Salem Press

Masterplots II: Christian Literature
The Screwtape Letters

Author: C. S. Lewis (1898-1963)
First Published: 1941, installments in The Guardian; in book form, 1942;
     revised edition published as The Screwtape Letters and Screwtape
     Proposes a Toast, 1961
Edition Used: The Screwtape Letters, with Screwtape Proposes a Toast.
     San Francisco: HarperSanFrancisco, 2001
Genre: Novel
Subgenres: Humor; letters
Core Issues: Conversion; daily living; God; love; salvation; sin and sinners;
     spiritual warfare

God has given every human being the power to choose freely between God and Satan, salvation and damnation. Lewis presents this drama through the eyes of a senior devil who is advising a less experienced satanic spirit on how to win over the young man to whom he has been assigned.

Principal Characters
The Devil, ruler of hell, referred to by his subordinates as Our Father
Screwtape, a senior devil, author of the letters
Wormwood, his nephew, a less experienced devil
God, referred to by the devils as the Enemy
The patient, the young man whom Wormwood tempts
The patient's mother, with whom the patient lives
Glubose, her devil
The patient's girl friend, a dedicated Christian
Slumtrimpet, her devil

Overview
The Screwtape Letters is made up of thirty-one undated letters from a senior devil called Screwtape to his nephew Wormwood. In these letters, Screwtape offers advice to the younger demon as he attempts to secure the soul of a human being, referred to as "the patient." The book, then, is the account of a young man's journey to the heavenly city, though in this case the narrator is his enemy, a demon who hopes to block his salvation.

In his first letter, Screwtape makes it clear that the surest way to lose the patient is to encourage him to use his reason, for inevitably, his reason will take him to God, whom the devils call the Enemy. Wormwood must find his opportunities by getting his patient to reason falsely or to be governed by his emotions. Screwtape is not discouraged when the patient becomes a Christian, for he explains to Wormwood that new converts often experience an emotional letdown. Wormwood should direct the patient's attention to the irritating habits or the hypocrisy of the other people in his church. Screwtape also suggests that the patient be encouraged to notice his mother's annoying habits to the point that he will have difficulty praying for her. Screwtape is delighted when the patient falls in with a wealthy group of skeptics. The patient is so proud of his new friends that Screwtape believes the struggle for his soul is over. However, God again manifests himself to the patient, and the result is a second conversion.

In his fifth letter, Screwtape reprimands Wormwood for his assumption that the outbreak of World War II would make it easier to capture souls. Unfortunately, war provides occasions for selfless deeds, and the Enemy judges such deeds on their own merits, not on his approval of the cause. However, as Screwtape points out later, anxiety is a good climate for demonic activity. Meanwhile, Wormwood is urged to make the patient a connoisseur of churches, then a partisan of a single point of view. Wormwood can also make sure the patient sees his mother as the glutton that her own demon, Glubose, encourages her to be. Wormwood should also attack through the patient's sexual nature. As Screwtape explains, his being a Christian is no impediment, for when a Christian marries because he is "in love," he sets himself up for disappointment, thus providing marvelous opportunities for the demons pursuing his soul.

Screwtape begins his twenty-second letter with a sarcastic reference to Wormwood's attempt to get his uncle in trouble with the satanic secret police by repeating some unguarded comments that were made in the letters. Wormwood will pay the price for his action, Screwtape promises, as well as for all his other mistakes. The most serious of them is Wormwood's allowing his charge to fall in love with a virtuous young woman from a loving, Christian family. To Screwtape's horror, the girl is also witty; indeed, he muses, she might well laugh even at him. The idea puts Screwtape into such a state that he turns into a centipede and has to dictate the rest of that letter to his secretary, Toadpipe.

