The Great Divorce Discussion Questions

Discussion questions on Chapters 1 and 2 of The Great Divorce:

1. What point is Lewis making by describing the town in Hell as empty of people? (The narrator is alone until he gets to the bus station.)

2. What is the problem of the “tousle-headed” youth who first sits next to the narrator on the bus?

3. What is the significance of the apparently teenage couple being included in the bus queue?—(Remember, they walk off because they desire each other’s company over their place in line).

4. What is behind the one ghost asking, resentfully, why the bus driver can’t behave “naturally”?

5. What’s important about the riot on the bus being “innocuous”, even though the ghosts knives and pistols?

6. The intellectual man who sits next to the narrator after the riot, still disbelieves in Hell (dismisses it as an ancient superstition), and in fact, thinks it’s becoming brighter and brighter. Why is this so? What are some examples of this type of deluded thinking in our culture today?




The Great Divorce Chapters 3 and 4

1. Consider this statement from the beginning of ch. 3: "It is the impossibility of communicating that feeling [of exposure and danger], or even of inducing you to remember it as I proceed, which makes me despair of conveying the real quality of what I saw and heard."

What about being in Heaven could give someone a feeling of "exposure" and "danger"?

2. Why is the see-through nature of the bus passengers only noticeable once they get to Heaven and not before?

3. Do you think we'll be surprised at people we'll meet in Heaven? If this is possible, how should this shape the way we think of people who are difficult to understand (or just plain difficult) here and now?

4. What does the spirit in ch. 4 mean when he says his murdering of another man on earth was the point at which everything began? And what does he mean in saying he had "given up himself"?

5. In response to the ghost's argument about staying out of his "private affairs," the spirit says "There are no private affairs."

How does this relate to the way we think about people we observe who are involved in scandalous behavior? (maybe political leaders and celebrities are examples)

6. Why does the ghost show a sense of "triumph" in the end as he refuses the spirit's invitation and goes back to the bus?