Not only does Lewis uses irony through Screwtape’s hate for joy and happiness but through his admirations of the patient’s cowardice. In a letter to his nephew, Screwtape writes, “Cowardice, alone of all the vices, is purely painful – horrible to anticipate, horrible to feel, horrible to remember . . . you should therefore first defeat his courage” (Lewis 160). Lewis also uses sarcasm in The Screwtape Letters to show the differences between how Satan and God are toward humans. Screwtape repeatedly mocks Christian truths. He Gettel 5 sarcastically ridicules our ideas of Satan and devils and he mocks the “advantages” God has over Satan. Screwtape sarcastically taunts humanity’s ideas of demons and Satan. Lewis expresses an important truth through Screwtape’s sarcasm. Lewis uses Screwtape to help readers understand the realism of Hell and the activity of Satan and demons in our world. Screwtape writes, “It is funny how mortals always picture us as putting things into their minds: in reality our best work is done by keeping things out” (Lewis 16). Screwtape sarcastically shows us society’s honest views of demons and Satan, Lewis suggests that because humans don’t realize how …show more content…
Lewis intentionally declares to his readers through Screwtape’s sarcasm that God does have has the advantage over Satan. In a letter to Wormwood, Screwtape writes “Remember, he is not, like you, a pure spirit. Never having been a human (Oh that abominable advantage of the Enemy!) you don’t realize how enslaved they are to the pressure of the ordinary” (Lewis 2). What “advantage” Screwtape is referring to is Jesus, because of Jesus God is both fully God and fully human. So, unlike Satan’s demons, God can empathize with humans. Screwtape tells his nephew, “We fight under cruel disadvantages” (Lewis 118). Lewis’s brilliant use of sarcasm shows the reader that God does have the advantage over