The Screwtape Letters
by C. S. Lewis
Author Biography
Clive Staples Lewis was born November 29, 1898, in Belfast, Ireland, the younger by three years of two boys. His father was a solicitor and his mother, while then not working, had won an honors degree in mathematics at the Queen's University in Belfast in the 1890's. Lewis, called Jacks, was educated at home until he was 9, and then was sent to an English boarding school as his older brother had been.
In 1908 first his grandfather and then his mother died, and that same year he was sent off to the same boarding school his brother Warnie (Warren) attended. This school collapsed after the parents of a student brought action against the headmaster for his constant beatings and canings. Lewis then transferred briefly to Campbell College in Belfast, and then to Cherbourg, a small prep school in the shadow of Oxford. Here he was one of seventeen students.
In 1917 he took the examinations for Oxford and entered as a member of University College. At this point he had also enlisted in the British Army and was, although still a student, technically a trainee officer. (As an Irishman, he was not obliged to enlist.)
In the summer of 1929 Lewis became an adult convert to Christianity, and barely a month later his father died, and his brother Warnie came to live in the Moore/Lewis household.
In the first year of World War II, C. S. Lewis mentioned to a former student, now in the British Army, that he had "this idea, of letters from a senior devil to a junior devil." Once he started, he appears to have written The Screwtape Letters very quickly. He offered them to an Anglican High Church weekly periodical, now defunct, called The Guardian. They published the letters in weekly installments from May to November 1941. He was paid £2 per article, and the money was paid directly into a fund for 'Clergy Widows'.
The letters were published in book form in February 1942, and the book has been in print ever since, selling over a million copies.
In 1952, after corresponding with her for two years, Lewis met Joy Gresham when she traveled to England. His friends found her "foul-mouthed, bad-tempered and self-assertive", but Lewis was charmed and fell completely in love with her. They married within a year, and very shortly thereafter Joy was diagnosed with terminal cancer. In July of 1960 she was dead. Lewis did not long out live her, dying in 1963 on the same day that John F. Kennedy was murdered.
Discussion questions
1. One of Lewis' biographers described Screwtape as a cruel book. Who is the cruelty aimed at? Why is this malicious element essential to the book?
2. When Lewis was thinking about sin and the Devil in the 40's, he had had several experiences that seemed direct evidence of the results of sin (the syphilitic madness of Mrs. Moore's brother). Have we lost that sense of the direct relationship between bad deeds and punishment?
3. Do you the think the writer has any secret sympathy with the unpleasant characters he describes?
4. Did you think the book was evangelical or an attempt to proselytize? Or is Lewis preaching to the converted?
5. Did you think the book was remote or cold or distancing? What faults did you find with the book? Is the writing style dated? Note that his setting is 30 years earlier (World War One).
6. Did you think Lewis got his message across? What did you think his message (s) were? Do you think his storytelling format helps or hinders his message?
7. If you do (or don't) believe in the Devil, how did Lewis' version affect you?
8. If you are not a Christian, what value (if any) did you find in the book? Is it an instructive moral guide? Does it stand alone on its analysis of human character, or on its wit? Have you ever found books or paintings or any other art form to be too religious?
9. What did you think of the descriptions of various types of women in Chapter XX? Does this show the innocent sexism of the age, or does this reveal something of Lewis himself?
Chapter Outline
Preface: Introducing the conceit that the letters were "found" and are "true", although Lewis takes care to point out that the devil is a liar.
1.With no introduction or exposition, we meet Screwtape and discover that he has been around for centuries, and perhaps indeed, his sense of time is very different from ours. This chapter makes clear the relationship of the two devils and the sense that Screwtape is retired, but perhaps is spying on or is responsible for his nephew's work. We also hear of the Enemy (God), and how the devil can accomplish much by simple distraction.
2.The introduction of Christianity as a powerful weapon of the Enemy, and how it may be turned to the devil's use. This chapter also introduces Screwtape's view of God's plan to create free "sons".
3.The relationship of the man and his mother, and the irritation and distance that can arise with long intimacy with someone.
4.A discourse on prayer and the methods to distort or misuse this powerful tool of communication with the Enemy.
5.The introduction of the War and the sudden awareness of death, plus the idea that demons "drink" the suffering and anguish of the human soul.
6.How to redirect good impulses inward and feelings of hatred and malice outward.
7.How it affects humans to be in ignorance of the devil, and whether the man should be encouraged to be an extreme Patriot or Pacifist.
8.The Law of Undulation (troughs and peaks in a human life), and the appalling truth of the Enemy's love for the "loathsome little replicas of Himself".
9.Exploiting the troughs and peaks with sensual temptations, with the confession that all Pleasures are the work of the Enemy. Convincing the man that the peak of religious conversion was just a "phase".
