Letters from Hell: the Symbolism of Evil in the Screwtape Letters

Volume 12 Number 1 Article 11 10-15-1985 Letters From Hell: The Symbolism of Evil in The Screwtape Letters Nancy-Lou Patterson Follow this and additional works at: https://dc.swosu.edu/mythlore Part of the Children's and Young Adult Literature Commons Recommended Citation Patterson, Nancy-Lou (1985) "Letters From Hell: The Symbolism of Evil in The Screwtape Letters," Mythlore: A Journal of J.R.R. Tolkien, C.S. Lewis, Charles Williams, and Mythopoeic Literature: Vol. 12 : No. 1 , Article 11. Available at: https://dc.swosu.edu/mythlore/vol12/iss1/11 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Mythopoeic Society at SWOSU Digital Commons. It has been accepted for inclusion in Mythlore: A Journal of J.R.R. Tolkien, C.S. Lewis, Charles Williams, and Mythopoeic Literature by an authorized editor of SWOSU Digital Commons. An ADA compliant document is available upon request. For more information, please contact phillip.fitzsimmons@swosu.edu. To join the Mythopoeic Society go to: http://www.mythsoc.org/join.htm Mythcon 51: A VIRTUAL “HALFLING” MYTHCON July 31 - August 1, 2021 (Saturday and Sunday) http://www.mythsoc.org/mythcon/mythcon-51.htm Mythcon 52: The Mythic, the Fantastic, and the Alien Albuquerque, New Mexico; July 29 - August 1, 2022 http://www.mythsoc.org/mythcon/mythcon-52.htm Abstract Analyzes in detail the symbols of evil in The Screwtape Letters. Lewis presents evil as various forms of the privatio boni, or absence of good. Additional Keywords Devils in The Screwtape Letters; Evil in The Screwtape Letters; Lewis, C.S. The Screwtape Letters; Nancy- Lou Patterson; Christine Lowentrout This article is available in Mythlore: A Journal of J.R.R. Tolkien, C.S. Lewis, Charles Williams, and Mythopoeic Literature: https://dc.swosu.edu/mythlore/vol12/iss1/11 MYTHLORE 43: Autumn 1985 Page 47 Letters From Hell The Symbolism of Evil in The Screwtape Letters Nancy-Lou Patterson undergoes a series of temptations by the World, the An apology for the devil: it must be Flesh, and the Devil; he meets and falls in love with a remembered that we have heard only one side young Christian girl, begins to participate in defence of the casp; God has written all the books. work, acquits himself well in his first air-raid, and Samuel B utler, Notebooks is killed in a state of grace, in his second. The efforts of his personal tempter, one Wormwood, having Following the example of Dorothy L. Sayers, who been reported to a senior devil, Screwtape, elicit interpreted The Divine Comedy prim arily the work of an letters of advice on the diabolical aspects of the "incomparable story-teller," the author of this essay process. From these we follow a second, spiritual level will apply the same interpretation to C.S. Lewis's The of events in which the emphasis is upon the infernal Screwtape Letters. In this short epistlatory fantasy, characters but includes a hint of the divine actions as there are three compelling interwoven narratives: the w e l l . life of the young human "patient" from his Christian conversion to his death; the diabolical efforts of his On the diabolical level, Screwtape advises, tempter Wormwood and the senior devil Screwtape to scolds, threatens, praises, and finally condemns the capture him for hell; and the role, im plicit throughout efforts of his nephew Wormwood, who, after and made evident in the end, of God in saving him for unsuccessfully trying to betray his uncle and corrupt Heaven. The narrative is divided into three phases of his "patient," becomes food for Screwtape in the saved temptation, the first by the World, the second by the soul's place. The work of God meanwhile has drawn the Flesh, and the third by the Devil (that is, by young man into the Church, defended him against spiritual means). In the presentation of this most temptation, provided him with a girl to love and human of all stories, Lewis makes use of the major and Christians to befriend him, and taken him, still young classic symbols of evil from the traditions of Western and in spiritual health, to Himself. This taking, culture, including the animal motif, the fear of being contrary to infernal practice, is not into a state of devoured, and, most fundamental of a ll, the concept of absorption, but into true and complete selfhood at the defilement. In sum, he presents evil as defined by the heart of Selfhood; the diabolical meal which Screwtape doctrine of privatio boni. the absence of good, as he makes of Wormwood is an inverted parody (like the Black explores the mythic structures of the War in Heaven. He Mass) of the central Christian symbol of the describes a bureaucratic