The Great Divorce by C.S. Lewis
Week 14: Chapter 13 — The Mother Ghost (Robert's Wife)
Read Chapter 13 of The Great Divorce.
Previewing Week 14 of The Great Divorce
Read 3 of 7 discussion questions below. Unlock the complete 16-week guide when you’re ready.
One of the book's most poignant encounters: a mother so consumed by her love for her dead son that she refuses Heaven because it won't give her what she wants — him, on her terms.
Discussion Questions
7 questions1.The Ghost of Pam (Robert's wife) is consumed by love for her son Michael, who died as a child. She has spent her existence demanding to see him. On the surface, this seems like the most sympathetic of all the Ghosts' objections — a mother's love for her child. What makes Lewis's treatment of her so difficult to read, and why does he seem to think her demand is a refusal of Heaven?
a.Where is the line between legitimate grief and the kind of possessive love Lewis is critiquing?
b.Have you ever experienced love for someone becoming a form of control?
2.Pam's guide (her brother Reginald) tells her that her love for Michael was never really about Michael — it became about her feelings, her needs, her ownership of him. He gently says: 'You never asked what he wanted.' How does this expose the difference between love that gives and love that takes, even when it wears the costume of self-sacrifice?
3.Reginald tells Pam that if she enters Heaven and is transformed, she will see Michael — but it will be on Heaven's terms, not hers. She refuses because she wants him now, as she imagined him, subject to her. Lewis suggests that possessive love is ultimately a form of self-love. Do you agree? How does the gospel redefine love in a way that counters this?