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The Screwtape Letters

847 statements
167 feature instances
79 referencing feature instances

The Screwtape Letters	type	TVTItem
The Screwtape Letters	label	The Screwtape Letters
The Screwtape Letters	page	TheScrewtapeLetters
The Screwtape Letters	comment	An Epistolary Novel by C. S. Lewis in which a more experienced devil named Screwtape writes a series of letters to a younger devil named Wormwood on how to successfully tempt a man, referred to only as "The Patient". Intending the book as a fairly humorous work, Lewis's goals included both reflections on the nature of evil and an effort to create a different portrayal of the Devil than the sort normally seen in pop culture. Screwtape has practically No Sense of Humor himself, and comes across as a sort of cranky cosmic killjoy. At one point, this devil even goes so far as to complain that the music in Heaven is getting on his nerves — even though he can't hear it, the very thought that they're making music at all hours bothers him (he'd prefer some nice ugly noise instead). Heaven is a nonstop hootenanny "where all that is not silence is music". Screwy's not the sort of devil who would be very much fun at a party, which is pretty much the point of the book.In the introduction, Professor Lewis comments that while looking through the modern world to find an appropriate symbol of evil, he felt that Hell should have a bureaucracy, one combining the worst elements of a police state and a crooked, greedy, money-hemorrhaging business, to make it better resemble some of the most damaging institutions of his time. Screwtape is a member of Hell's vast middle management, at one time listing a long, pretentious title at the end of one of his letters.C.S. Lewis also wrote a sequel short story, "Screwtape Proposes a Toast" (which is included in many reprints of The Screwtape Letters), presented as a post-banquet speech Screwtape offers to a graduating class of the Tempter's College.Adaptations of the work include a 2009 audio drama on Family Radio Theatre starring Andy Serkis (Gollum in The Lord of the Rings trilogy) as the voice for Screwtape, a comic book adaptation by Marvel Comics in 1994, and a stage adaptation by Max McLean. 20th Century Fox has held the film rights to the novel since 1950, but despite previous plans to partner with Walden Media to make a live action film adaptation with a 2008 release date, the project is currently in Development Hell. (It's perhaps worth noting that Lewis himself considered the book inherently unstageable and unfilmable, invoked and once advised a playwright who wanted to adapt the book with a framing device to go ahead and make the framing device into its own play, leaving Screwtape out of it.)
The Screwtape Letters	fetched	2024-03-04T05:15:41Z
The Screwtape Letters	parsed	2024-03-04T05:15:41Z
The Screwtape Letters	processingComment	Dropped link to God: Not a Feature - ITEM
The Screwtape Letters	processingComment	Dropped link to PickyEater: Not a Feature - ITEM
The Screwtape Letters	processingComment	Dropped link to Shadowlands: Not a Feature - ITEM
The Screwtape Letters	processingComment	Dropped link to TheGreatDivorce: Not a Feature - ITEM
The Screwtape Letters	isPartOf	DBTropes
The Screwtape Letters / int_113472aa	type	Miles Gloriosus
The Screwtape Letters / int_113472aa	comment	Miles Gloriosus: Averted. Even Screwtape has a low opinion of the uses of this particular vice.
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The Screwtape Letters / int_1235f055	type	Dirty Coward
The Screwtape Letters / int_1235f055	comment	Dirty Coward: Discussed. Screwtape mentions that cowardice is the only sin Hell has never succeeded at turning into a source of pride for humans.
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The Screwtape Letters / int_137f2d7	type	Card-Carrying Villain
The Screwtape Letters / int_137f2d7	comment	Card-Carrying Villain: The devils' whole job is to corrupt humans into sinning, mostly out of spite for God.
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The Screwtape Letters / int_14e41a53	type	A Wolf in Sheep's Clothing
The Screwtape Letters / int_14e41a53	comment	A Wolf in Sheep's Clothing: The devils are trained to disguise themselves as angels of light, both as "a parade-ground exercise" and to more effectively tempt their patients to be Holier Than Thou.
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The Screwtape Letters / int_1869b4b1	type	Unreliable Narrator
The Screwtape Letters / int_1869b4b1	comment	Unreliable Narrator: Screwtape himself, as Lewis himself cautions in the preface ("Readers are advised to remember that the Devil is a liar... There is wishful thinking in Hell as well as on Earth.") But what else would you expect from someone whose boss is the Father of Lies? Besides, since Hell is a Police State, there are things devils don't say aloud, if they don't want to be sent to correction facilities or eaten. Screwtape might also double as Unreliable Expositor for Wormwood. How much of his advice is genuinely helpful, and how much is intentionally setting him up to fail?
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The Screwtape Letters / int_1bd8ae6f	type	Micro Dieting
The Screwtape Letters / int_1bd8ae6f	comment	Micro Dieting: The book presents the argument that eating tiny portions can paradoxically be a manifestation of overwhelming gluttony. As Screwtape explains, gluttony isn't just overeating but includes any time someone is controlled by their appetite (or lack thereof) until they don't care how much they bother others. His prime example of this is The Patient's Mother. We're not told exactly how small her preferred portions are, just that no matter how much she's served, she'll protest that it's too much and demand that half or even two-thirds of it be taken away. She's a pain to servants and waitstaff wherever she goes, and her own son hates eating with her because she makes such a scene, though he's too polite to ever say so.
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The Screwtape Letters / int_1cbde068	type	Oblivious to His Own Description
The Screwtape Letters / int_1cbde068	comment	Oblivious to His Own Description: A successfully-tempted sinner, as Screwtape would have it, loves no one, trusts no one, has no real joy, and nonetheless is trying with all his might to convince himself that he's happy. Both Screwtape and his 'patients' seem trapped in the same prison.
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The Screwtape Letters / int_1d2400e9	type	Green-Eyed Monster
The Screwtape Letters / int_1d2400e9	comment	Green-Eyed Monster: When describing how the patient went to Heaven, Screwtape expresses fury that a 'mere' human being can stand in the presence of "The Enemy" while neither Screwtape, Wormwood, nor any other demon can bear to stand in His presence without whimpering in fear.
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The Screwtape Letters / int_1e7159cf	type	Propaganda Machine
The Screwtape Letters / int_1e7159cf	comment	Propaganda Machine: Crossed with Evil Cannot Comprehend Good. It's clear that the people in Hell, particularly Lucifer's Secret Police, are under the belief that God is lying about loving all creation and the lie is just some sort of psychological warfare tactic. Also, Lucifer didn't get thrown out of Heaven; he left of his own accord out of protest. He just left so fast that it LOOKED like he was being thrown out, that's all.
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The Screwtape Letters / int_1e7c47ab	type	Stealth Pun
The Screwtape Letters / int_1e7c47ab	comment	Stealth Pun: Since the more powerful positions on the Lowerarchy are further down, the demons are literally in a race to the bottom.
