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C. S. LewisA modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Lewis discovers that when he is distracted from thinking about Helen, “though I have forgotten the reason, there is spread over everything a vague sense of wrongness, of something amiss” which is more painful than actively remembering her (35).
He decides to switch to a rational approach to managing his grief in an effort to escape from his overwhelming feelings. Lewis admits he always knew intellectually that suffering was inevitable, and “had warned myself [..] not to reckon on worldly happiness,” but discovers that pain and loss are much different in concrete, lived experience than in the abstract (36). Helen’s death forced him to confront the reality of suffering in the world, collapsing his “house of cards” (38).
Comparing his grief to his wife’s physical pain, Lewis criticizes his self-preoccupation: “what sort of lover am I to think so much about my affliction and so much less about hers?” (41). Lewis wants Helen back “as an ingredient in the restoration of my past,”but realizes that may not be best for her: “having once got through death, to come back and then, at some later date, have all her dying to do over again?” (41). He wonders whether Helen is still suffering in the afterlife because before her death, Lewis did not imagine that people went straight to heaven, and while wonderful, she was not a “perfected saint” and thus, had “stains to be scoured” (41).
By C. S. Lewis
Mere Christianity
Mere Christianity
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Out of the Silent Planet
Out of the Silent Planet
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Perelandra
Perelandra
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Prince Caspian
Prince Caspian
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Surprised by Joy
Surprised by Joy
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That Hideous Strength
That Hideous Strength
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The Abolition of Man
The Abolition of Man
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The Discarded Image
The Discarded Image
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The Four Loves
The Four Loves
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The Great Divorce
The Great Divorce
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The Horse And His Boy
The Horse And His Boy
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The Last Battle
The Last Battle
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The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe
The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe
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The Magician's Nephew
The Magician's Nephew
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The Pilgrim's Regress
The Pilgrim's Regress
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The Problem of Pain
The Problem of Pain
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The Screwtape Letters
The Screwtape Letters
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The Silver Chair
The Silver Chair
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The Voyage of the Dawn Treader
The Voyage of the Dawn Treader
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Till We Have Faces
Till We Have Faces
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