Novel review on The Screwtape Letters by C.S. Lewis - Essay Example

College Novel review on The Screwtape Letters by C.S. Lewis and Number Paper Due Briefly summarize the plot, including a description of the climax. The Screwtape Letters, a Christian novel by C. S. Lewis, is written in a form of a series of letters from a senior Demon, Screwtape, to Wormwood, a Junior Tempter and Screwtape’s nephew. Screwtape occupies administrative position in the bureaucracy of Hell and appears to be Wormwood’s instructor, though not his chief. Each of his letters is finished with a touching line ‘Your affectionate uncle, Screwtape’. In total, Screwtape has written 31 letters. Each of them may be referred to as a detailed instruction showing Wormwood, the young fiend, how to disrupt a human being’s faith in God and encourage them to commit sins. Wormwood’s mission is to lead a human being astray and get hold of his soul. Within the novel, Wormwood hunts the soul of quite an ordinary man, whose name remains unknown to the audience, and tries to prevent his conversion to Christianity. It is possible to see that physical or in other words ephemeral part of life of this man, who is generally referred to as ‘the Patient’, is of minor importance for both fiends. What they are interested in is the human being’s eternal soul. At the same time, readers may see that Screwtape’s nephew turns to be rather obstreperous and incompetent. Despite Screwtape wise and twisted advices and Wormwood abilities to enter the man’s thoughts and influence them, their Patient starts attending church and later falls in love with a Christian girl, the embodiment of virtue. Thus, there are two wars the man is involved in – physical and spiritual. Finally, the man dies as his city is being bombarded. His pure and innocent soul goes to Heaven, which means a total failure for Wormwood. From now, Wormwood belongs to Screwtape, which becomes understandable in his last letter. This is the climax of the novel. Wormwood did not manage to seduce an innocent soul, and he is going to be punished for this. 2) Describe the author’s style The style of The Screwtape Letters is rather peculiar. On the one hand, Lewis managed to create a great example of epistolary novel, which means that the author is able to address the issues he is interested in directly. On the other hand, this is a philosophical parable and allegorical religious precept. The author’s style made the novel quite easy to read. This is especially advantageous as far as people who are far from religion are concerned. Not so many ordinary readers would ever be interested in reading religious doctrines which are often hard to understand and follow in real-life situations. At the same time, Lewis’s novel gives readers a rather clear insight into main principles of Christianity every ordinary person should be familiar with. The style of the novel may be compared to the one of popular scientific literature – the author uses simple language in order to tell the audience about serious and important things. The story is narrated in the first person, and Screwtape is the narrator. Thus, everything in the novel is interpreted and told from his personal perspective, which means that his words should not be taken literally. In other words, the narrator is limited and unreliable. Very often, in order to understand what the author meant readers need to infer exactly the opposite of what the narrator has just said. General tone of the novel cannot be called moralising. Neither the author, nor any of the characters try to instruct readers how to behave. Instead, readers are given an opportunity to observe and make conclusions on their own. In other words, they are offered to learn from the mistakes of others. The novel shows how to cope with everyday challenged every person faces. 3) Using a quote, give an example that illustrates that style. As it was mentioned, The Screwtape Letters is an epistolary novel, which, therefore, contains no dialogues. What is more, readers are not provided with return letters, which makes Screwtape’s letters to his nephew the only source of information. Due to this readers may notice that Screwtape very often starts his letters with the comments on the previous letter from Wormwood: ‘When I told you not to fill your letters with rubbish about the war, I meant, of course, that I did not want to have your rather infantile rhapsodies about the death of men and the destruction of cities’ (Ch.28). Thus, Screwtape summarises the main idea of almost all the preceding letters from Wormwood just in order to keep the audience informed about the latest events in life of the young fiend’s Patient. That is how most letters begin. After this, Screwtape starts to comment on Wormwood’s mistakes and offers his twisted ideas how to cope with them. Within this part of letters the author provides much food for thought for readers as it reveals danger which is hidden in simple things every ordinary person faces in his or her everyday life. Epistolary form of the novel is very suitable for this purpose as it allows the author not to focus on dialogues between characters or description of some events. Instead, this is a perfect opportunity for the writer to address an issue directly. In fact, in each letter attention is focused on a concrete aspect of human life which may be referred to as daily, as well as on issues it poses. This is, for instance, laughter, which is a natural thing for everyone: ‘I divide the causes of human laughter into Joy, Fun, the Joke Proper, and Flippancy’ (Ch.11). Thus, within the novel there are two major directions. The first one revolves around actual events in life of the Patient and the process of his growth as a Christian, while the second one is a philosophical outline of temptations every person faces every day. 4) List three quotes and illustrate their significance 1) ‘Indeed the safest road to Hell is the gradual one – the gentle slope, soft underfoot, without sudden turnings, without milestones, without signposts’ (Ch.12) This quote seems to be among the strongest and most memorable quotes from the whole novel. It illustrates life of many people who live quite an ordinary life and do not commit any evil or unlawful acts. What is more, they often seem to be proud of their supposed virtue and orderliness, as well as high position in society. That is where the sin is hidden. People may consider themselves to be righteous in case they do not commit any explicit evil acts. The novel, however, shows that this is a strong delusion. Evil may be hidden deep inside the soul of a person who may seem to be absolutely innocent, moral, and virtuous. That is what the author tries to show, and that is also the leading motive of the whole novel. 