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The Screwtape Letters / int_1f250372	type	I Need a Freaking Drink
The Screwtape Letters / int_1f250372	comment	I Need a Freaking Drink: Encouraged by Screwtape, on the ground that it's easier to make someone descend into alcoholism if they drink when they are "dull and weary", rather than "happy and expansive".
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The Screwtape Letters / int_1fc8335e	type	Deal with the Devil
The Screwtape Letters / int_1fc8335e	comment	Deal with the Devil: Defied. The Low Command have actually put a stop to Faustian bargains, as the whole thing was starting to undermine their atheism campaign. The devils appear to make similar sorts of bargains with each other, however.
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The Screwtape Letters / int_2023f63c	type	Boring Religious Service
The Screwtape Letters / int_2023f63c	comment	Boring Religious Service: According to his letters, a particularly dull sermon is what inspired the novel. Screwtape himself suggests that making the Patient focus on minor annoyances is one way to distract him and keep him from getting anything of value from the Church.
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The Screwtape Letters / int_21d70919	type	Crapsack World
The Screwtape Letters / int_21d70919	comment	Crapsack World: What else could Hell be? Earth leans toward this too thanks to the work of the demons, especially since the Earthly setting is England during World War II. Screwtape does worry at one point that all this misery is a strategy of 'the Enemy'. By allowing Hell's agents to turn Earth into a Crapsack World, 'the Enemy' is tricking them into creating the conditions for virtues of charity, compassion, and courage to emerge from the mortals who endure it. But it's against Hell's nature to refrain from making the mortals miserable...
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The Screwtape Letters / int_21f7ff0f	type	Knight in Sour Armor
The Screwtape Letters / int_21f7ff0f	comment	Knight in Sour Armor: Screwtape explains to Wormwood that humans, as temporal creatures, naturally live in flux, with periods of both richness and disillusionment. He then warns Wormwood of how God wants people to endure in piety through both. This is also a reference to Jesus' words and actions on the cross.
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The Screwtape Letters / int_22071825	type	I'm a Humanitarian
The Screwtape Letters / int_22071825	comment	I'm a Humanitarian: Damned souls and failed Tempters are devoured by the devils. It's strongly implied that Screwtape eats Wormwood at the end, as punishment for his failure.
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The Screwtape Letters / int_23473ae7	type	Adaptation Expansion
The Screwtape Letters / int_23473ae7	comment	Adaptation Expansion: Toadpipe plays a far larger role in the abovementioned Max Mclean stage adaptation, portrayed here as Screwtape's scale/rag bodysuit clad pseudo-gymnast/dancer of a Sexy Secretary. In the radio adaption by Focus on the Family, Screwtape is considerably more charismatic than his book counterpart, as he actually has a sense of humor and all of his Insane Troll Logic rationalizations for God's behavior are downplayed.
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The Screwtape Letters / int_23a0f25f	type	Easy Road to Hell
The Screwtape Letters / int_23a0f25f	comment	Easy Road to Hell: Screwtape actually promotes this Boring, but Practical method of turning human beings away from The Enemy. (However, "Screwtape Proposes a Toast" shows that the successful results don't do much for him, gastronomically speaking.)
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The Screwtape Letters / int_2a090d00	type	Lampshade Hanging
The Screwtape Letters / int_2a090d00	comment	Lewis lampshades this in the introduction, saying he designed the names specifically to sound horrible.
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The Screwtape Letters / int_2b2c66c3	type	Evil Has a Bad Sense of Humor
The Screwtape Letters / int_2b2c66c3	comment	Evil Has a Bad Sense of Humor: Devils in general just don't get humor. To them it's just another way to suppress virtue and promote vice, and a sword that can be used by good as well. Screwtape himself is presented as someone with No Sense of Humor who barely even gets the concept of it.
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The Screwtape Letters / int_38317f87	type	Evil Is One Big, Happy Family
The Screwtape Letters / int_38317f87	comment	Evil Is One Big, Happy Family: Averted. Hell runs on fear and hatred, after all. Screwtape's last letter is full of Evil Gloating about how he and Wormwood truly loved each other — the way a hungry man loves food. In his introduction, Lewis discusses how Hell manages to hold together at about the level of office politics — most of the time.
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The Screwtape Letters / int_39b8d3d6	type	Boring, but Practical
The Screwtape Letters / int_39b8d3d6	comment	Boring, but Practical: In "Screwtape Proposes a Toast," Screwtape comments that while tempting souls away with the belief that life is just fine without God may not produce the kinds of tasty cuisine he used to get with truly evil people, it does mean nobody in Hell has to ever worry about starving.
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The Screwtape Letters / int_3cb1d38d	type	Bad Boss
The Screwtape Letters / int_3cb1d38d	comment	Bad Boss: Everyone in any position of authority in Hell. Screwtape in particular takes credit for all of Wormwood's successes, blames him for his failures, and indulges in Evil Gloating at the end.
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The Screwtape Letters / int_3cc67dff	type	The Apocalypse Brings Out the Best in People
The Screwtape Letters / int_3cc67dff	comment	The Apocalypse Brings Out the Best in People: One of the "dangers" of using War Is Hell to spread vice, according to Screwtape.
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The Screwtape Letters / int_3d455888	type	Then Let Me Be Evil
The Screwtape Letters / int_3d455888	comment	Then Let Me Be Evil: Discussed in Screwtape Proposes a Toast as a "delightful by-product" of devilish activities.
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The Screwtape Letters / int_3f45aa4b	type	Epistolary Novel
The Screwtape Letters / int_3f45aa4b	comment	Epistolary Novel: The book is a series of letters from Screwtape to his nephew and protÃ©gÃ© Wormwood.
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The Screwtape Letters / int_40cc0c7e	type	Bittersweet Ending
The Screwtape Letters / int_40cc0c7e	comment	Bittersweet Ending/Downer Ending: Kind of. The Patient is killed in a bomb blast, leaving behind his mother and fiancÃ©e, but he does go to heaven. If you have come to sympathize with stupid little Wormwood, though, this ending is not at all a happy one for him.
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The Screwtape Letters / int_44606d14	type	Becoming the Mask
The Screwtape Letters / int_44606d14	comment	Becoming the Mask: Screwtape tells Wormwood that "all mortals tend to turn into the thing they are pretending to be."
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The Screwtape Letters / int_44a77de8	type	Even the Loving Hero Has Hated Ones
The Screwtape Letters / int_44a77de8	comment	Even the Loving Hero Has Hated Ones: Discussed. Screwtape notes that if the Patient loves everyone and only hates the universally hated Nazi leaders, it won't be much of a threat to his salvation, especially since he isn't likely to meet Hitler in person and just projects the hatred onto an abstract concept from the newspapers.
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The Screwtape Letters / int_44e6fde4	type	The Sleepless
The Screwtape Letters / int_44e6fde4	comment	The Sleepless: Screwtape implies in Toast that all demons are this.
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The Screwtape Letters / int_45de345c	type	The Peter Principle
The Screwtape Letters / int_45de345c	comment	The Peter Principle: Assuming Screwtape's assessments of his fellow demons' work are truthful, he, a skilled tempter, has been promoted to middle management, where he makes only minimal contributions to the infernal cause while Wormwood and his equally incompetent colleagues are left with the real work.
