The Great Divorce

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The Great Divorce
In chapter 11 of The Great Divorce by Clive Staples Lewis, in the story, the ghost with the lizard the narrator and MacDonald focus on the encounter between the ghost of Pam and the Bright Spirit (Reginald or Pam’s brother). This is a poignant scene of the novel where the ghosts represent the nature of human soul’ like the other tales, there is focus on heaven and hell and human beings long to have meaning and purpose in life. Lewis further explores how love and lust to explain human nature where Pam is fixated on the pain rather than moving on to find peace in Heaven and she is condemned to be in Hell for this the man with the lizard allowed the angel to kill the lizard and in return entered Heaven as he had strong faith.
The ghost of Pam does not go together with Reginald her brother who is a spirit and Michael her son, as Pam wants to be closer to Michael and yet this prevents her from going to Heaven. ‘I did think Michael would have come,’ said the Ghost; and then, almost fiercely, ‘He is here, of course?’ (Lewis 85). Pam has focused too much on loving Michel her dead son instead of being close to God, her friends and families. There is selfishness on Pam’s part as she does not see the bigger picture of loving others and she fails to encounter the angels and souls of Heaven. Pam further tells Reginald that she believes in a God of love not one who separates the mother from her son, but Reginald points out this is not true love (Lewis 89-90).
The spirit asks the man with the lizard whether to kill the lizard and the lizard represents lust and the spirit knows that everyone has a will to choose (Lewis 96). The author suggests that lust is weak and the way to overcome this is by overcoming the lust when the lizard is killed. “What is a Lizard compared with a stallion? Lust is a poor, weak, whimpering, whispering thing” (Lewis 100). The Bright spi...