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The Nature Of Hell In C. S. Lewis The Great Divorce

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“And they will suffer the punishment of eternal destruction, away from the presence of the Lord.” This is the terrifying inevitable truth found in 2 Thessalonians 1:9. Many people have come up with interpretations of Heaven and Hell to provide a better understanding of life after death. C. S. Lewis’ The Great Divorce is just one of many stories written to give Christians and non believers insight. The novel follows a man who finds himself presented with a choice to stay in Hell, where he originally found himself, or to make a decision to journey to Heaven. C. S. Lewis presents very bold ideas about the nature of Hell, the consequence of sin, and the eternity people are allowed to choose.

In The Great Divorce, the reader is given an image of a gray, dismal, rainy town where fights are constant and people are never able to satisfy their wants or their needs. This is how Hell is portrayed. Nothing is seemingly real. An inhabitant of Hell can wish for a new house and it will appear, …show more content…

I do not agree with C.S. Lewis’ depiction of Hell or how people will spend their eternity. People can come up with any theory of what life after death will be like, but if there is one thing for certain it is that there is a place for eternal punishment called Hell. Hell will always be a place of torment, void of goodness, with an absence of God. I believe the Bible to be the actual Word of God, therefore I believe everything written to be truth. The wages of sin is death, and there will be a final judgement given by God in the end. But for those who have accepted Jesus as their Savior and have lived their lives in accordance with the Scripture, they will see God. For it is written, “For God so loved the world, that He gave His one and only Son, that whoever believes in Him, shall not perish, but have everlasting life (John

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The story also compares hell to a furnace which is pretty much the same thing as a pit. “The pit is prepared; ready to receive them; hell is ready to burn them” Edwards appeal for this quote is pathos. He wants to make people see that you will burn and be in excruciating pain forever.

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Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God, is a Puritan sermon from the eighteenth century during the Great Awakening. During this time, Puritans had strayed from the church due to the church’s strict guidelines and regulations and begun to embrace more secular thought. Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God, was written to motivate people to join the newly refined church that embraced these secular thoughts. Jonathan Edwards uses rhetorical devices throughout his sermon to show God’s wrath on sinners and to instill the fear of God in Puritans. Jonathan Edward’s was a well respected clergyman of eighteenth century New England.

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The symbolic archetype of “heaven vs. hell” relates to the novel as the whole story circulates around Dunstable’s guilt from having hit Mrs. Dempster with the snowball (even though he did not actually do it). Mrs. Dempster’s husband was a religious man, being a preacher, and basically told Dunstable that he would go to hell if he did not stay away from his family. Dunstable spent the entire novel trying to make amends with the Dempsters, and became a religious man himself. It appears that his character was convinced that he was not going to heaven unless he repaid his debt to Mrs. Dempster. 3.

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Recalling the key images of: wickedness heavy as lead, earth ready to spew out the sinner, the black clouds of God wrath, the dammed waters of God’s wrath, the bent bow of God’s wrath, and the sinner-as-spider held by God over the fire (p.107). All six of these separate metaphors have coherence and become explicated tied to the congregation with the following and applied physical principle. Overall the passage of fire and brimstone alludes to God’s wrath and to persuade those into repentance. The achievement of this passage, commands to visualize the world and lake of sulfur, leading into images of suffering. In his blunt manner, this concept of hell and suffering recalls of Edwards’ style of writing, illustrating Lockean use of language.

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In C. S. Lewis’ The Great Divorce, Lewis is arguing that Hell is not necessarily a place where wicked people who detest God end up; Hell is a place that offers people exactly what they want. The Great Divorce presents “the reason for Hell,” which is people choosing their own wishes over God (Gibson 110). This novel reveals that the self-imprisonment of one’s greatest dreams can lead to infernal results (Gibson 113). In The Great Divorce, Lewis uses Dantean structure, the nature of Grey Town, and the various Ghosts’ interviews to prove that to live in Hell is to receive and accept everything except God and his will.

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The prisoners receive a thematically equivalent punishment to their actions in their previous lives. As the deeper circles of hell are populated by the worst inmates, the concept of contrapasso elicits exceedingly jarring punishments the further Dante travels. The nine total circles of hell are large enough to populate a lifetime 's worth of the world’s sins. When Dante is introduced to the first circle of hell, reserved for pagans, it is clear that the inmates are bound eternally to live in the Inferno, for even those who did not conciously commit sin, are forced to stay in this realm. In his real life, Alighieri was highly vocal about political stances.

