Use Of Wormwood In C. S. Lewis The Screwtape Letters

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

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.

“ Imagine a ruin so strange it must never have happened First, picture the forest. I want you to be its conscience, the eyes in the trees.”

In The Poisonwood Bible, the novel opens with a narrative instruction, and it has an effect on the reader in one main way. The directive is meant to make the reader put him/herself in the setting of the story, and read it as if you are in the novel. In the opening paragraph, it tells us, “I want you to be its conscience, the eyes in the trees,” which is telling the reader to read the novel as if you are there (Kingsolver 5). This suggests about the novel that the Price family is going to do missionary work in Africa, and there are going to be events that occur to show what happens when they go to Africa. When Orleanna continues her narration, the “you” that she is speaking to appears to be the God that she believes in. Orleanna states, “Your bright eyes bear down on me without cease,” which shows that she is talking to someone from above (Kingsolver 7). The great disasters that Orleanna alludes is when her and her family do missionary work in Africa. The reason why she is telling the story looking back on Africa and the girls tell it as if it is happening is because they both have different perspectives on the whole situation. Orleanna is talking about something that she has experienced while she was in Africa, and the girls talk about stuff that happens in their everyday lives. Orleanna is talking about the whole trip at one time, while the girls take it step by step.

A certain convocation/of politic worms are e’en at him. Your worm is your only emperor/for diet: we fat all creatures else to fat us, and we fat ourselves for/maggots. Your fat king and your lean beggar is but variable service,/tow dishes, but to one table; that’s the end.” (4.3.19-23)

Barbara Kingsolver’s novel, The Poisonwood Bible, is about a missionary family, the Prices, who move from Bethlehem, Georgia to a small village in the Congo. They choose to move during a time when there is great upheaval about to happen in the region. The reader learns about their trials and tribulations of life in the Congo through the five Price females, who talk about the events from their own the points of view. In the beginning, I thought I would not like this book; however I found that I had a hard time putting it down and ended up finishing the book quickly. There were many things Kingsolver did to make this book so appealing. From her use of dialogue and imagery, with such different character personalities, set in a historical time which gave this piece of fiction a hint of authenticity, to her underlying theme of human nature, both good and bad. It is all of these things combined which make The Poisonwood Bible a highly recommended book to read.

In chapter nine, Lewis begins his expedition journal writing. The Lewis journals were described as “America’s literary treasures” (108). The journals own this title because they were actual recordings of real American history. Containing great and precise details, Lewis’s writings had the ability to put readers in the in the mist of discovery. In addition, “He was a faithful recorder of flora and fauna, weather, the difficulties of getting down the river, unusual occurrences, people encountered.”

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

Wormwood is when someone is in a state of bitterness or grief. Someone who is wormwood usually gets offended quickly to anything and holds onto it for awhile. Wormwood is also a type of herb that has a bitter, aromatic taste. In the Bible, Wormwood is a star mentioned in the book of Revelation. In the book of Revelations, God gave the seven angels that stood before Him trumpets to blow their mighty blasts unto the earth, “The first angel blew his trumpet, and hail and fire mixed with blood were thrown down on the earth. One-third of the earth was set on fire, one-third of the trees were burned, and all the green grass was burned.Then the second angel blew his trumpet, and a great mountain of fire was thrown into the sea. One-third of the water in the sea became blood, one-third of all things living in the sea died, and one-third of all the ships on the sea were destroyed.” (Revelations 8:7-9). These verses show that the angels only targeted one-third of the earth. In the next verse the third angel sent a star towards one-third of the earth’s water.

"The Devil!" screamed the pious old lady." (Hawthorne 3) The old Puritan woman is walking through the heathen forest in prayer, and clearly acknowledges the snake staff to be that of the devil. Not only could the serpent-like staff represent the devil itself, which is also conveyed as a serpent in the Bible, but it can also convey the sly, snake-like personality of the elderly traveler, who knows just what giving the staff to Brown would do to him. In Bible, the serpent in the Garden of Eden encourages Eve to eat of the Tree of Knowledge. "And the serpent said unto the woman, Ye shall not surely die: For God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil". (Genesis 3:4-5) The sly character of Brown's companion resembles the sly character of the devil in the story of Adam and Eve in relation to the fall of Man. Once Adam ate of the Tree of Knowledge, sin and transgression of the law came unto Man. Likewise, the traveler knew that if Brown walked with his staff, he would no longer be blind to see the sin among his ‘Puritan' family and

In a desperate attempt to kill Gandalf, Wormtongue through a stone out of the tower, but it fails to hit its mark. The stone, proving to be one of the seeing stones, lures Pippin to look into it revealing himself and forcing the company to

Biblical allusion during the Romantic Age was not uncommon. Because Biblical images and references were in the minds of most Romantic readers, a poet would often use this strategy to contextualize an assertion being made. Wordsworth is no different. However, the level to which he uses this technique within his poetry fluctuates. The Ruined Cottage only contains two obvious examples, while Michael is rich with Biblical imagery and allusion. Because of this difference, the Biblical allusion within the two poems will be discussed within three categories—those which are concerned with a connection to nature, those which inspire the hope of salvation, and those which deal with the creation and deterioration of covenants.

William Blake was a painter, engraver and poet of the Romantic era, who lived and worked in London. Many of Blake’s famous poems reside in his published collection of poems titled Songs of Innocence and of Experience. This collection portrays the two different states of the human soul, good and evil. Many poems in the Songs of Innocence have a counterpart poem in the Songs of Experience. The poem “A Poison Tree” is found in the Songs of Experience and it delves into the mind of man tainted with sin and corruption that comes with experience. In a simple and creative style, the religious theology of the Fall of Man is brought to life. The poem tells the story of how man fell from a state of innocence to impurity, focusing on the harmful repercussions of suppressed anger. Blake utilities many literary devices to successfully characterizes anger as an antagonist with taunting power.

As a simile, Frost compares the birds singing “(thrush music…)” to the invitation, per say, “to the dark and lament” (16), in which he refers to death.

        Next comes the threat of punishment if she happens to continue down her dark path of stubborn unwillingness to engage with him. Suddenly the desert is before them and beauty is gone forever.  The life giving and symbolic water is gone.  She's dead and the worms are her only company.  These worms are symbolic of two different ideas. First they are phallic in shape and do stand as phallic symbols.  They are also another cyclical representation of time, in that they are part of the cycle that will break her body down into soil, feed the trees, feed an animal, etc.  So he tries scare her and to force her into the decision to seize the day.