The Devil In The Screwtape Letters By C. S. Lewis

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

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 patient would also think of himself better than his friends because he himself goes to church. For a while, the tactics of Wormwood seemed to be effective until the hike where the patient would reconnect himself to the Lord. The third and final reason why The ScrewTape Letters does in fact give good applicable insight into the tactics of the devil is because of how it displays the lies and fear in his everyday life that affects the patient. Through the story, we can see how Screwtape and his nephew Wormwood used the greatest tactic of fear to manipulate the patient for their own interest. We can see that they used fear to manipulate the patient through the draft of World War Two.

The term genocide means terminate an entire race or group. In the Holocaust, millions of people were murdered by the Nazis under the order of Adolf Hitler. The main target during the Holocaust were Jewish people, or more specifically those who did not fit into the Aryan race (Adolf Hitler’s picture of how a person should be). Adolf Hitler and his army the Nazis tried to commit genocide by eradicating the Jewish race, but luckily they were not successful in doing so. The story “Terrible Things” by Eve Bunting and the poem “The Hangman” by Maurice Ogden show in very different ways a lot of the same themes about the Holocaust.

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.

I chose to do my research and reading on The Screwtape Letters written by C.S Lewis, which is a novel written in unique perspective of a Senior Devil named Screwtape who writes thirty-one letters to his nephew Wormwood who can be considered somewhat of a novice devil or demon of some sort. In these letters, as readers, we find that they are undated and that they are meant to offer advice to his younger demon nephew as he attempts to steal the soul of a human, referred to as “the patient”. We are first introduced to the concept of “the patient” rather than “the human” when Screwtape explains to Wormwood about one of his first experiences with one. In his first letter, Screwtape explains that the best way to lose the human is if the human somehow decides to use reason because at that point, his reason will take him to God. He does this by teaching his nephew that, “Your business is to fix his attention on the stream. Teach him to call it “real-life” and don 't let him ask what he means by real” (2). Ironically, the devil 's resort to calling God, “the Enemy”. We are first introduced to this idea in the introduction on the first letter when Screwtape states that “The trouble about argument is that it moves the whole struggle on to the Enemy 's ground” (2). Wormwood must find his opportunities by getting his patient to make unwise choices or let his emotions get the best of him. When the patient turns to

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.

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.

C. S. Lewis wrote the fictional series Screwtape Letter to acknowledge the intellectual and religious skepticism during this time. In his series, the characters consisted of an elderly and younger devil. Throughout the letter, the elderly devil guides and advises the younger devil on how to torture his victim better. By analyzing the devil's ways, Lewis attempts to bring awareness to the devil’s tactics in everyday life through syntax and pathos. The elderly devil begins the letter by acknowledging the young devil’s work.

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.

demon, Screwtape, addressed to his nephew, Wormwood. Wormwood is assigned his first “patient” and it is his skilled Uncle Screwtape’s job to help him through the process. A patient is the demon’s human that they are assigned to keep away from God and to constantly face with temptation. Screwtape receives reports from Wormwood each week and then responds with advice and techniques. Screwtape highlights many different ways to keep us from following God, especially with limiting our understanding of “real” to mean only the material (23). In other words, demons don’t want us to think about the spiritual world around us, only about real materials lacking the meaning of the purpose of life so that we don’t ask questions about what will happen to us after death.

In the Screwtape Letter, by C.S. Lewis, Srewtape insists that all pleasures are created by the Enemy, meaning God, and that demons have not figured out how to create them. It’s an idea commonly seen in Christian theology. God brought all things into this world to be good, and those things can and have been corrupted by demons and the lot. What Screwtape is saying is that, God wants people to experience pleasure, and that it is a demon’s job to corrupt a person’s sense of that pleasure.

Love is a very impactful thing. The fact that the Patient has great love for his mother stands out as a problem for Wormwood and Screwtape. These two accomplices believe that if they strip the patient of all sources of love that he will turn away from God. Wormwood is provided with a list filled with details on how he can turn the patient’s love into anger and annoyance towards his mother. One way that they attempt to do this is by distorting the patient’s prayers into prayers

Both the reader and Goodman Brown begin to realize that no ordinary man can entice the strong in faith from the path of from righteousness unless he is the devil. Furthermore, the