Honors British Literature
Mrs. Baniaga
3 September 2010
Literary Analysis
The Screwtape Letters is a collection of letters from Screwtape, a high ranking demon, to his nephew Wormwood, a demon in training. Screwtape gives advice to Wormwood on how to bring glory to their father below, Satan, through the theme of spiritual warfare. Throughout the book, they were constantly tempting the patient to sin and draw further away from God. Many times, Christians do not even realize that this spiritual war is going on, and that it is the little sins that can draw Christians away from God. At first, it is a battle of who will have their souls. If a decision of salvation is made, it then becomes a battle of temptation and deceit.
Screwtape wrote, “In the long run either Our Father or the Enemy will say ‘Mine’ of each thing that exists, and specially of each man. They will find out in the end, never fear, to whom their time, their souls, and their bodies really belong—certainly not to them, whatever happens” (Lewis 115). In this quote, Screwtape makes it clear that every human’s soul will not belong to him or her but rather to either God or Satan. Both want to have the patient’s soul, and both want to have him or her do their will as opposed to their enemy’s will.
Small sins play a major role in this spiritual war. Screwtape wrote, “It does not matter how small the sins are provided that their cumulative effect is to edge the man away from the Light and out into the Nothing. Murder is no better than cards if cards can do the trick” (Lewis 60-61). The point that Screwtape makes in this quote is that even the smallest sin can be of great use to them and can bring Christians a great distance from God. These small sins put Christians on the “safe” road to Hell. In regards to the spiritual war, small sins are the least won spiritual battles because sometimes Christians do not even realize that they are committing them. It is much easier to give in to small sins than sins that are thought to be extremely corrupt.
The devil uses lies and deceit to his advantage in the spiritual war. “There is nothing like suspense and anxiety for barricading a human’s mind against the Enemy” (Lewis 25). In this quote, Screwtape is referring to the possibility that the patient may be called for military service. He wanted to use the suspense and anxiety of that possibility to distract the patient away from God and have him focus on his personal problems. Screwtape and Wormwood did whatever they could to deceive the patient and lead him toward ungodly things. Many times Christians can get distracted and unfocused on their Spiritual relationship with God because of the things that the devil places in their lives.
The Spiritual war over a patient’s soul can greatly influence his or her relationship with God whether they realize it or not. The tricks and tactics of the Devil can be hard to overcome. However, in the end of The Screwtape Letters, the patient is able to have victory over Screwtape and Wormwood’s temptations of the spiritual war over his soul.
Work Cited
Lewis, Clive S. The Screwtape Letters. New York: HarperCollins, 1996. Print.
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