The Great Divorce

The novel’s narrator, who is also the protagonist, comes the closest of any of the characters to being a round, fully developed figure, but even he does not quite meet this description. Lewis’s purpose is not to show character arcs but rather to explicate Christian doctrines through narrative. Allegory usually does not involve the same level of character development as other genres because characters must represent something rather than contain all the complexities of real people.

Although the reader learns next to nothing about the narrator’s personal life, we do know that, like Lewis himself but unlike most of the Ghosts the narrator encounters, the narrator seems to already be a Christian or at least strongly inclined toward accepting Christianity. He says that MacDonald’s Phantastes set him on a path toward seriously considering Christian faith and doctrines (66-67). Also, based on the fact that the young poet in Chapter 2 seems to recognize the narrator and value his opinion about writing, the reader can surmise that the narrator is a famous writer on Earth, like Lewis.

While the narrator’s biography matches Lewis’s in many ways, he functions more as an everyman than a stand-in for Lewis; the narrator voices questions and concerns that people frequently raise about Christian doctrine.