Topic > Comparing The Divine Comedy and C.S. Lewis The Great Divorce

Indeed, Joe R. Christopher, using Diagle's conclusions, deduces that, “the first Ghost--the Great Ghost, demanding his rights, who does not he wants 'someone's bleeding charity' (34) - it is an example of pride” (Christopher 13). Dante's text also underlines how "pride is purged on the first cornice of Dante's mountain. So the series of examples from both writers begins with examples of pride” (13). On the other hand, the Great Ghost represents many of the seven deadly sins, while Dante explicitly makes distinctions between each sin. However, Lewis structured his tale somewhat similarly to Dante's. When Dante enters Purgatory, he is marked with seven “Ps” on his forehead, when an angel brushes his head with its wing (“Purgatorio” Canto XII, verse 98). The "P" significantly represent the seven deadly sins that Dante must atone for in Purgatory, and as Musa notes, the angel removes the first "P" from Dante's forehead which stands for pride (Musa pag. 261 nt 98). Furthermore, Lewis's everyman must also learn to reject his sinful ways and embrace God's will. Just as Dante awakens from his vision at the end of “Paradise,” so does Lewis's narrator. As Watson explains, "When Lewis's narrator in The Great Divorce has learned his lessons - which concern above all love, agape (entirely faithful to the Augustinian formula) - he sees the edge of the dawn and