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The Screwtape Letters / int_469e3e2f	type	In-Universe
The Screwtape Letters / int_469e3e2f	comment	Averted In-Universe, of course, where "The Enemy" is a very real and much hated threat to the devils' plans for humanity. Whether Hell thinks it's better for humans to believe this is apparently a matter of debate: Screwtape would prefer that humans don't believe in God or the Devil, though at one point he briefly describes an oddly specific scenario of their own existence being enshrined among humans, "vaguely" and in an "emotionalized and mythologized" way, shutting out further rigor. He considers it a delightful third avenue to resolve Hell's "cruel dilemma" between fear and Faustian Bargains or denying all concerned... if they can ever get it to happen.
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The Screwtape Letters / int_474e3977	type	You Have Failed Me
The Screwtape Letters / int_474e3977	comment	You Have Failed Me: "Either bring back food, or be food yourself." Rather than a one-time happening, this is standard procedure in Hell. The very last chapter is one long declaration of this.
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The Screwtape Letters / int_47b6a1e5	type	"Just Joking" Justification
The Screwtape Letters / int_47b6a1e5	comment	"Just Joking" Justification: Screwtape mentions that a good way to tempt a person to be a jerkass is the realization that people often think cruel behavior is funny if you present it cleverly enough. At another point, Screwtape does it himself, saying that when he spoke against Slubgob in one of his previous letters, it was meant purely as a joke.
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The Screwtape Letters / int_47fea76b	type	Butt-Monkey
The Screwtape Letters / int_47fea76b	comment	Butt-Monkey: Downplayed with Wormwood. On the one hand, he gets zero respect from Screwtape, bumbles just about everything he attempts, can't even make a good Starscream, and fails in the end to make use of his senior's advice. On the other hand, he's not entirely incompetent and comes very close to successfully luring away the Patient more than once. His preoccupation with World War II didn't help.
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The Screwtape Letters / int_49d18492	type	Scenery Gorn
The Screwtape Letters / int_49d18492	comment	Scenery Gorn: One of the desperate tactics recommended to Wormwood towards the end â€” use the horrible image of "human remains plastered on a wall" to make the Patient believe that "this is the real world, and religion is just a fantasy".
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The Screwtape Letters / int_49d59be9	type	Scenery Porn
The Screwtape Letters / int_49d59be9	comment	Scenery Porn: On the other hand, this can make humans happy (and closer to the Enemy), and therefore any attempts to contemplate the beauty of nature should be discouraged.
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The Screwtape Letters / int_4c49b8f7	type	Hot as Hell
The Screwtape Letters / int_4c49b8f7	comment	Hot as Hell: Inverted. Screwtape describes sexual temptation as a subject "of considerable tedium" and wastes no paper discussing it, as both he and Wormwood already know all there is to know about the methods in question.
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The Screwtape Letters / int_4ce53a3c	type	Aversion
The Screwtape Letters / int_4ce53a3c	comment	Screwtape advises Wormwood on how to tempt the patient to the sin of gluttony. In a bit of an aversion, Screwtape says that not all gluttony is overeating; what counts is getting the person enslaved to their appetites (even if they only want toast and tea) in such a way that they don't care if they inconvenience others. Or just as good, they might become prideful over their refined tastes. He even gives an example: the Patient's mother, who is so self-satisfied over her refusal to eat too much that she's become impossibly picky about portion sizes, to the point that the Patient hates her for it (though he'll never admit it to himself).
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The Screwtape Letters / int_4eaa9b84	type	Author Tract
The Screwtape Letters / int_4eaa9b84	comment	Author Tract: But a damn fun read nonetheless, and even then, Mr. Lewis is just really good at winning you over to his side in general.
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The Screwtape Letters / int_5028baf2	type	What Is This Thing You Call "Love"?
The Screwtape Letters / int_5028baf2	comment	What Is This Thing You Call "Love"?: It's been said to the devils that, were they to truly understand the concept of love, the war between Heaven and Hell would be over. Too bad for the devils that they end up Dramatically Missing the Point, and try to figure out how love can be used as a weapon over "The Enemy". According to Screwtape, they've been on the cusp of a breakthrough for a while, but it always just escapes them. The actual reason they don't get it is because they can't imagine somebody doing something nice for the sheer sake of it. That includes God's infinite love for humans, as Screwtape instead concludes that God created man in his own image and likeness out of an ego trip.
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The Screwtape Letters / int_50ed1af4	type	Our Demons Are Different
The Screwtape Letters / int_50ed1af4	comment	Our Demons Are Different: The whole book is a deliberate attempt to create a new set of symbolism for demons. We don't actually know what they look like, though it's implied they can take any shape they want, anyway. The emphasis is more on their organization. This is even lampshaded once when Screwtape encourages Wormwood to make the Patient think of the stereotypical red devil with horns and a tail to keep the Patient from taking him seriously. It's also implied they must take different forms from time to time, and that emotion instigates the process, resulting in a Funny Moment when Screwtape has to dictate the end of one letter, his anger having transformed him into a giant centipede. There's another way to read that transformation. Note how Screwtape, after admitting he has been transformed, says God (ie The Enemy) is most certainly NOT responsible for doing this to him — this could be a Suspiciously Specific Denial.
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The Screwtape Letters / int_537dd8fe	type	Affably Evil
The Screwtape Letters / int_537dd8fe	comment	Affably Evil: Averted. Significant in that most authors would have gone this route, but Lewis is careful to make sure that Screwtape just seems like a pill.
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The Screwtape Letters / int_5798bfbf	type	Reassigned to Antarctica
The Screwtape Letters / int_5798bfbf	comment	Hell actually has a division of their research department trying to do this. They haven't made any progress in millennia. According to Screwtape, they've been right on the verge of something big for millennia now. The trouble is that the devils can't understand the concept of freely-given, no-strings-attached love and affection that comes from Heaven, so they'll be forever stuck. It's the diabolic equivalent of Reassigned to Antarctica.
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The Screwtape Letters / int_59fe174d	type	Devil, but No God
The Screwtape Letters / int_59fe174d	comment	Devil, but No God: Meta version: C. S. Lewis admitted that there should have been a counterpart volume with the Patient's guardian angel receiving counter-advice from an archangel, but — even skipping over how angelically good a writer would have to be to get the advice right — he didn't think he was talented enough to write it nor his audiences capable enough of believing it. That being said, The Great Divorce, written about three years later, went a long way towards filling that void. Averted In-Universe, of course, where "The Enemy" is a very real and much hated threat to the devils' plans for humanity. Whether Hell thinks it's better for humans to believe this is apparently a matter of debate: Screwtape would prefer that humans don't believe in God or the Devil, though at one point he briefly describes an oddly specific scenario of their own existence being enshrined among humans, "vaguely" and in an "emotionalized and mythologized" way, shutting out further rigor. He considers it a delightful third avenue to resolve Hell's "cruel dilemma" between fear and Faustian Bargains or denying all concerned... if they can ever get it to happen.
