Mrs. Baniaga
Honors British Literature
3 September 2010
The Screwtape Letters Analysis
The ScrewTape Letters is full of unique and interesting elements. C.S. Lewis has the story revolving around two demons, ScrewTape and Wormwood. The story is being narrated by Screwtape as he gives Wormwood advice on his patient. This unique character and narration adds to a very distinct and unusual mood to the story, in which Screwtape is trying to cause the patient’s demise.
Screwtape's character and narration contributes to making the story feel very unique to the reader. The first noticeable aspect in The Screwtape Letters is that its narrator is evil. This is very different from a regular story which can usually have a good protagonist. "I think they will give you to me now; or a bit of you. Love you? Why, yes. As dainty a morsel as ever I grew fat on" (Lewis 171). This quote is from when the patient had gone to heaven and Wormwood failed. Wormwood will be devoured by Screwtape, his own uncle, as the punishment for letting the patient go to heaven. This shows how Screwtape is very brutal and pitiless. Screwtape is also shown to be cruel in the way he wishes for humans to live. "We want a whole race perpetually in pursuit of the rainbow's end, never honest, nor kind, nor happy now, but always using as mere fuel wherewith to heap the altar of the future every real gift which is offered them in the Present" (Lewis 78). This shows how he wants people not to live happy lives, but to simply chase after a supposedly better gift in the future. Not only is he evil in his character, but he also has a brutal objective.
Screwtape's goal of trying to cause the patient's demise plays a significant role in the story. Throughout the letters, ScrewTape will constantly be trying to get the patient to grow farther away from God. ”My only fear is lest in attempting to hurry the patient you awaken him to a sense of his real position. For you and I, who see that position as it really is, must never forget how totally different it ought to appear to him" (Lewis 57). In this passage, Screwtape is writing about how the Patient is inadvertently drifting from God, and heading towards hell. This shows how Screwtape really wants the man to go to hell. Since the author is showing what Screwtape knows compared to what the Patient knows; then the reader can understand more of the dangers that the Patient will have to face. Another way Screwtape’s goals are made evident are by his plans in getting the patient to go to hell. “Indeed the safest road to Hell is a gradual one-the gentle slope, soft underfoot, without sudden turnings, without milestones, without signposts” (Lewis 61). This quote also shows how he wants the patient to sin, but in a specific way. Screwtape believes that a gradual and unnoticeable drifting from God is the best way to secure the patient's damnation.
Screwtape's character and narration helps make the story more feel more interesting as he endeavors to cause the patient's damnation. The Screwtape Letters uses a very unusual point of view. It makes it so the reader will have a better understanding of Screwtape's motives and goals. From seeing the demon's character, the reader also experiences an antagonistic-like character narrating the story. This contributes heavily to the distinct mood that the story has.
Work Cited
Lewis, Clive S. The ScrewTape Letters. New York: HarperCollins Publishers, 2001. Print.
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