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The “intellect” itself can be deduced as being God. This version of Hell, however, was born from Dante’s mind after being banished from Florence. Much of the Inferno is written as satire, but the morals it holds still present themselves within the larger Catholic ideology. In Thomas Thayer’s The Origin and History of the Doctrine of Endless Punishment, he conducts a detailed analysis of the Bible’s hell and it’s origins.

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Note: During the times I have taught I have tried to emphasize that the sad part of the Lake of Fire and Hell is being separated from God forever. I know that at the beginning of Club Jana also mentioned this. Also: Most of the children left this question blank Since God loves you, He will never send you to Hell or the Lake of Fire.

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But, as the poem continues to progress, it becomes quite clear the there is a perfect balance within God’s justice as the degree of each sinner’s punishment perfectly reflects upon the gravity of the sin. Furthermore, the inscription on the gates of Hell explicitly states that Hell exists as a result of divine justice; “ll. “ Justice moved my great maker; God eternal / Wrought me: the power and the unsearchably / High wisdom, and the primal love supernal (III.4-6).” Prior to delving into the structure of Hell and how it displays God’s divine justice, one must first familiarize themselves with both the historical context of Dante’s life, along with the beliefs of the medieval church.

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Dante Alighieri, who was born in 1265 CE and later died in 1321 CE, was a famous poet in Florence, Italy, most commonly known for his book, Dante’s Inferno. Dante’s Inferno was a product of Dante’s time period because in Florence during this time period, the idea of death and afterlife was very prominent in religion, and Dante’s text, The Inferno, focuses on the idea that the sins committed during one’s life determines the fate of one’s after-life. Because the idea that one’s sins determined their fate and life after death was such a common element in literature and art in Florence during this time period, many other pieces of work emphasized the same ideals, specifically one work in particular, The Scrovegni Chapel. From the years 1303 through 1310 CE, a man named Giotto Di Bondone, an italian painter, used the same principal ideals about sin and life after death that Dante used, in one of his most famous and influential pieces of work, The Scrovegni Chapel.

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Figurative language can be a compelling factor in literary works ranging from romantic poetry to political speeches. It forces the reader, or listener, to visualize and understand what the author is trying to say. Jonathan Edwards utilized this writing technique in his powerful sermon, “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God.” Edwards used imagery, metaphors, and personification to express his differentiating attitudes towards both sinners and God which consisted of complete disgust in regards to the former and unwavering respect for the latter. Jonathan Edwards relied more on the composition of his writing rather than the execution of it which is why figurative language is found so often in this sermon.

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There is many interpretations of Heaven and Hell. Some imagine hell as being a place where the absolute wicked are tortured from all eternity, made by the Devil himself. A common depiction is that souls end up in Hell as punishment. In the final part of the Divine Comedy, Dante reflects on free will, and its perfection as a gift. It is this gift that Dante believes is Gods greatest gift to humanity.

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This particular piece, No Exit, was written while Sartre was involved in World War II. Sartre was originally drafted into the French army as a meteorologist, but was later captured by German troops and was held prisoner for nine months. While he was held captive, Sartre wrote No Exit, which portrayed what Sartre had lived through during his encounter with the German army. Sartre wrote this iconic piece in order for his readers to interpret and to understand that the idea of Hell can come in all different forms - that Hell is not always the usual fiery pits and brimstone type of Hell like one is traditionally led to

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"The Inferno" is the first book in the epic poem called the “Divine Comedy” by the Italian politician Dante Alighieri and it is followed by "Purgatorio" and "Paradiso”. The book "Inferno", which is the Italian translation for Hell, tells the journey of its author through what he believes is Hell, which consists of nine circles of pain and suffering. In his journey, he is guided through the nine circles by the Roman poet Virgil. Each circle in the book represents a different type of sin with a different type of punishment, varying according to the degree of the offense they committed in their life. By the end of his journey through all of the circles, Dante realizes and emphasizes the perfection of God's Justice and the significance of each offense towards God’s unconditional love.

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