The Narrator
The narrator of The Great Divorce is a young writer who is living in Hell, although it appears that he hasn’t been there too long. Disillusioned with the futility and depression of Hell, he longs for something more, which is why he elects to board the bus taking him on an excursion to another place. When he reaches Heaven, he is frightened at its real-ness in relation to his own fragility, but he finds it immeasurably preferable to Hell, which is more than can be said for the other Ghosts; in that sense, he is the most humble of the souls from Hell. There are also clues that point to the narrator being Lewis himself, notably his interactions with George MacDonald, with whom the narrator converses in Heaven and whom Lewis greatly admired during his lifetime, and the story the narrator tells MacDonald regarding his writings relates directly to Lewis’s own life.
George MacDonald
George MacDonald was a late nineteenth-century Scottish fantasy writer, theologian, and Christian apologist. His most famous novel, Phantastes, is cited as being Lewis’s inspiration and the catalyst by which his appreciation for the beautiful was whetted, and Lewis called his short story “The Golden Key” the greatest fairy tale ever written. In The Great Divorce, the narrator finds him as a Spirit in Heaven, and MacDonald leads him around and mentors him in much the same way as Virgil does for Dante (later replaced by Beatrice) in the Divine Comedy.
Sarah Smith
When in Heaven, the narrator sees a glorious procession of beings heralding the arrival of a radiant woman, identified by MacDonald as Sarah Smith, a kind woman upraised on Earth but whose devotion has led to her exaltation in Heaven. She is a stunning example of the beauty of humility, and it is clear that Lewis believes that famous people will probably be next to unknown in Heaven, where the first shall be last and the last shall be first.
Frank
Frank, Sarah’s earthly husband, is perhaps the most complex character in the novel. He appears as a two-part Ghost: a Dwarf leading a tall man (the Tragedian) by a chain around the neck. He has a tendency to feign offense to elicit sympathy from other people, and his interactions with Sarah are no exception; as he talks with her, the Dwarf (his personhood) shrinks, while the Tragedian (the manifestation of his presentation of self-pity) grows, and eventually Frank the Dwarf disappears entirely.
Ikey (The Intelligent Man)
Ikey is first known to the narrator as “The Intelligent Man,” the bowler-hatted fellow who accompanies him on the bus ride to Heaven. He explains Hell with great insight before revealing that he’s going to Heaven to bring back something valuable in order to sell it for a profit, making money and creating a system of capitalism at the same time. He eventually staggers out of the narrator’s sight with an apple from Heaven, but it’s unclear what befalls him after that.
The Tousle-Headed Poet
This character is another man who sits beside the narrator on the journey up to Heaven. He is an enthusiastic young man who firmly believes that he doesn’t believe in Hell with all the other base, vulgar people who don’t have any kind of intellectual life at all. He then tries to read the narrator some of his poetry, resolving the growing suspicion that his egocentrism is completely dominant.
