Lewis’ Screwtape Letters is an amusing and profound story of the world 's temptation and a Christian 's victory over it. In a collection of letters, an old demon, Screwtape, gives advice and guidance to his young and naive nephew, Wormwood, on how to lure his "patient" to Hell. Amateurishly attempting to tempt his patient to commit some great, extravagant sin, Wormwood lets his hand off the wheel and his patient becomes a Christian. Even in a seemingly hopeless situation, Screwtape kept his cool and advised Wormwood "to prevent his doing anything. As long as he does not convert it into action...Let him do anything but act. No amount of piety in his imagination and affections will harm us if we can keep it out of his will. As one of the humans has said, active habits are strengthened by repetition but passive ones are weakened."(pg.66-67) Screwtape and Wormwood work to work to keep the patients ' faith in a passive, lukewarm state and put out his fire for the Lord. They try to distract him with the ways of the world, but they are unable to put out his burning fire for the Lord. In an unexpected bombing, the patient slipped through Wormwood 's hands and into the open arms of his Heavenly Father. Some ways Wormwood is instructed to tempt his patient is by keeping him either stuck in the past or hag-ridden with the future, creating doubt during the low or struggling times and distracted during the good times, and with love.
Although our minds are limited by time, we
Screwtape and Foulgrin both have didactic tones, seeing how they are both trying to achieve the same goal; teach intermediate tempters how to make their patients fail. Both demons spend the entirety of each book giving detailed instruction. In The Screwtape Letters, Screwtape gives his nephew, Wormwood plenty of advice. For example, in letter three Screwtape says, “I am very pleased by what you tell me about this man’s relations with his mother. But you must press your advantage (Lewis 11).” Lord Foulgrin, however, more reminiscent of the wrongs of mankind than Screwtape, similarly informs his novice tempter, Squaltaint, in the same way. In the fourth letter, The Vermin’s Stinking Family, Foulgrin reminds Squaltaint, “And don’t forget one of the most effective forms of child abuse: parents giving their children whatever they want. (Alcorn 29).” For most of each novel, Screwtape has confidence in Wormwood and Foulgrin in Squaltaint.
The element of fog has been long recognized as a major symbol in That Hideous Strength by C.S. Lewis. Most scholars view the fog as a symbol of Mark feeling trapped (Cheaney) but in addition to that, it is believed that the fog is symbolizing a dark period of time where the town of Edgestow is being overtaken. The fog that begins to cover Edgestow symbolizes much more than just a thick cloud of tiny water droplets suspended in the atmosphere. The fog, made of water, is a kind of darkness which can be felt.
In the Screwtape Letters, C.S. Lewis proposes a dialog between an experienced devil and a young inexperienced devil. We only get to read letters from the senior, Screwtape, to the junior, Wormwood. In these letters we overhear how Wormwood’s first assignment is going, what tempting strategies he should try, and what might happen to him if he fails. Screwtape comes across cordial in all his letters, but just beneath his tone he seems to dislike his young mentee. In every letter, Screwtape belittles Wormwood in some way or another, and by the end we hear Screwtape’s outright anger and outrage at Wormwood’s failure when his patient dies a Christian. Lewis’ style of writing equips me to better recognise Satin’s subtle deceptions, and does not make
Lewis refers to God, Satan and Hell many different ways. When mentioning God, he uses the term “The Enemy” which in our minds, would normally be in reference to Satan. He also refers to him as “The Father Above,” and to Satan as “Our Father Below” and “High Command.” Hell is referred to as “Our Father’s House.” “Screwtape Letters” is written with this context because it is from the point of view of a demon who goes by the name of Screwtape. This is satirical, it is the opposite of the way we would normally think. In our minds, we think of God as “High Command,” and as Our Father, not as “The
The Screwtape Letters by C.S. Lewis is a book of thirty –one letters in which a retired, senior demon named Screwtape coaches his newly educated nephew, Wormwood. Wormwood is quite troubled when it comes to tempting his “patient.” Nevertheless, he need not fear because faithful uncle Screwtape has offered his services. A unique character featured in the letters is, “The Enemy.” This character refers to God, the natural enemy of Satan. Of course Satan is referred to as “Our Lord.” In the letters, and Wormwood and Screwtape try their very best to please Satan and bring him glory. Although the book is written from the demons’ perspective, Lewis naturally uses it to highlight important truths of the Christian faith.
Could anyone feel sympathy for a groveling, sly demon? The demons did have a hard job, but it was a despicable job of choice. In The Screwtape Letters, by C.S. Lewis, Screwtape busily instructs his nephew, Wormwood, who scrambles to trip up his “patient,” and bring the man to hell. Throughout the book, everyone should plainly realize that neither Screwtape nor Wormwood deserved pity or sympathy in the least. The first reason for this is that the demons’ malevolence revealed itself plainly in the book. Secondly the demons’ hate for all that is good and innocent reared its ugly head, snarling in the reader’s face. Finally, the pitiable, vile, cruel plans of the demons wiped out any lingering sympathetic feelings in the reader. The demons were purely cruelty.