10.The importance of the man's social circle as influences and misleaders. The devilish connotation of the word Puritan.
11.The causes of human laughter divided into Joy, Fun, the Joke Proper, and Flippancy, of which Flippancy is most beloved of Screwtape. How vices may be passed off as funny. The comparison of Joy to Music, "that detestable art".
12.The repentance and renewed Grace of the man, and how he may be retrieved from the Enemy.
13.How the smallest sin can have a great impact on human character. "Murder is no better than cards if cards can do the trick."
14.A discussion of the meaning of humility, and the reemphasis of the Enemy's love for humankind.
15.How humans can live in the Past, Present, and the Future, and "Anyway, why should the creature be happy"?
16.Church shopping and the useful divisions between "high" and "low" churches. "A positive hotbed of charity and humility".
17.How one can be a glutton of delicacy, and the spurious relationship of physical exercise and chastity.
18.Sexual temptation and the transcendental relationship of a man and woman who are sexually connected. The nature of marriage and the family as desired by God and as desired by the devil.
19.After an apparent attempt to blackmail Screwtape, he retracts his earlier statements about the Enemy really loving humans, and the real motive being unknown. A brief discussion of the devil's original division from God.
20.A discussion of current ideals of feminine beauty and how they induce both men and women to desire something that doesn't really exist, which leads Screwtape to the idea of the "terrestrial and infernal Venus" that preoccupy most men.
21.The belief of humans that they own their time, and own their bodies.
22.The man falls in love, and Screwtape becomes so enraged that he inadvertently transforms into a large centipede. (reference to G. B. Shaw)
23.How to corrupt spirituality, including a discussion of the the concept of the "historical Jesus".
24.A discussion of Spiritual Pride, and a dismissal of the details of the European War, in which Screwtape is not the least bit interested.
25.A mention of mere Christianity, and an in depth exploration of the Enemy's desire that humans experience a blend of novelty and familiarity in their lives. How devils work with the tastes of the age to defeat and enslave humans.
26.The difference between Unselfishness and Charity.
27.How the Enemy answers the prayers of humans. (reference to Henry Ford as "the most ignorant mechanic")
28.How humans become more attached to the World with time.
29.A discussion of the emotions of Shame, Hate, and Fear, which occur so often in humans in wartime.
30.The increasing impatience of Screwtape at the incompetence of his nephew Wormwood. The notion of the "real world" and how that idea may be twisted every which way to influence the man to spiritual harm.
31.The death and redemption of the human and the fierce, hungry desire of Screwtape for Wormwood.
Screwtape Proposes a Toast (this was added nearly twenty years after the original letters were written, in 1962)
Screwtape describes the current trend toward more but less significant sinners. In this discussion he describes England at the turn of the century, in which old-fashioned exploitation of the lower classes was going out of fashion. However, the devil contrived both the Nazi and the Communist state.
He goes on to describe how the simple word, democracy, can be used to sanction the efforts of any who feel inferior to pull others down to their own level. Further, that in trying to insist that all humans are equal, they are thus prevented from being in any way individuals.
Finally, Screwtape offers them a toast to the College and its principal Slubgob, as they raise their glasses of vintage Pharisee.
The House of Mirth
by Edith Wharton
For more information on Edith Wharton and her novels, see The Life of Edith Wharton. For more information on women writers, see A Celebration of Women Writers.
Discussion Questions
1.Do you think that any character in particular is a counterpart of Lily Bart? Does this person represent what she might have been, or is the character a negative version of her?
2.How do you think the themes of business, contracts and investments are expressed in the character's dialogue and actions? Does love always come with a price tag?
3.How does Lily change and grow in the course of the novel? How is this growth expressed in her attitude to others? How does her relationship with Rosedale change?
4.Is Lawrence Selden a noble or heroic figure in your eyes? Do you feel he is also responsible for Lily's tragic end?
5.What did you think of the characterization of Mr. Rosedale?
6.How could Lily's death have been avoided? Do you think her death is a symbol for any larger event? (One critic suggests that it symbolizes the death of "the lady" and the birth of the working woman.)
7.What are Lily's strengths and weaknesses? How does society (and individual persons) reinforce them?
8.What are some the roles of men in the novel? As most of them are constantly manipulated by the women in their lives, are they ever the object of sympathy by the reader? Is Gus Trenor too loathsome to be pitied? Is Percy Gryce too boring and ridiculous to be pitied as Lily sets her trap for him?
9.What views of class separation in America does the author express in this novel? Wharton herself believed in a benevolent aristocracy protecting and providing opportunity for an underclass. She did not believe in a true democracy at any cost, witness the destruction of the French Revolution and the English Reformation.
10.Is there a feminist theme in the novel? Does Lily discover anything in common with women outside of her own class? Does she come to envy them? What about women within her class?
