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.