The Great Divorce
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| - | The idea of Hell was highly influential to writers such as [[Jean-Paul Sartre]] who authored the 1944 play "[[No Exit]]" about the idea that "Hell is other people". Although not a religious man, Sartre was fascinated by his interpretation of a Hellish state of suffering. [[C.S. Lewis]]'s ''[[The Great Divorce]]'' (1945) borrows its title from [[William Blake]]'s ''[[Marriage of Heaven and Hell]]'' (1793) and its inspiration from the [[Divine Comedy]] as the narrator is likewise guided through Hell and Heaven. Hell is portrayed here as an endless, desolate twilight city upon which night is imperceptibly sinking. The night is actually the [[Apocalypse]], and it heralds the arrival of the demons after their judgment. Before the night comes, anyone can escape Hell if they leave behind their former selves and accept Heaven's offer, and a journey to Heaven reveals that Hell is infinitely small; it is nothing more or less than what happens to a soul that turns away from God and into itself. | + | '''''The Great Divorce''''' is a work of [[allegory]] by [[C. S. Lewis]] that is complementary to Lewis' earlier book ''[[The Screwtape Letters]]''. |
| - | [[Piers Anthony]] in his series ''[[Incarnations of Immortality]]'' portrays examples of Heaven and Hell via Death, Fate, Nature, War, Time, Good-God, and Evil-Devil. [[Robert A. Heinlein]] offers a [[yin-yang]] version of Hell where there is still some good within; most evident in his book [[Job: A Comedy of Justice]]. [[Lois McMaster Bujold]] uses her five Gods 'Father, Mother, Son, Daughter and Bastard' in [[The Curse of Chalion]] with an example of Hell as formless chaos. [[Michael Moorcock]] is one of many who offer Chaos-Evil-(Hell) and Uniformity-Good-(Heaven) as equally unacceptable extremes which must be held in balance; in particular in the [[Elric]] and [[Eternal Champion]] series. [[Fredric Brown]] wrote a number of [[fantasy]] short stories about [[Satan]]’s activities in Hell. [[Cartoonist]] [[Jimmy Hatlo]] created a series of [[cartoon]]s about life in Hell called ''The Hatlo Inferno'', which ran from 1953 to 1958. | + | The working title was ''Who Goes Home?'' but the real name was changed at the publisher's insistence. The title refers to [[William Blake]]'s ''[[The Marriage of Heaven and Hell]]''. ''The Great Divorce'' was first printed as a serial in Anglican newspaper called ''[[The Guardian (Anglican newspaper)|The Guardian]]'' in 1944 and 1945, and soon thereafter in book form. |
| - | == Namesakes == | ||
| - | *''[[Hell (novel)|Hell]]'' (1908) - Henri Barbusse | ||
| - | *"[[Hell is other people]]" by Sartre from ''[[No Exit]]''. | ||
| - | ==See also== | ||
| - | *[[Hell in popular culture]] | ||
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The Great Divorce is a work of allegory by C. S. Lewis that is complementary to Lewis' earlier book The Screwtape Letters.
The working title was Who Goes Home? but the real name was changed at the publisher's insistence. The title refers to William Blake's The Marriage of Heaven and Hell. The Great Divorce was first printed as a serial in Anglican newspaper called The Guardian in 1944 and 1945, and soon thereafter in book form.
Unless indicated otherwise, the text in this article is either based on Wikipedia article "The Great Divorce" or another language Wikipedia page thereof used under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License; or on research by Jahsonic and friends. See Art and Popular Culture's copyright notice.
