The Great Divorce

Chapter 9, the longest in the novel, marks an essential part of the narrator’s journey: his meeting with George MacDonald. As he runs away from the unicorn herd, he hears a low Scottish voice speaking to him. The Spirit attached to the voice introduces himself as MacDonald, a real 19th-century Scottish author and minister who, just like Lewis, wrote in a variety of genres that included fantasy, poetry, and theological nonfiction. 

MacDonald identifies the land the Ghosts have come to as the Valley of the Shadow of Life. He goes on to explain that people’s perceptions of Heaven and Hell are both retroactive. If a person eventually chooses Heaven, then the entirety of their previous life, including their time on Earth and in the Valley, seems like Heaven to them, and their time in the Grey Town (if they spend time there) merely Purgatory. However, if they reject Heaven, then the entirety of their previous life seems like Hell.

In response to the narrator’s confusion, MacDonald replies that Hell can be described as a state of mind insofar as anyone who chooses to live by their own selfish desires is continuously in Hell and continues to be after they die. Heaven, though, is not just real; it is “reality itself” (70). Those who reject it live in a fantasy world of their own making. They have many different reasons for rejecting Heaven, but all of those reasons have to do with an unwillingness to surrender some part of themselves that they consider vital.

To illustrate this point, MacDonald tells the story of a man named Sir Archibald who, during his lifetime, became obsessed with the concept of survival. He studied it endlessly, delving into various societies’ strategies for how to survive. When he arrived at the Valley of the Shadow of Life, however, he was uninterested in continuing to the Mountains because everyone there would survive infinitely; there would be nothing left for him to study and explore. He had ceased to care about the supposed object of his lifelong study and had “mistaken the means for the end” (73). 

Clearly still thinking about the hard-bitten Ghost’s words, the narrator asks for further information about the Spirits. According to MacDonald, the Spirits talking to the Ghosts each selflessly delayed their own journey further into the Mountains to help someone they knew in life. Presently, MacDonald and the narrator come across one such pairing, but the Ghost will not let the Spirit get a word in edgewise, grumbling about the ill treatment she received in life.

MacDonald then leads the narrator on a walk through the woods where the two pass by many Ghosts, though the narrator pauses to describe only one: a Ghost who preens and flirts with the Spirit talking to her despite her own disgusting appearance in her ghostly form. Realizing her attempt is in vain, she begins a despondent walk back to the bus. Reminded of the Spirit who called up the unicorn herd, the narrator asks MacDonald about this episode. His guide tells him that sometimes Spirits attempt such tactics; fear alone will not make Ghosts turn to the Mountains, but it can be the last final push they need.

As they continue their walk, the narrator begins to notice how constantly the Ghosts talk about the Grey Town and how incurious they are about the land to which they have come. Some even seem to think themselves superior to the Spirits because of their difficult experiences in the Grey Town. MacDonald explains that for some Ghosts, such blathering was their only reason for coming to this land at all. Nevertheless, some who appear monstrous because of the way hate has distorted their appearance over centuries finally accept Heaven and enter the Mountains. Others still choose never to make the trip at all, instead going to Earth to torment people there.

The narrator and MacDonald come upon a Ghost who was a renowned artist on Earth, and he is eager to get into Heaven to begin painting the landscape there. However, he is distressed to learn that earthly fame means nothing in Heaven. The Spirit talking to him tries to explain that he can never get to Heaven if he is only interested in painting it. Art tries to communicate something about its subject, but in Heaven no such medium is needed; everything is the most real and most perfect version of itself already. This frightens the artist, who dislikes that his talents would not be necessary or appreciated in such a place. He demands that the Spirit let him go and immediately vanishes.