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The Screwtape Letters / int_5a40d6a	type	Adaptation Distillation
The Screwtape Letters / int_5a40d6a	comment	Adaptation Distillation: The stage adaptation by Max Mclean, understandably, had to leave out the part where Screwtape accidentally transforms himself into a large centipede, and his secretary Toadpipe is forced to finish the letter. On the other hand...
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The Screwtape Letters / int_5de6f598	type	Our Better Is Different
The Screwtape Letters / int_5de6f598	comment	Our Better Is Different: All demons strive for a lower social position, in hopes of ingratiating themselves with their Father Below. The most obvious pun in the book is hierarchy/Lowerarchy, but there's a more complex bit of wordplay in the sequel essay, "Screwtape Proposes A Toast": "Your Imminence, Your Disgraces, My Thorns, Shadies and Gentledevils..."
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The Screwtape Letters / int_5de76bce	type	Answer to Prayers
The Screwtape Letters / int_5de76bce	comment	Answer to Prayers: C. S. Lewis has the eponymous Screwtape suggest to his nephew Wormwood that it was possible for demons to use Insane Troll Logic to convince their "patients" that even answered prayers are proof that there is no God, noting that humans bound in time have great difficulty in conceiving a being without such restrictions.
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The Screwtape Letters / int_5e1b0f72	type	Evil Tastes Good
The Screwtape Letters / int_5e1b0f72	comment	Evil Tastes Good: Quite literally. Devils eat souls that go to Hell (along with devils who failed in some way), and they're something of gourmets about it. The more evil a soul was, the better it tastes, so petty sinners are bland meals, while a homicidal maniac or — better still — a hypocritical, fallen Christian is a culinary delight.
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The Screwtape Letters / int_5e2e55e4	type	The Casanova
The Screwtape Letters / int_5e2e55e4	comment	Also in "Screwtape Proposes a Toast", Screwtape mentions a few exemplary sinners such as Giacomo Casanova and Henry VIII whom the devils found especially tasty. Only one contemporary figure makes the list — naturally enough, it's Adolf Hitler. Even then, he was inferior to most real sinners.
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The Screwtape Letters / int_5e65514f	type	Afterlife Welcome
The Screwtape Letters / int_5e65514f	comment	Afterlife Welcome: After getting killed, The Patient is greeted by Them (that is, God's good angels).
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The Screwtape Letters / int_5e751f8	type	Fallen Angel
The Screwtape Letters / int_5e751f8	comment	Fallen Angel: The demons' backstory, apparently, though Screwtape offers only Suspiciously Specific Denials about it. According to Screwtape, Satan wasn't cast out of Heaven; he just left so fast that it looked like he was cast out.
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The Screwtape Letters / int_603f1a80	type	Pragmatic Adaptation
The Screwtape Letters / int_603f1a80	comment	Pragmatic Adaptation: The Andy Serkis version adds conversation with Wormwood, and Serkis's depiction of Screwtape is probably far more Large Ham than Lewis intended, but can be excused for holding the interest of the listening audience.
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The Screwtape Letters / int_6040801a	type	Self-Inflicted Hell
The Screwtape Letters / int_6040801a	comment	Self-Inflicted Hell: What Hell truly seems to be, both for human souls and for the devils who live there. No one is happy, but they've convinced themselves Hell must be better than Heaven and they have too much Pride to repent in any case.
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The Screwtape Letters / int_60985aa7	type	In with the In Crowd
The Screwtape Letters / int_60985aa7	comment	In with the In Crowd: Wormwood gets the patient caught in this for a while by introducing him to supposedly "cool" worldly people, but botches it and the trope plays out fully, complete with An Aesop.
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The Screwtape Letters / int_609eb275	type	Satan Is Good
The Screwtape Letters / int_609eb275	comment	Satan Is Good: Well, Screwtape thinks so, but he's a very Unreliable Narrator and there's a perspective flip going on.
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The Screwtape Letters / int_60fa92ac	type	Names to Run Away from Really Fast
The Screwtape Letters / int_60fa92ac	comment	Names to Run Away from Really Fast: Demonic names include Screwtape, Wormwood, Scabtree, Triptweeze, Toadpipe, and Slubgob. Most of them follow the pattern of two unpleasant nouns (or other single sounds) pushed together. Lewis lampshades this in the introduction, saying he designed the names specifically to sound horrible. And of course there's the other unpleasant compound whose second syllable is tape: "red tape". Considering Screwtape's position in the Lowerarchy, this was probably an intentional joke on Lewis's part. He even says in the introduction that "red tape" and "tapeworm" probably subconsciously influenced the choice of name. Wormwood, specifically, comes from the Bible, and is the name of an extremely bitter herb. In Revelation, Wormwood is a star that falls to Earth and poisons one third of the Earth's waters.
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The Screwtape Letters / int_6112a91d	type	Unit Confusion
The Screwtape Letters / int_6112a91d	comment	Unit Confusion: Screwtape uses lightyears as a unit of time in Letter XXII—though maybe devils and angels reckon such things differently. If read as taking place within the universe of the Space Trilogy, this is entirely possible. Lewis himself points out in the preface that the "diabolical method of measuring time" is pretty bizarre and not all that useful from the POV of a human reader, thereby exact dates were (conveniently) left out of the narrative.
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The Screwtape Letters / int_65efc6dc	type	Appeal to Force
The Screwtape Letters / int_65efc6dc	comment	Appeal to Force: Screwtape states that God and Satan both claim the souls of humanity. God's claim is based off the fact that He created all the humans, while Satan's claim is based on "the right of conquest".
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The Screwtape Letters / int_67a12cd4	type	Divinely Appearing Demons
The Screwtape Letters / int_67a12cd4	comment	Divinely Appearing Demons: This one gets discussed; from the way Screwtape talks about it, apparently it's a fairly typical "parade-ground exercise" for a demon to make themselves appear as an angel of light.
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The Screwtape Letters / int_697e3ecb	type	Involuntary Shapeshifting
The Screwtape Letters / int_697e3ecb	comment	It's also implied they must take different forms from time to time, and that emotion instigates the process, resulting in a Funny Moment when Screwtape has to dictate the end of one letter, his anger having transformed him into a giant centipede. There's another way to read that transformation. Note how Screwtape, after admitting he has been transformed, says God (ie The Enemy) is most certainly NOT responsible for doing this to him — this could be a Suspiciously Specific Denial.
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The Screwtape Letters / int_6ca72c26	type	All Take and No Give
The Screwtape Letters / int_6ca72c26	comment	All Take and No Give: Screwtape's final view of Wormwood, though it is standard for every demon in the gloomy, loveless literal Hell in which they live. This is also the most "stylish" way to tempt and capture a soul.
