My Dear Madison,
Now that you’ve had the chance to read The Screwtape Letters by C.S. Lewis let’s dive into the details….
I could go on and on about this so when we are able to hang out let’s discuss more! Here though, I want to talk about the characters of Screwtape and Wormwood, and the presence of the seven deadly sins throughout the book.
I mentioned in my last post that the letter style is an element that is so integral to the flow of the story. It reminded me of a little kid peeking around a corner on Christmas Eve (not certain if they should be looking) or eavesdropping someone’s phone conversation where you strain to hear the voice on the other line while scrambling to connect the dots. This peeking and straining is the main method of learning the character of Wormwood, the recipient of the Screwtape letters. We know that Wormwood is young, quite low on the ladder of tempters compared to his Uncle Screwtape who is a rather successful tempter, who I read to be much older. Wormwood became really interesting to me, at the beginning I didn’t think much about him and was focusing on the life and details of the mortal man he is charged with tempting. As I progressed I realized my attention was in the wrong place. The life of the man is important, as it drives the story, but there was so much more to discover in looking at the relationship between Wormwood and his uncle. There is a shocking amount of disgust and a rotten sweetness in how Screwtape instructs and reprimands Wormwood. Is it weird that I was rooting for Wormwood? In the first 20ish letters Screwtape praises Wormwood, but this changes to Screwtape mocking Wormwood for being lazy and incompetent even warning him that his charge is heading towards the grasp of the Enemy (God). On page 259, when Screwtape has transformed into a worm in a bout of fury at Wormwood’s “progress” with his charge, he writes, “you have always hated me and been insolent when you dared.” These outbursts continue as we hear that Wormwood is losing his grip on the soul of the man, urging Screwtape to say in letter 30 that, “I sometimes wonder whether you think you have been sent into the world for your own amusement.” I was starting to consider this as well because in chapters leading up to this statement it felt as if Wormwood was going against everything that Screwtape was advising. Is this rebellion stemming from the insolence that Screwtape brings up, or could it be from Wormwood doing something to save his man’s soul?
This is unlikely, though interesting to think about because *spoiler alert* when the man is killed by a bomb, his soul is lost to Wormwood and those in hell. We learn that the souls that are claimed by hell are used as sources of amusement and are “absorbed” into the demon that tempted them, and who will eventually be absorbed into Satan himself, serving as nourishment of a sort. In the very last letter, there is a powerful description of what the man is experiencing now that he is free from the grasp of the Tempters as well as many clues to what the demise of Wormwood entails as a result of the salvation of the man.
Another piece I want to bring up is the theme of the seven deadly sins that I found throughout the letters. There are two I want to get into, but I’ll leave a list of the sins and some chapters where you can find examples.
Lust - 9, 18, 19, 20
Gluttony- 17
Greed - 25
Sloth- 4,12,13
Wrath - 3, 21
Envy- 14
Pride - 10, 23, 24
First, let’s talk about gluttony! Conventionally, gluttony is understood as excessive greed particularly around eating. Lewis takes a less common approach, exploring the gluttony of delicacy. Letter 17 opens with Screwtape scolding Wormwood for underestimating the power of using gluttony as a method of securing a soul. He then gives the man’s mother as an example of demanding things, mainly food, to be “just so” and exactly how she wants it in order to please her senses (a theme that carries through the other sins as well). He talks about how she “only” wants half of her serving, or “only” wants her tea a specific way, making her more concerned with her own pleasure than considering the tasks she is asking of others.
The second I want to mention is sloth. Sloth is such an interesting one to me because in a world and life that is so busy all the time, the ignorant part of me thinks that this could be one of the harder sins to commit. The advice that Screwtape gives Wormwood on page 299 is to get his man to waste his time on anything “to attract his wandering attention.” Some suggestions he has is to keep him focused on things and information he cares nothing about and on subjects that bore him, such as reading uninteresting columns of the newspaper instead of a book that he really enjoys or could grow from. To keep his man’s mind numb and in a state of self unawareness honestly gave me chills because I was able to think of so many examples of where I waste my time scrolling through pages that don’t enrich my life or even being idle when there are tasks that need attention.
This post is rather long so thank you for making it to the end! If you made it here and haven't read the entirety of this book I SERIOUSLY suggest doing so, there is so much to consider content wise or even in the structure of storytelling that Lewis chose to employ. Until next time,
Your affectionate friend,
Hope
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