2) ‘Our cause is never more in danger than when a human, no longer desiring, but still intending, to do our Enemy’s will, looks round upon a universe from which every trace of Him seems to have vanished, and asks why he has been forsaken, and still obeys’ (Ch.8). To have either good or bad days is a natural part of life of every person. A persons mood is very changeable, just like good and bad periods in life. Still, as it is said in the novel, love to God should not depend on a temporal state a human being experiences. Instead, it should be constant and unconditioned. This quote may be interpreted more broadly. A persons readiness to obey moral and legal laws should not be predetermined by any external factors – it should remain constant, no matter what kind of situation a person has faced. In other words, people should not be led by their emotions. 3) ‘All extremes, except extreme devotion to the Enemy, are to be encouraged’ (Ch.7). Everybody knows that the golden mean is always the most rational and desirable middle between two extremes. Those people who run to extremes and give way to emotions hardly ever achieve their purposes and manage to save mental balance. Therefore, rationality and moderation should always remain among guiding principles. 5) Make a list of major characters including their names, role in the story, significance, and adjectives that you would use to describe them Screwtape – one of the main characters within the novel. It is a senior devil, as well as the head of some of Hell departments, who may be described as truly wise, sly, and smart. He is extremely experienced in temptation, and he perfectly understands weaknesses of human beings. Screwtape may easily be called an evil genius and an expert on human souls. At first, he treats Wormwood like an affectionate and understanding uncle. Readers may even find him likeable. However, his true nature reveals the moment Screwtape understands that his nephew is on the brink of failure. He turns to be hateful and malevolent. This kind of transformation is rather important in the novel since it lets the author show the true nature of evil. The Devil has no mercy or affection to anyone, even to the beings like himself. Wormwood – is the younger temper and the recipient of Screwtapes letters. He may be called irresponsible, disobedient, and rather naïve. He has recently graduated from a college where he was taught how to tempt human beings and, as it seems to be, he was not a successful student. At the end of the novel readers understand that Wormwood is going to be consumed by Screwtape. On the one hand, this character illustrates how ruthless the evil is. On the other hand, Wormwoods failure shows that every human being has enough strength to fight against the dark side of human nature. In other words, the evil may be overcome. The Patient – a human being Wormwood is supposed to tempt. This is quite an ordinary person who faces challenges which a lot of people face. This makes this character reliable and easy to understand, since readers may easily associate him with themselves. It is possible to describe him as courageous, humble, and faithful. Within the novel, the Patient goes through spiritual transformation, with all its ups and downs. He dies as a true Christian. This character himself is an illustration that one is able to fight the darkness in ones soul. 6) Describe the setting and explain and explain its significance to the story as a whole Although the setting of the novel seems to be slightly unclear at the beginning, readers finally understand that the main storyline is confined to Hell. That is where Screwtapes office and the demonic bureaucratic machine are located. Nevertheless, the author does not describe Hell thoroughly. In fact, everything readers get to know about this place is that it resembles a well-organised company with numerous departments, which may sometimes be compared to a research centre. Investigations are conducted in order to increase the number of sinners who would be doomed to go to Hell and suffer for ever. Nevertheless, another storyline is set on Earth and describes life of the Patient. Although the setting is not described precisely enough, readers may easily understand that the action takes place during World War II, and the Patient is supposed to fight against German. In fact, historical setting is not that important. Any other war or disaster could be chosen in order to illustrate what the author wanted to focus attention on – practical aspects of life of a Christian. Thus, the setting description is far from being precise. Nevertheless, this is rather advantageous for the novel in general. It makes the whole story more universal and more applicable. Almost every ordinary person could somehow associate themselves with the Patient, since this character itself may be called universal. After all, there is an impression that the precise description of setting would not be appropriate in this novel. Such concepts as Heaven and Hell should remain beyond human knowledge. A person is not supposed to strive to get into Heaven and avoid Hell. Everyone should stay obedient and respect morality, despite the fear of being punished. 