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The Screwtape Letters / int_6d01755e	type	Monstrous Cannibalism
The Screwtape Letters / int_6d01755e	comment	Monstrous Cannibalism: The souls that are brought to Hell are eaten by the devils, and devils who failed at their jobs are eaten by their colleagues.
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The Screwtape Letters / int_705f57d0	type	Demon Lords and Archdevils
The Screwtape Letters / int_705f57d0	comment	Demon Lords and Archdevils: Remade from an older version to a more modern interpretation.
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The Screwtape Letters / int_71748a39	type	Named by the Adaptation
The Screwtape Letters / int_71748a39	comment	Named by the Adaptation: In the audio drama, The Patient is named John Hamilton. John probably comes from the main character of The Pilgrim's Regress, Lewisâ€™ first book after his conversion; Hamilton probably comes from â€œClive Hamiltonâ€�, a Pen Name that Lewis once used. The Patientâ€™s fiancÃ©e is named Dorothy in the audio drama, likely named after Lewisâ€™ friend Dorothy L. Sayers.
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The Screwtape Letters / int_725583e8	type	Good Feels Good
The Screwtape Letters / int_725583e8	comment	Good Feels Good: One of Screwtape's complaints is that Earthly pleasures come from the Enemy, and they have to be twisted before they are of any use to Hell.
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The Screwtape Letters / int_73f799ed	type	The Horseshoe Effect
The Screwtape Letters / int_73f799ed	comment	The Horseshoe Effect: Any ideology can be used to turn a human to evil. Screwtape encourages creating zealots on both sides, since after death their souls can be blended into a most invigorating wine.
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The Screwtape Letters / int_75f626a5	type	Nostalgia Filter
The Screwtape Letters / int_75f626a5	comment	Nostalgia Filter: One of the devils' tools in deceiving humans. The Patient's mother has been led to believe that her meals aren't satisfying because "good help is so hard to find these days", when in reality she's just become pickier and Obsessed with Food. Screwtape himself is prone to complaining that sinners used to be so much tastier, but they're just bland these days.
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The Screwtape Letters / int_76b4b7dd	type	The Comically Serious
The Screwtape Letters / int_76b4b7dd	comment	The Comically Serious: Many of the most amusing passages stem from the fact that Screwtape has absolutely no sense of humor. He's particularly enraged that the Patient's girlfriend is the kind of person who would find him funny.
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The Screwtape Letters / int_77480c5e	type	God Is Good
The Screwtape Letters / int_77480c5e	comment	God Is Good: All positive feelings are associated with "The Enemy", and all earthly pleasures as well. These things have to be perverted before they are of any use to the devils.
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The Screwtape Letters / int_7b80226d	type	GoodCounterpart
The Screwtape Letters / int_7b80226d	comment	Good Counterpart: The holy angels also speak to and advise humans, though their voices are never heard. Since all we have is Screwtape's perspective, this is probably because Evil Cannot Comprehend Good.
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The Screwtape Letters / int_7c9933de	type	Laughably Evil
The Screwtape Letters / int_7c9933de	comment	He also discusses how making the devil Laughably Evil actually helps the demons' cause; at one point Screwtape advises Wormwood to direct the client to the stereotypical 20th-century devil image with the red tights, pointy tail, and pitchfork, so that he can't possibly take the idea of devils and Hell seriously.
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The Screwtape Letters / int_7d88c452	type	Academy of Evil
The Screwtape Letters / int_7d88c452	comment	Academy of Evil: It's mentioned that Hell has a Training College for young devils, run by a devil named Slubgob. They study such courses as sexual temptation ("a subject of considerable tedium," complains Screwtape) and disguising oneself as an Angel of Light.
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The Screwtape Letters / int_7dad519f	type	Sex Is Evil
The Screwtape Letters / int_7dad519f	comment	Sex Is Evil: Subverted. It is only evil when done the devils' way. The fact that the Patient's fiancÃ©e is looking forward to it rather pleases The Enemy.
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The Screwtape Letters / int_823c6e3e	type	Large Ham
The Screwtape Letters / int_823c6e3e	comment	Large Ham: Screwtape, as awesomely voiced by Andy Serkis in the Focus on the Family radio adaptation. Also John Cleese's audiobook portrayal. Peter Noble, though he only worked on Screwtape Proposes a Toast, gives a more restrained but still hammy performance. Joss Ackland, who interestingly portrayed C.S. Lewis himself in the 1985 television movie version of Shadowlands, made him this as well as Evil Sounds Deep. The late Ralph Cosham, who also lent his voice to numerous audiobooks of Lewisâ€™ works, due to his style of narration interestingly portrays Screwtape as a Cold Ham.
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The Screwtape Letters / int_830f2f0e	type	Police State
The Screwtape Letters / int_830f2f0e	comment	Police State: Hell constantly monitors its inhabitants and harshly punishes violations, as Screwtape finds out when he lets loose a dangerous secret.
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The Screwtape Letters / int_83535879	type	Tall Poppy Syndrome
The Screwtape Letters / int_83535879	comment	Tall Poppy Syndrome: In "Screwtape Proposes a Toast", Screwtape expounds upon this phenomenon in education, drawing attention to the fact that, in the original story that gave the phenomenon its name, it was a dictator cutting off heads to ensure that his subjects were all equal. Of course, Screwtape being a demon, he thinks this tyranny of the masses is one of the best things to happen in decades. His chilling proposal is that in a democracy, there is no need for a dictator to do it. His tyranny of the masses is as follows: an equivocation of the virtue of equality will confound the belief that all people are equal in rights and dignity with the belief that all people are equal in ability and merit. Those who could excel must then be held back, especially in education, lest the value of equality is broken. Likewise, schoolwork must be made to seem equal, whether learning calculus or finger-painting, so there is "parity of esteem". In the end, those who could excel will purposefully obscure or not develop their talents in order to avoid ostracism.
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The Screwtape Letters / int_85cefc44	type	Sympathetic Adulterer
The Screwtape Letters / int_85cefc44	comment	Sympathetic Adulterer: Averted. During the finale, when Screwtape is attending a banquet of newly graduated tempters, one of the dishes was a casserole of adulterers. Unlike "delicious" damned souls, the ones in this dish had no great subverted virtues — just bland selfishness.
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The Screwtape Letters / int_88e1831d	type	Vast Bureaucracy
The Screwtape Letters / int_88e1831d	comment	Vast Bureaucracy: Hell is portrayed like this. Word of God says that this was partly to avert a Dante-esque Fire and Brimstone Hell, but it also serves as an intentional Take That! against corrupt bureaucrats: This line, by the way, was quoted by Ronald Reagan in his "evil empire" speech.
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The Screwtape Letters / int_898ff050	type	Villain Protagonist
The Screwtape Letters / int_898ff050	comment	Villain Protagonist: The letters are all from Screwtape, detailing his attempts to mold Wormwood into a proper tempter.
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The Screwtape Letters / int_89fb838b	type	Cold Ham
The Screwtape Letters / int_89fb838b	comment	The late Ralph Cosham, who also lent his voice to numerous audiobooks of Lewisâ€™ works, due to his style of narration interestingly portrays Screwtape as a Cold Ham.
