The Screwtape Letters – Book review
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The Screwtape Letters deals with the letters from a demon Screwtape to a lesser demon wormwood. We see their conversations as Screwtape attempts to help Wormwood, who is being able to tempt someone for the first time. We follow the life of a man through the eyes of Wormwood and Screwtape as they discuss how to ultimately get him in Hell.
The book is written by C.S. Lewis, who usually puts a religious undertone in most of his writings, such as Narnia, but in this book, it is very clearly about the temptations of the Devil and how one can overcome them. This book deals heavily with WWII, as C.S. Lewis was living during the time of WWII, so he takes a lot of writing inspiration from his experiences during the wartime and its influence over the world.
    There are three main characters throughout the Screwtape Letters, and only 2 of them are named. Screwtape who is the main demon throughout the story, we see him have a short temper with Wormwood, his apprentice, but it is very clear he wants to see Wormwood succeed, even though he constantly puts him down whenever he slips up. Next, there is Wormwood, who is the apprentice to Screwtape. Wormwood is a fresh graduate from the Academy, a school for demons, and has Screwtape to help guide him through his first “Patient”. Finally, there is the “patient” who is only named as the patient, and never given a name. This is the person who Wormwood needs to get to Hell, his job is to subtly cause the patient to turn from God and towards evil, but without being too obvious.
The story takes place in Britain, this is not too important up until about halfway through the book and the war starts, the majority of the story from that point on will deal with the moral implications a war has on a person, whether or not they are in it, and how the draft can cause people to become very repentant in case they are drafted and killed at war. This is important to the case of Wormwood because it is his job to make him not repent during this time.
The story is written in a linear chronological style but through letters, not chapters. Every letter or what would be a chapter is in response to an unseen letter by Wormwood to Screwtape, what we the reader is allowed to see is the response Screwtape writes to Wormwood. All these things unfolding with the patient is seen through Screwtape who gets all of his information about the patient through Wormwood and not himself, which could allow for misrepresentation of characters due to an error in flow of information from Wormwood to Screwtape. We can also see the harshness that which Screwtape writes in his responses to Wormwood, we get to see everything through the eyes of the experienced demon who knows all the tactics to pull someone into Hell.
The language used throughout the book is very easy to read, this is due to C.S. Lewis wanting this to be read by all people because he wanted everyone to know what tricks demons pull to bring you away from God. This was written near the end of WWII, so it was directed to all the people who were still going into the war because his goal was to get people closer to God.
The book is a good read if you are even a little bit religious, if you are, I would recommend you read this as it gives you the perspective of how the devil manipulates people in ways they would not even notice, shedding a new light on all your everyday interactions. Now obviously this is stretched to a more extreme end of the spectrum and should not be taken literally, but it is something to think about. When you read the book, you think about all the little things in life that you know you should not do, but do anyway, and how they all build up to turn you from God if you are religious. If not it is still a good read on the morals of a modern man.
If I were to rate this book, I’d give it a solid 5 due to no other book out there giving you the perspective of a demon, and one word to summarize the whole book would probably be manipulation.