Analysis Of Screwtape Letters By C. S. Lewis

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 demons that lurk around each and every one of us, in the darkness and shadows, can use things like reality or bad influences and many other ways to get in their “patient’s” head. The demons can’t even use the same things that God uses, to get to us; the demons just use it in an evil way. In The Screwtape letters, all of these pains plus many more pains are used to lure “Patients” towards the darkness. In the Gospel of Matthew, we are warned about demons and other false teachings, “beware of false prophets, which come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they ravening wolves” (Matthew 7:15).

Have you ever wondered how demons try and lead us away from God and begin to sin? In the Screwtape Letters C.S Lewis shows us how a demon named Screwtape guides his nephew Wormwood on how to make sure their “patient” stays away from Christianity. The Screwtape Letters is an Epistolary novel that was written during World War II. In this novel God is considered “The Enemy” and Satan is “Our Father.” The main characters in this novel are Wormwood, Screwtape, and the patient. Screwtape is a demon who writes his nephew Wormwood from hell. Screwtape teaches his nephew the different steps of keeping his “patient” away from God. Humans are called patients by demons because they are trying to lead humans away from God. In this novel we don’t really

Even though he will not let himself be beaten for no reason, if he has made an inadvertent mistake, he will try to correct it, as he does with his grandmother, after accidentally embarrassing in church. “Later, I convinced her that I had not wanted to hurt her and she immediately seized upon my concern for her feelings as an opportunity to have one more try at bringing me to god. She wept and pleaded with me to pray... I promised; after all, I felt that I owed her something for inadvertently making her ridiculous before the member of her church.” (Wright 119) And he follows through with that. He prays, daily, for an hour. That hour is torture, but he keeps his promise, abiding by his moral code. He is different from the boys and girls of his church congregation, and class: they have been indoctrinated and do as they are told, docilely. One boy walks up to Richard, prompted by the congregation, who think that Richard is doomed to burn in Hell, and tries to convert him; it is obvious that the boy has no real conviction in God of his own, rather, the belief in God has been forced upon him by his parents and community. “Though older than I, he had neither known nor felt anything of life for himself; he had been carefully reared by his mother and father and he had always been told what to feel.”(Wright 116) Meanwhile, Wright, in stark contrast, resists the attempts of his Grandmother and extended family to indoctrinate him into religion, instead deciding to

With social media at the people’s disposal, users are able to share their thoughts and to keep up to date with current events. Its no surprise to find issues trending on social media every now and then; this year’s election was no exception. Politics are without a doubt a greatly debated topic. Millions of post and articles taking sides flew all across social media; some were true while others were not. A supposed satire letter written by author C.S. Lewis became popular throughout social media during the campaigns. Letter is as followed:

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.

In the Screwtape Letters, it talked a lot about how the devil can distract a Christian. A devil can shift a person’s focus on God with random thoughts and actions. In the book, Wormwood is told by Screwtape to distract his patient from converting to Christianity. Even along the patient's journey of getting into church and being a better follower of God, Wormwood found any little way to make his mind wander. Even today the devil can shift a Christians focus to mundane thoughts. So as we go through Screwtape letters looking at the distractions used by Screwtape lets also think about what mundane things the devil can do to us today.

C. S. Lewis, one of the greatest spiritual writers the world has known, wrote the Screwtape Letters to mock the evil works of the devil and give us an understanding of spiritual warfare that is constantly going on all around us. Many people refuse to believe their lives are being interfered with by spiritual forces, but it is not something that should be ignored. Lewis saw the importance in recognizing spiritual warfare in order to learn how to fight it, and that is one of his inspirations for writing this book. Although we aren’t sure how demons attempt to lead us away from God, Lewis gives a detailed account on what he believes is a way they could go about it.

“A Good Man emphasizes, in what seems a deliberate parallel with the opening of Paradise Lost, the power of demonic character traits. Then the book outlines, in its own version of Milton’s Dialogue in Heaven, the power of Divine Providence for conquering the demonic” (Loomis). Flannery O’Conner has hidden descriptive actions and characteristics of how the Misfit is comparable to religious acts. She writes as if he is demonic and how he chooses to be like this because he doesn’t believe he needs help. “Even though she once stated that The Misfit had a “more profoundly felt involvement with Christ’s action” than did the superficially pious Grandmother whom he killed,

The Screwtape Letters by C.S. Lewis is a set of letters written by the demon Screwtape to his nephew, Wormwood. Wormwood is relatively new at being a demon and throughout the letters, Screwtape both responds to the letters that Wormwood sends him and provides Wormwood with advice about how best to tempt the man Wormwood is in charge of away from the Enemy, God. Although Lewis only gives the reader one side of this correspondence between uncle and nephew, Screwtape’s response at the beginning of each letter is usually enough to understand what Wormwood’s letter contained. It appears as if Wormwood had only recently become a Tempter as opposed to his uncle, Screwtape, who had surpassed the role of Tempter and now occupied an administrative role.

According to an article by Larry D. Harwood , “Lewis’s Screwtape Letters: the Ascetic Devil and Aesthetic God”, he states The Screwtape Letters portrays Lewis’s evil character and the principles of the “realism, dignity, and austerity of Hell” (2004). “In The Screwtape Letters Lewis portrays God as a lavish materialist affirming delight in a sensual as a part of being human. Lewis depicts the pleasures of sense...To Screwtape it appears that God took a gamble that not only makes little sense, but also appears to have come with costs to himself.” (Harwood, 2004). According to the article “Lewis's Screwtape Letters: the Ascetic Devil and the Aesthetic God” the mood of The Screwtape Letters is dusty, gritty as Lewis depicts Hell, due to the tone

When dwelling in sin the risk of losing eternal life is nevermore dire. Edward states, “The Devil stands ready to fall upon them, and seize them as his own” (432). This statement induces the expression that the demonic adversary anticipates the sinner's entrance to hell; he is lingering to clutch the sinner as his possession. This analysis brings to light, “Jonathan Edwards (1703-1758) relies heavily on the use of repetition to impress upon his audience the urgency of redemption

The point that he is trying to make is that God has afforded humanity the opportunity to rectify their sins. This act of restraint has given humanity the chance to fixed their ways and return to Christ.

The Screwtape Letters is an inverted approach to Christianity that parallels the ideals in Ignatian spirituality. In a discussion of hell as a means of business, an Uncle, Screwtape, writes letters of psychological insight for his nephew, Wormwood, to coax his subject into turning towards Hell. Though C.S. Lewis writes from the perspective of demons, this organically highlights the truths of Christianity. Screwtape pushes Wormwood to have the patient discover evil in every dimension of his life as the patient begins to become a follower of Christianity. To note, the Christian God is labeled as the “Enemy” whereas the Devil is labeled as “Our Father Below”. In order to turn the subject away

One of the better known books from C.S. Lewis is The Screwtape Letters. The Screwtape Letters is a fiction book comprised of thirty-one letters from Screwtape, a senior tempter and head in a department in Hell, to his nephew who is a novice tempter Wormwood. These letters are