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The Screwtape Letters / int_8a9eb844	type	Perspective Flip
The Screwtape Letters / int_8a9eb844	comment	Perspective Flip: Very much the point. According to Word of God, C. S. Lewis was thinking of objections to the Christian life and decided to write them from The Devil's point of view. To the devils, of course, God is "The Enemy".
The Screwtape Letters / int_8a9eb844	featureApplicability	1.0
The Screwtape Letters / int_8a9eb844	featureConfidence	1.0
The Screwtape Letters	hasFeature	The Screwtape Letters / int_8a9eb844
The Screwtape Letters / int_8b6e8d7	type	Anachronic Order
The Screwtape Letters / int_8b6e8d7	comment	Anachronic Order: The letters are stated in the prologue to be written in this fashion.
The Screwtape Letters / int_8b6e8d7	featureApplicability	1.0
The Screwtape Letters / int_8b6e8d7	featureConfidence	1.0
The Screwtape Letters	hasFeature	The Screwtape Letters / int_8b6e8d7
The Screwtape Letters / int_8cbd311b	type	Good Angel, Bad Angel
The Screwtape Letters / int_8cbd311b	comment	Good Angel, Bad Angel: A very in-depth example, as Lewis gives us a view about what actually motivates the little devil to whisper suggestions in The Patient's ear. Subverted as well, since the 'devil' is an actual demonic agent seeking their destruction, not some imp with horns and a pitchfork. Screwtape says it's better for humans to imagine a cartoon devil, since they won't see it as dangerous.
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The Screwtape Letters	hasFeature	The Screwtape Letters / int_8cbd311b
The Screwtape Letters / int_8e92e125	type	Lawyer-Friendly Cameo
The Screwtape Letters / int_8e92e125	comment	Lawyer-Friendly Cameo: "Screwtape Proposes a Toast" is a harsh criticism of the American educational system's Tall Poppy Syndrome at the time of writing — except in the narrative Screwtape says it's the British educational system. Lewis admits in the introduction that he did this because he didn't think Americans would take kindly to a Brit criticizing their schools.
The Screwtape Letters / int_8e92e125	featureApplicability	1.0
The Screwtape Letters / int_8e92e125	featureConfidence	1.0
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The Screwtape Letters / int_8ed5c6e4	type	Asshole Victim
The Screwtape Letters / int_8ed5c6e4	comment	Asshole Victim: Invoked. The demons eat souls, so people that were more evil in life taste better in death. Consequently, Screwtape and his ilk want their 'patients' to become truly horrible, even though the safer route is to make a person who is simply not good enough for Heaven.
The Screwtape Letters / int_8ed5c6e4	featureApplicability	1.0
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The Screwtape Letters / int_9053903	type	Ignored Epiphany
The Screwtape Letters / int_9053903	comment	Ignored Epiphany:
The Screwtape Letters / int_9053903	featureApplicability	1.0
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The Screwtape Letters	hasFeature	The Screwtape Letters / int_9053903
The Screwtape Letters / int_92d7976	type	You Keep Using That Word
The Screwtape Letters / int_92d7976	comment	You Keep Using That Word: Hell has a Philological Arm, whose job is to redefine words in misleading or ambiguous ways to make it easier to lead people astray with Insane Troll Logic. Screwtape discusses using several of these words (such as "a religious phase", or contradictory definitions of "real") to tempt the Patient. They're particularly proud of the work they did on "Puritanical", which shifted from 'particularly concerned with virtue' to 'hopelessly old-fashioned'.
The Screwtape Letters / int_92d7976	featureApplicability	1.0
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The Screwtape Letters / int_949221ec	type	Evil is Cool
The Screwtape Letters / int_949221ec	comment	Evil Is Cool: Invoked. Screwtape gives Wormwood pointers on how to make the patient think so, such as introducing him to some cool "worldly" friends, but in reality it is very much averted.
The Screwtape Letters / int_949221ec	featureApplicability	-1.0
The Screwtape Letters / int_949221ec	featureConfidence	1.0
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The Screwtape Letters / int_957e5fc2	type	Villainous Breakdown
The Screwtape Letters / int_957e5fc2	comment	Villainous Breakdown: Screwtape's normally calm, professional demeanour cracks in Letter XXII. The combination of his disgust at the Patient falling in love with a good Christian woman and the revelation that Wormwood tried to get him investigated for heresy gets him so enraged that he accidentally turns himself into a giant centipede, and his secretary has to finish the letter for him.
The Screwtape Letters / int_957e5fc2	featureApplicability	1.0
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The Screwtape Letters / int_9591377d	type	Heel Realization
The Screwtape Letters / int_9591377d	comment	Heel Realization: One risk of the devils' strategy to make exceptionally tasty sinners is that they might realize what they have become and run to the Enemy, where they will be Easily Forgiven.
The Screwtape Letters / int_9591377d	featureApplicability	1.0
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The Screwtape Letters / int_95b7c400	type	Faux Affably Evil
The Screwtape Letters / int_95b7c400	comment	Faux Affably Evil: Screwtape speaks like a supernatural version of a stereotypical government bureaucrat, always superficially polite, but in the most unpleasant and condescending possible way.
The Screwtape Letters / int_95b7c400	featureApplicability	1.0
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The Screwtape Letters / int_973d220f	type	Never My Fault
The Screwtape Letters / int_973d220f	comment	Never My Fault: Screwtape actively encourages Wormwood to foster this attitude in his patient with regards to his mother, as seen further down this page. Screwtape completely avoids responsibility for his careless words regarding God's love and Slubgob, dean of the Tempter's College.
The Screwtape Letters / int_973d220f	featureApplicability	1.0
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The Screwtape Letters / int_99a7aa94	type	Seven Deadly Sins
The Screwtape Letters / int_99a7aa94	comment	Seven Deadly Sins: All of them are discussed at some point, but the concept itself is a bit subverted. Screwtape reminds Wormwood that petty sins are just as effective as deadly ones as long as they keep the Patient's attention off God and his spiritual condition. In fact, getting the Patient to commit a spectacular sin would be counterproductive, as that could make him more likely to say My God, What Have I Done? and repent.
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The Screwtape Letters / int_9c6ba43a	type	Values Dissonance
The Screwtape Letters / int_9c6ba43a	comment	invokedValues Dissonance: Addressed and explained with the concept of "Vogues". According to Screwtape, people from differing time periods have had such different values due to the efforts of the demons in manipulating humans to sin. Specifically, the demons get humans to gravitate towards one type of sin in one era, then get the humans to become repulsed by that sin but edged towards a sin on roughly the opposite end of the spectrum in another era. The ideal is to have the society constantly swinging back and forth between dangerous extremes and avoiding a happy medium at all costs.
