Divorce
The great “divorce” of the title makes the entire work a symbolic counter-proposal against William Blake’s epic poem “The Marriage of Heaven and Hell.” If humanity has had wedded heaven and hell to become a more fully realized being as Blake’s verse suggest, then what should occur next, according to Lewis, is an immediate divorce because, well, Blake got it all wrong.
Going to the Mountaintop
As a character asserts, “It will be joy going to the mountains, but there will be plenty of work.” References to mountains are plentiful in the text and with good reason. They are the symbol of heaven, representing the difficulty of getting to the peak as well as the inexpressible beauty and joy of the experience being there.
The Lizard
One of the book’s many Ghosts sports a little red lizard on his shoulder that constantly whips it tail, while murmuring in the ear of its host. Eventually, the lizard is placed in negative comparison with a stallion as a way of pointing to the smallness of lust which is what the lizard symbolizes.
The Chess Game
As the story draws to a close, a striking image is presented of a giant chessboard with equally large chess pieces moving constantly from one place to another in a vision completely at odds with the reality of watching a game of chess. It is a pantomime with the movement being controlled as if by the hand of a puppet master: a symbol of God’s predetermination of every single aspect of the world which He has created.
The Artist
The character referred to only as The Artist is a particularly corrosive symbol that perhaps offers penetrating insight into the author’s perspective on the changing modes of aestheticism in the 20th century toward abstraction, abstruse self-indulgence and a clear break from creating art to idealize the magnificence of God. It is more than possible that the Artist is intended to be at least in part a little mocking toward William Blake.
