that God made both. Blake implies that good and evil are illusions and that at base there is one reality that transcends all--a very Eastern idea of morality. Lewis, I believed, wanted to show that evil is real and that it is different from good.