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The Screwtape Letters / int_9eeb5455	type	Evil Virtues
The Screwtape Letters / int_9eeb5455	comment	Evil Virtues: Since the Enemy is the source of all things good, virtues inherently belong to Him. The devils know they have to make use of "saintly" qualities to create truly effective sinners, and since the devils run on Bad Is Good and Good Is Bad, this is only grudgingly tolerable for them. In "Screwtape Proposes a Toast", the extremely evil souls Screwtape discusses had these; the souls with no outstanding good qualities were only mediocre. In the letters proper, Screwtape laments that they are unable to create any virtues, and that Hell has not found a way for a person to be effectively evil without some strengths of character.
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The Screwtape Letters / int_a1b141f4	type	My God, What Have I Done?
The Screwtape Letters / int_a1b141f4	comment	My God, What Have I Done?: Discussed as the reason Screwtape prefers to tempt people to petty, seemingly insignificant sins. More egregiously evil sins tend to provoke this response, which may lead to a Heel Realization and repentance, which is exactly what Hell does not want to happen.
The Screwtape Letters / int_a1b141f4	featureApplicability	1.0
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The Screwtape Letters / int_a201dad2	type	Passive-Aggressive Kombat
The Screwtape Letters / int_a201dad2	comment	Passive-Aggressive Kombat: Screwtape coaches Wormwood how to get the patient and his mother to fight this way using a combination of Twisting the Words and Moral Myopia:
The Screwtape Letters / int_a201dad2	featureApplicability	1.0
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The Screwtape Letters / int_a47278a0	type	Niceness Denial
The Screwtape Letters / int_a47278a0	comment	Niceness Denial: Screwtape starts the book off by denying any sort of kindness in assisting Wormwood. He points out that doing so helps him to avoid their Father's usual round of punishments and tortures if Wormwood is successful. Given who Screwtape is, we should probably take him at his word on this, but only this.
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The Screwtape Letters / int_a5adbbe7	type	Unreliable Expositor
The Screwtape Letters / int_a5adbbe7	comment	Screwtape might also double as Unreliable Expositor for Wormwood. How much of his advice is genuinely helpful, and how much is intentionally setting him up to fail?
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The Screwtape Letters	hasFeature	The Screwtape Letters / int_a5adbbe7
The Screwtape Letters / int_a65288e2	type	Ascended Extra
The Screwtape Letters / int_a65288e2	comment	Ascended Extra: Wormwood in the Focus On The Family radio adaptation. Because he interacts with his uncle in person rather than by letters, we actually hear his side of the conversation (because of this, the adaptation was originally just called Screwtape).
The Screwtape Letters / int_a65288e2	featureApplicability	1.0
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The Screwtape Letters / int_a6e45f92	type	FaustianBargain
The Screwtape Letters / int_a6e45f92	comment	Whether Hell thinks it's better for humans to believe this is apparently a matter of debate: Screwtape would prefer that humans don't believe in God or the Devil, though at one point he briefly describes an oddly specific scenario of their own existence being enshrined among humans, "vaguely" and in an "emotionalized and mythologized" way, shutting out further rigor. He considers it a delightful third avenue to resolve Hell's "cruel dilemma" between fear and Faustian Bargains or denying all concerned... if they can ever get it to happen.
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The Screwtape Letters / int_a8a04f6f	type	And I Must Scream
The Screwtape Letters / int_a8a04f6f	comment	And I Must Scream: In "Screwtape Proposes a Toast," we learn that evil religious zealots are punished by being made into blended wine — those who hated each other the most make the best vintages when combined.
The Screwtape Letters / int_a8a04f6f	featureApplicability	1.0
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The Screwtape Letters / int_a8af3e53	type	Secret Police
The Screwtape Letters / int_a8af3e53	comment	Secret Police: At one point, Wormwood attempts to get back at Screwtape for perpetually berating him, by trying to convince Hell's Secret Police to investigate Screwtape for heresy. It doesn't work: Screwtape manages to cover his tracks by insisting that he didn't mean it when he said the Enemy actually loves human beings. Screwtape warns Wormwood that further insubordination will not be tolerated by sending him one of the secret police's exquisitely illustrated pamphlets on their House of Correction for Incompetent Tempters. (Of course, at the end of the book it's implied that Wormwood has failed so utterly as to merit immediate execution and cannibalisation.)
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The Screwtape Letters / int_aabe2fb	type	Deliberate Values Dissonance
The Screwtape Letters / int_aabe2fb	comment	Deliberate Values Dissonance: The entire book runs on this — the devils' good is our bad, and vice-versa.
The Screwtape Letters / int_aabe2fb	featureApplicability	1.0
The Screwtape Letters / int_aabe2fb	featureConfidence	1.0
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The Screwtape Letters / int_acf33d00	type	Nice Job Fixing It, Villain
The Screwtape Letters / int_acf33d00	comment	Nice Job Fixing It, Villain: Screwtape states that, while it's natural for devils to enjoy seeing humans suffer, they should prevent their patients from suffering so much that it pushes them towards "The Enemy". He expresses this when Wormwood shows glee at the thought of the Patient's town being bombed, stating that ideally the Patient would live to old age. During his outraged rant about how much he hates the Patient's fiancÃ©e, he at first states that during the "good old days" she'd have been martyred in gladiatorial games. But, perhaps realizing this would send her straight to Heaven, he admits that it would have done Hell no good.
The Screwtape Letters / int_acf33d00	featureApplicability	1.0
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The Screwtape Letters / int_ad7751ee	type	Outhumbling Each Other
The Screwtape Letters / int_ad7751ee	comment	Outhumbling Each Other: Screwtape calls this "the Generous Conflict Illusion", and notes how arguments grow much more heated when both sides argue in favor of what the other person wants, rather than what they want themselves. People are never so selfish as when they're trying to show off how unselfish they are.
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The Screwtape Letters / int_ae3d6438	type	Deadpan Snarker
The Screwtape Letters / int_ae3d6438	comment	Deadpan Snarker: Screwtape doesn't usually crack jokes, but he does occasionally engage in sarcasm.
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The Screwtape Letters / int_ae8ac22d	type	Obsessed with Food
The Screwtape Letters / int_ae8ac22d	comment	Obsessed with Food: The vice of Gluttony. Atypically, not everyone led to sin by their appetites is a Big Eater. Delicacy and pickiness work just as well and have the advantage of looking like virtues. The devils, naturally, are gluttons themselves.
The Screwtape Letters / int_ae8ac22d	featureApplicability	1.0
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The Screwtape Letters / int_affcdc91	type	Evil Is Sterile
The Screwtape Letters / int_affcdc91	comment	Evil Is Sterile: Perhaps unsurprisingly, given this novel was written by a friend of Tolkien's, but the devils of Hell don't appear to be able to advance on their own, just to create miserable parodies of either angelic or earthly things. Screwtape comments that they've been expecting success in figuring out how to instill truly virtuous sentiments in humanity for their own purposes rather than just having to work with what they've got any hour now for centuries.
