The Pilgrim's Regress

In The Pilgrim’s Regress, Lewis uses the black hole at the center of many of John’s fears to represent the Christian concept of Hell. Lewis describes the black hole as a terrifying, inescapable abyss symbolic of existential despair and the complexities of divine justice and mercy as well as the consequences of sin and its accompanying moral decay. Despite its terrifying nature, Lewis describes the black hole as a necessary part of the divine order meant to contain the spread of evil. Slikisteinsauga explains that the black hole is not a creation of the Landlord and therefore not an arbitrary punishment but a naturally occurring consequence of sinful choices, preventing the soul from an endless descent into deeper corruption and eternal torment. By limiting the spread of evil, Lewis suggests, the black hole serves as a “tourniquet on the wound” of the soul (213). John’s journey convinces him that sin leads to spiritual darkness and decay, isolating the soul from divine grace. For Lewis, the black hole signifies the ultimate end of a soul that has continuously rejected the light (divine truth) and embraced the darkness (sin).