Screwtape Letters by C.S. Lewis, is an interesting novel containing the interaction between a devil named Screwtape and his young nephew Wormwood. The book is comprised of letters corresponding between the two devils. Screwtape is a senior devil and is tasked as a mentor to his less experienced nephew. Screwtape instructs Wormwood on how to tempt a new Christian, or "patient". He suggest many different intricate ways of using human emotions, thoughts, and weaknesses to tempt their faith, and keep them from the kingdom of heaven. The ultimate goal to attain humans for their master in hell. Wormwood is at first encouraged by his uncle Screwtape, but is later criticized because he can't control his patient, and fails at keeping him from church.
The Screwtape Letters by C.S. Lewis is a book made up of 31 letters of teaching, communication, and familial advice communicated with the only two physical tempters in the book, Screwtape, the mentor, and his young eager to learn “nephew” or mentee, Wormworth. Screwtape uses the letters to aid him in influencing his nephew to do as he does in actions, thoughts, and in his work and convinces him to follow the way of Satan, their “Father” and to follow in both Screwtape and the Devil’s path. Wormworth’s “patient” is a young male who has newly tried to connect with the “Enemy”, God. Screwtape uses very common flaws, some of which are, materialism, physical attraction, and gluttony to try to draw him away from God, and brainwash him into believing all of his thoughts and detesting all outside sources as much as he can.
The patient in The Screwtape Letters is an interesting character. He is a struggle for Wormwood who is trying to keep him close to the Devil. I see him as a writer who has been put into the army to do defence work. I see him as a writer who was a professor so his knowledge is very extensive in many things in life.
Screwtape wants to destroy the patient and his mother's relationship all together. They both already had a mutual annoyance for each other despite what screwtape was trying to do. First method he wants to use is keeping the patient's mind on himself. This will cause anger and annoyance towards his mother in doing so. This all relates towards logos by being factual evidence to cause anger. With pathos, C.S. Lewis wants to show emotion that the reader can relate to. He does this by showing tone in the story with the patient and his mother. “I have had patients of my own so well in hand that they could be turned at a moments notice from impassioned prayer for a wife’s or son’s soul to beating or insulting the real wife or son without qualm.” This gives us the sense of how evil devils can be towards
C.S. Lewis covers many topics in his fourth book contained in Mere Christianity titled BEYOND PERSONALITY: OR FIRST STEPS IN THE DOCTRINE OF THE TRINITY. He addresses such topics as theology, what it means to be the Son of God, the three personal God, the relationship of God and time, the cost of being a Christian, how God works to turn us into image of Christ, why Christian growth is both hard and easy, and also what he thinks about our old personalities before becoming Christians. These are all relative topics that apply to us and our daily lives. Learning and understanding this book can help a Christian tremendously in forming a deeper relationship with God.
The Plot of “The Screwtape Letters,” by C. S. Lewis is interesting because it displays many themes relating closely to our daily lives. In “The Scretape Letters” there are four main characters- Screwtape, Wormwood, “the patient,” and “the woman” The plot of the story is a description of the everyday work of a demon taking over the life of an average human. Throughout the story Wormwood, screwtape’s nephew, is attempting to acquire the soul of “the patient’ for the duration of his life. We see only from the viewpoint of Screwtape, viewing only his opinions. During the plot “the patient” goes through many trails and tribulations just as Wormwood did, trying to gain a soul.
The Screwtape Letters In The Screwtape Letters by C.S. Lewis, there contains a character named Wormwood. One might wonder what the name “Wormwood” means as well as where the name even comes from. The Greeks actually called wormwood “absinthion” which derives in its meaning to something that cannot be drunk (bibledictionary.org). The name “wormwood” is actually in the Bible.
Mere Christianity, by C. S. Lewis, is written as set of guidelines of Christian belief. Lewis does not say there is any particular way to believe but he does make a point that the topic of religion itself is serious. As you consider whether you want to believe or not, you have to recognize how much thought it requires, and how thought provoking a process this decision is. Lewis covers Christianity in four different books within his book. In book one, Lewis discusses the Law of Nature and makes note of a tendency in humans of appealing to a standard of absolute truth in quarrels and arguments. He calls this standard the Law of Nature or the Moral Law. The Law isn't the same as the law of gravity
In The Screwtape Letters, the topic of love appears continuously throughout the text. In different ways, it is seen that the theme of love is used. Love is commonly understood as a deep feeling for another but C.S describes God’s love as so much more. God’s love is unchanging and no matter what wrong is committed, he will continue to love. Whether it is seen in the patients love of Christ, his love of his mother, or his love for his romantic partner, they all point to one prominent thing, God. Screwtape and Wormwood continuously fight throughout the book to strip the patient of the things that he loves in his life to ultimately lead him away from the true source of love, which they call the enemy, Christ.