hell in which Satan and his relationship between human and divine: the Eucharist, fallen angels, unable to create so much as a single the sacred meal in which the Body and Blood of Christ pleasure, continually struggle to understand the become the food of the faithful. Screwtape never learns intentions of their Adversary, God. Inaccurate to the what God wants from His creation; the idea that God last, they occupy the ultim ately ridiculous position of wants to give Himself to his creatures — depicted in created beings rebelling against their creator. From so absolute, stunning, and concrete an image as this — this ignoble posture, they reach out ravenously to draw obviously cannot occur to the devil. But Lewis uses each human being into the same contradiction. In The exactly this image as the operative symbol of his book. Screwtape Letters, the tempters meet defeat, and the patient meets his maker face-to-face: 'Lewis is It is instructive to summarize the story with a telling the one tale his listeners most want to hear as sentence for each of the thirty-one chapters. There is t h e i r own. a young man who has a m aterialist friend. Even so, he becomes a C hristian. He has problems with his mother, a On a human level, The Screwtape Letters tells a difficult old lady who resents his conversion. He very simple but poignant story. At the onset of World begins a prayer life in which he becomes aware of God's War II, a young British convert to Christianity presence. War begins. He feels fear, loss, and Page 48 M YTH LO RE 43: A utum n 1985 self-pity. In particular, he fears the prospect of the Church in combating it, but now, no longer needing m ilitary service. He does not know he has a tem pter who fam ilies, has ceased to care; and that people fall into w ill manipulate his fear towards a false pacifism . He it by "sheer exhuberance of animal sp irits" but equally undergoes a period of dryness, a natural result of easily by "sheer boredom and discontent." [1] Lust, "undulation" or rhythm in a convert's life . His tem pter along with ira (W rath) and gula (Gluttony) Sayers calls tries to make use of th is. The young man is tempted by the "warm-hearted, or disreputable sins." (Ibid., p. the World in the form of a couple who are fashionably 159.) The others she acerbically calls "the liberal. They enjoy laughter but not of the healing cold-hearted or respectable sins." These are avaritia kind. Although his soul is in danger, he still (Covetousness); invidia (Envy); acedia (Sloth) of which continues to attend church and make his communions. As she says "In the world it calls itself tolerance; but a result, he repents, and undergoes a "second in hell it is called despair," (Ibid., p. 176.) and conversion." He gains a new hum ility and aid from God superbia (Pride) which is "the sin of trying to be in keeping his mind off him self. God." (Ibid., 177.) This last is, of course, the sin of S a t a n . There is a lull in the war, and he feels a "natural" sense of ease. Happily, ever since his To Lewis, one need not look past one's own conversion, he has attended the same church. A new experience to have a knowledge of sin: attem pt is made on his soul through appetite, a speial form of "delicacy" which he shares with his mother — In all but a few writers the "good" this is a temptation of the Flesh. His fiesh is also characters are the least successful, and tempted toward unchastity; this takes a strong form, every one who has ever tried to make even the playing upon his private obsessions. Through Grace, he humblest story ought to know why. To make a falls in love with a virginal Christian girl of a character worse than oneself it is only family advanced on holiness. He meets many new, necessary to release imaginatively from intelligent Christian friends. The g irl's only flaw is control some of the bad passions which, in that she naively sees non-Christians as a little real life, are always straining at the leash ridiculous. But, he is living a new kind of Christian . [2 ] life among truly charitable people. They are "mere C hristians" for whom the faith is an end in itse lf, not Indeed, the voice of Screwtape (by intention a a means to an end. The courtship continues; the very character worse than "oneself") is the voice of the enchantment of lic it sexual desire increases their young Lewis as revealed in his own early letters: charity toward one another. He begins to pray about a supercilious, mocking, cruelly calculating, b elittlin g , problem of distraction in prayer; he begins to make a and anxious for position, and certainly he drew upon habit of obedience.

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