However, Screwtape has not given up. He now suggests that Wormwood attack on two fronts, one intellectual and one emotional. Wormwood is to urge the patient's Christian friends, and thus the patient himself, to reduce Christ to the status of a mere historical figure, useful for promoting social justice or some other cause. Meanwhile, Screwtape has learned from Slimtrimpet, the demon assigned to the young woman, that she has a habit of laughing at nonbelievers. Now Wormwood can use her flaw to persuade the patient that he is, and indeed deserves to be, a member of a small, select group; such feelings, of course, will result in pride. Wormwood is also told to encourage the two lovers to compete in exhibiting unselfishness, thus establishing resentments that can persist for years.

The last three letters are prompted by German air raids on the town where the patient lives. As Screwtape points out, it is to the Enemy's advantage to have the patient die, for up to that point he has resisted all temptations and if he remains true, he will become God's forever. As long as he is alive, however, Screwtape and Wormwood still have a chance to seduce him. To Screwtape's disappointment, although the first raid frightens the patient, he does his duty. Then he is mortally wounded. The patient recognizes Wormwood for what he is, sees angelic spirits, and then finds himself in Christ's presence. Screwtape is left with just one consolation: that he will be allowed to make a meal of Wormwood or at least to snack on him.

Christian Themes
C. S. Lewis accepts the traditional doctrine that each person on earth is a central figure in a great drama that ends only with that person's death. Every individual, no matter how humble, is a prize for which God and Satan are always struggling. At times, God seems to withdraw from the battle; however, when he appears to be absent, he expects human beings to avoid evil by using their reason, the power he gave humans at the time of creation. For centuries, Christian thinkers have held that reason inevitably leads both to belief and to its corollary, Christian conduct. Satan's only hope, then, is to persuade one to reason falsely or to permit the emotions and the appetites to take the place of reason. The seven deadly sins--wrath, avarice, sloth, pride, lechery or lust, envy, and gluttony--all involve the emotions. False reasoning can lead to such errors as the reduction of Christ to a historical figure, the assumption that Christian doctrine needs to be reworked so as to apply to contemporary life, and the insistence that the real value of religion is the support it gives to another cause, such as social justice.

Although reason can help a person avoid evil in thought and deed, reason alone cannot save a person. Unlike Satan, who wants to acquire people so that he can consume them, God loves human beings, as is evident in the fact that he sent his Son to live among them, to teach them, and to die for their sins. Whenever a human being is in greatest need, God makes his presence felt, as he does when the patient has his second conversion and also at the time of his death.

This focus on salvation accounts for a crucial difference between the way the two forces view time. The satanic powers appeal to human greed, trying to convince their prey that their time is their own, to be spent as they wish, and encouraging them to live not in the present, but in some imagined future time, when all their vicious impulses will be satisfied. By contrast, there are only two times of importance to Christians: the present, when they must do their duty, and eternity, when they will be with God.

Sources for Further Study
Holmer, Paul. C. S. Lewis: The Shape of His Faith and Thought. New York: Harper and Row, 1976. A lucid, succinct overview of Lewis's theology.

Hooper, Walter, ed. C. S. Lewis: A Companion and Guide. San Francisco: HarperSanFrancisco, 1996. Includes a chronological biography of Lewis, short biographies of his associates, definitions and place descriptions, a "Key Ideas" section, and critical analyses of the works.

Lewis, C. S. Mere Christianity. New York: Macmillan, 1952. The author identifies the views common to Christians of all denominations. One of his best-known works.

Sims, John A. Missionaries to the Skeptics: Christian Apologists for the Twentieth Century--C. S. Lewis, Edward John Carnell, and Reinhold Niebuhr. Macon, Ga.: Mercer University Press, 1995. Places the beliefs of three major Christian theologians within the context of their personal experiences. Bibliography and index.

Walker, Andrew, and James Patrick, eds. Rumours of Heaven: Essays in Celebration of C. S. Lewis. Guildford, Surrey, England: Eagle, 1998. Originally published as A Christian for All Christians: Essays in Honour of C. S. Lewis in 1990. Essays on subjects such as Lewis's debt to historic Christianity, his attention to narrative, and his use of myth. Notes and selected bibliography.

Rosemary M. Canfield Reisman