7) Describe any symbols used in the story The novel itself may be called symbolic in many ways. On the one hand, it illustrates the way in which evil may attack moral consciousness of a person. Such an attempt may turn to be successful in case an individual is morally weak. In this case, demons may easily manipulate and torture human beings. The fact that two demons maintain correspondence is symbolic as well. It shows how guileful and ingenious evil is. Their strategy is sophisticated enough to make people commit sins without realising it. By far not all the people are smart enough to discern the trap. Symbolism may also be found in names of characters. Screwtape’s name, for instance, is first of all associated with building. In fact, he builds a demon which is supposed to wound, or destroy human souls. Interestingly, human beings do not possess names at all, which is symbolic as well. It creates an impression that ordinary people, in fact, are simply pawns in the game of higher powers. Attitude they are expressed towards is the only difference. Human beings are children for God, though some kind of food for the Devil. This is also symbolic that God is referred to as Enemy. On the one hand, it is an opportunity to view God from another perspective and understand his precepts better. On the other hand, this war-related term points at ever-lasting war between good and evil. 8) Explain the significance of the opening scene The author starts his novel in a rather peculiar way. Readers are told that they are going to face a kind of correspondence between two mysterious personalities, which, as it seems, are of evil nature. This intrigues readers and ignites their interest, as well as imagination. At the same time, the narrator refuses to tell them how he managed to receive access to all these letters. There is an impression that he is just trying to escape from responsibility. Within the first episode, there is not a hint on any attempts of moralising function of the letters. Instead, readers understand they are going to be given an opportunity to observe and make their own conclusions. It is also worthy to say that the narrator, as he said, did not make any attempts to identify personalities of people, mentioned in the novel. This creates an impression that such a story could happen to anyone. Still, readers are warned that they were going to deal with the Devil, the Father of Lies. In other words, they are not supposed to perceive his words in good faith. As it turns out later, this is absolutely true. In order to get an insight about some event or some person, readers need to abstract from what was said by demon and imagine a quite opposite situation. Thus, the opening scene leads readers to the conclusion that they are going to read a kind of a parable. Any person, no matter when and where they were born, may find anything for themselves in it. 9) Explain the significance of the closing scene The closing scene of the novel may be fairly called the most revealing. Evil finally shows its true face. One could think that demons are only dangerous for human beings and, possibly, for heavenly angels, or, as Screwtape would say, servants of the Enemy. Nevertheless, this is an erroneous impression. Readers see that Screwtape, who earlier pretended to be a loving uncle, turns to be cruel to his nephew and is looking for having him ‘to settle with’ (Ch.31). This emphasizes predatory nature of demons – the weak overcomes the strong. Evil has no mercy or affection, even to those who resemble themselves. That is what readers understand in the last letter. In this episode, readers are also offered a description of a scene the Patient witnesses the moment he dies. He meets guardian angels and understands how insignificant all his failures and challenges were. Now he is ready to travel to Heaven. At the same time, the Patient becomes able to see Wormwood, who seems to be absolutely miserable and dull. All of this once again reinforces the idea that simple and clear actions and thoughts may help a person overcome demons and realize where the truth is. The death itself is depicted as the moment of truth when a human being is given a chance to reconsider all his or her life within a couple of seconds. In other words, it is a chance to look at oneself from the outside and see personal achievements and mistakes. From this perspective, human death may even be regarded beneficial. It is possible to assume, therefore, that the danger of death a person manages to escape may even be useful – it makes a person reconsider his or her own life and change something in it, before it is too late. 10) Describe two or three major themes 1) Among a number of conclusions readers are able to make at the end of the novel, the following one may be called one of the most important and applicable in everyday life. People are advised to avoid running into extremes and always try to keep the golden mean. Making oneself too much allowances and being unable to resist temptation is a road to Hell. Absolute ascetism, on the other hand, is not suitable for everyone as well. In other words, moderation in all things should become a rule for everyone. Within the novel readers across the contraposition between absolute pacifism and extreme forms of patriotism. Both approaches, however, could lead the Patient into Hell, even though each of them could have been based on best motives, as this man could think. For many people, however, this is rather hard to discern where the golden mean lies. One could say he is too confused to make the rights choice. Others do not even notice they have gone too far. Situation with the Patient in the novel is a good example. Wormwood thought that he was going to achieve success very soon – his patient fell under the influence of a bad company. Nevertheless, a good book, fresh air, and a day alone with the own thoughts helped him retain control over oneself. Thus, simple things and clear thoughts, as well as simple healthy rest, may help a person find the right way and avoid running into extremes. 2) Great variety of ingenious tricks and tips offered by Screwtape in order to tempt the poor Patient show that evil may be hidden even in those inconspicuous acts, habits and thought where one would never expect to see it. The example of Hitler, for instance, cannot be called ambiguous – this is an explicit evil, obvious for everyone. Nevertheless, nobody would suspect the Patient’s mother of being a sinner. At the first sight, this is an ordinary woman, rather moderate with her diet, which other people could even respect her for. Surprisingly, she turns to be an embodiment of the sin of gluttony. It is possible to make a conclusion, therefore, that every person should be very careful with personal desires. Moderation, as well as common sense and respect towards others, should always be of high priority. Works Cited C. S. Lewis. The Screwtape Letters. 1942. Read More