Lewis chose the title The Great Divorce as a deliberate response to William Blake's The Marriage of Heaven and Hell, which argues that good and evil are not truly opposites. Lewis disagrees, and the book is his imaginative rebuttal. Essays that explore this connection can be excellent, but they ask a lot of students and need careful grading.

Students often struggle because Blake's work is dense and unconventional, written in a mix of prose and verse with provocative claims. Providing selected passages and a brief guide to the argument helps them engage without being overwhelmed. Grading should then focus on how well they use Blake to illuminate Lewis rather than on how thoroughly they master Blake.

A rubric for this kind of essay should reward accurate representation of both authors' positions. Students who claim that Lewis simply hates Blake, or that the two agree, usually oversimplify. The strongest essays identify where Lewis borrows a Blakean idea while reversing its conclusion.

What a Strong Essay Does

A strong essay states plainly what Blake claims about the relationship between opposites and then shows how Lewis dramatizes a different view. For example, Lewis insists that choices lead in genuinely different directions, and the ghosts' refusal of joy illustrates that heaven and hell cannot be blended into a comfortable compromise. Papers that pin the disagreement to specific scenes tend to earn top marks.

• Accurately summarizes the relevant idea from Blake before analyzing Lewis
• Connects the argument to at least two specific scenes from The Great Divorce
• Explains how Lewis's narrative form supports his response to Blake
• Avoids treating either author as a caricature
• Uses quotations from both works precisely and sparingly

Support Students Before They Write

Give students a short reading packet that includes the passages from Blake most relevant to the assignment, along with a few guiding questions. Discuss in class how the two authors imagine the relationship between opposing forces. When students enter the writing stage with a clear grasp of the central disagreement, the resulting essays are more focused and much easier to grade.

Consider requiring an outline that maps each body paragraph to a specific comparison point. Reviewing outlines takes far less time than reviewing drafts, and it lets you catch structural problems early. Students appreciate the chance to fix their plan before investing hours in writing.

Give Feedback That Respects Complexity

Because this topic invites big claims, feedback should nudge students toward precision. A comment that asks which particular ghost best shows the failure of blending good and evil pushes them from general statements to specific analysis. Encouraging students to acknowledge what Lewis admires in Blake also promotes a more balanced reading.

AI grading tools can assist by checking that each body paragraph contains evidence from both works and flagging paragraphs that summarize without analyzing. You then bring your literary expertise to the more subtle judgments. This combination keeps grading efficient without flattening the nuance of a demanding assignment.

Reflect on Difficult Assignments

Advanced assignments like this will produce wide variation in outcomes, and that is fine. Look at the range of scores as information about where students need more support, not as a failure of the assignment. A short debrief after grading can reveal which scaffolds worked best.

Keep a file of strong student examples, with permission, to show future classes what success looks like. Seeing a real peer essay handle a hard comparison gracefully makes the task feel achievable. Over the years, this collection becomes one of your most valuable teaching resources.