Analysis Of The Screwtape Letters By C. S. Lewis

In C. S. Lewis's The Screwtape Letters, Screwtape, a demon, writes a series of replies to letters from his nephew Wormwood, also a demon, on how to tempt a human 'patient' on earth to the Devil's camp. While this is a fictional work, this novel points out many different ways the Devil may tempt humans, specifically Christians, into disobeying God's word. For me, it has helped me identify some of the ways the Devil has tempted me to sin when I had not really realized that what I was doing was a sin, specifically when he speaks about the relationship between the patient and his mother: "...build up between you in that house a good settled habit of mutual annoyance; daily pinpricks"(11). Here Screwtape wants Wormwood to make the patient easily annoyed by small things that his mother does and to hold her to a different standard than himself. I often

S. Lewis wrote The Screwtape Letters with the intention of helping people improve their lives and grow as Christians. He does this with a moral lesson or two, but also as an observation of morality and humanity. The moral lesson, I believe, is shown through the observation of morality and humanity, by making us humans look at ourselves with a critical eye and see what it is we are doing wrong and how we can improve ourselves as people and as Christians. He does this by showing how the Devil views us, how he controls and manipulates us. Through this, we come to understand ourselves better by really seeing how easily we fall into the devil's traps and also by seeing how he views us, specifically psychologically. By looking at how Satan believes we think and act, I believe it gives us insight into our own selves and helps us see how we can improve, as well as recognize and avoid the Devil's traps. For example, in letter 12 Screwtape tells Wormwood how it is the smaller, 'lesser' sins that bring most people to Hell because humans do not view it as a 'bad' sin, but as Screwtape says at the end of the