The Screwtape Letters / int_affcdc91	featureApplicability	1.0
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The Screwtape Letters / int_b097493c	type	Madonna-Whore Complex
The Screwtape Letters / int_b097493c	comment	Madonna-Whore Complex: Screwtape's concept of the "terrestrial" and "infernal Venus" which haunt the male imagination, the one "for which his desire is such as to be naturally amenable to the Enemy â€” readily mixed with charity, readily obedient to marriage, coloured all through with that golden light of reverence and naturalness which we detest," and the other "which he desires brutally, and desires to desire brutally."
The Screwtape Letters / int_b097493c	featureApplicability	1.0
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The Screwtape Letters / int_b4fae672	type	Heads I Win, Tails You Lose
The Screwtape Letters / int_b4fae672	comment	Heads I Win, Tails You Lose: Said verbatim by Screwtape in the 27th letter when instructing Wormwood how to disrupt the patient's belief in the effectiveness of prayer.
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The Screwtape Letters / int_b53077b3	type	Take That!
The Screwtape Letters / int_b53077b3	comment	Take That!: In the play, Screwtape points out how famous people are a "good" influence, since they're always changing their minds... then tilts the book he's reading to reveal that it's a biography of Madonna. Cue "Material Girl" playing during the next set change.
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The Screwtape Letters / int_b579ecc6	type	Gave Up Too Soon
The Screwtape Letters / int_b579ecc6	comment	Gave Up Too Soon: It gives devils no end of amusement to persuade their patients to give up on some long, miserable, and/or difficult duty just when (unbeknownst to the mark) an end to the trial was almost in sight.
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The Screwtape Letters / int_b58c51d8	type	My Beloved Smother
The Screwtape Letters / int_b58c51d8	comment	My Beloved Smother: Screwtape wants the patient to see his mother this way, although Word of God cautions us in the preface that this may be wishful thinking on Screwtape's part.
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The Screwtape Letters / int_b82ca416	type	Rage Against the Heavens
The Screwtape Letters / int_b82ca416	comment	Rage Against the Heavens: At one point, the Patient falls in love with a devout Christian. Screwtape moves from tearing Wormwood a new one to outright ranting and raving about the unfairness of Heaven's advantages over Hell — all earthly pleasures are The Enemy's inventions (because He's a vulgar hedonist at heart, according to Screwtape) and have to be perverted in order for them to be useful to the devils. He gets so upset, in fact, that he accidentally turns himself into an enormous centipede.
The Screwtape Letters / int_b82ca416	featureApplicability	1.0
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The Screwtape Letters / int_b8cbdffb	type	Celestial Bureaucracy
The Screwtape Letters / int_b8cbdffb	comment	Celestial Bureaucracy: Hell has one (the Lowerarchy), but it's not clear if Heaven does or not. Presumably, the nightmare bureaucracy of the Lowerarchy is a hellish parody of freely-given love, respect, and obedience in Heaven.
The Screwtape Letters / int_b8cbdffb	featureApplicability	1.0
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The Screwtape Letters / int_b98a8902	type	Soul Eating
The Screwtape Letters / int_b98a8902	comment	Soul Eating: Demons eat the souls of other demons as well as of humans.
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The Screwtape Letters / int_ba557643	type	Terms of Endangerment
The Screwtape Letters / int_ba557643	comment	Terms of Endangerment: In Screwtape's last few letters, as the Patient slips out of reach, the terms of affection become increasingly effusive. It culminates in this: "My dear, my very dear Wormwood; my poppet, my pigsnie..."
The Screwtape Letters / int_ba557643	featureApplicability	1.0
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The Screwtape Letters / int_bb18a227	type	It's All About Me
The Screwtape Letters / int_bb18a227	comment	It's All About Me: Screwtape loves talking about his nephew's successes in terms of "we", but when Wormwood fails to deliver, he's quick to lay all the blame on Wormwood. Especially when his patient turns the corner in Letter 13, when he falls in love with a good Christian girl, and finally when he dies and goes to heaven.
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The Screwtape Letters / int_bd3b726e	type	Bad Is Good and Good Is Bad
The Screwtape Letters / int_bd3b726e	comment	Bad Is Good and Good Is Bad: Due to the Perspective Flip, the Devils have a "lowerarchy" ruled by "Our Father Below", regard tempting humans to sin as a job well done, and find anything to do with goodness and love to be insufferable. On the other hand, mediocrity is not appealing to anyone in Hell. Souls that are 'just evil enough' to be damned are bland and tasteless — you need someone with the potential to be a saint to make a truly delectable sinner.
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The Screwtape Letters / int_bd8b2b0b	type	To Serve Man
The Screwtape Letters / int_bd8b2b0b	comment	Also, the devils themselves are interested in tempting humans mostly because they get to feed on corrupted souls. Despair apparently works something like alcohol, and Screwtape is disgruntled to realize that, after World War II starts, his nephew is writing back drunk.
The Screwtape Letters / int_bd8b2b0b	featureApplicability	1.0
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The Screwtape Letters / int_bf64a255	type	Rock Me, Asmodeus!
The Screwtape Letters / int_bf64a255	comment	Rock Me, Asmodeus!: While it predates the trope as we know it today, the story nevertheless contains a subversion. Music of any kind is forbidden in Hell, because music is something humans enjoy, and joy is something the devils cannot tolerate.
The Screwtape Letters / int_bf64a255	featureApplicability	1.0
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The Screwtape Letters / int_c042eee9	type	Invisible to Normals
The Screwtape Letters / int_c042eee9	comment	Invisible to Normals: Screwtape reminds Wormwood at several points that humans can't see certain things which are obvious to devils, like the true nature of the Church, and how to take advantage of their limited perspective.
The Screwtape Letters / int_c042eee9	featureApplicability	1.0
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The Screwtape Letters / int_c05e7f92	type	In Love with Looks
The Screwtape Letters / int_c05e7f92	comment	In Love with Looks: Screwtape tells his nephew Wormwood that sexual taste was a demonic contrivance, designed to lead men away from women with whom they might find healthy and lasting relationships in obedience to God. He says they vary the tastes from time to time to accentuate certain vices, such as having men choose statuesque and aristocratic women to promote vanity, or faint and languishing women to help foster weakness and cowardice. He says that at the time of the writing (World War II), they were trying to get men to focus on women whose bodies were "scarcely different from those of young boys", noted to be a particularly fleeting form of beauty, in order to exaggerate women's fears of growing older, and also rendering them less willing, or capable, of bearing children.
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The Screwtape Letters / int_c39846a3	type	Pride
The Screwtape Letters / int_c39846a3	comment	Pride: One of the vices to which Wormwood is advised to tempt the Patient. Screwtape's strategy is devious: Wormwood can simply draw the Patient's attention to his recent spiritual improvement, making him proud of his own humility. And should the Patient realize this mistake, Wormwood can make him proud of catching himself before it was too late, and so on and so on — but not too long, lest the Patient simply laugh the whole thing off as absurd.
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The Screwtape Letters / int_c3bafbce	type	Satan
The Screwtape Letters / int_c3bafbce	comment	According to Screwtape, the Father Below was so disgusted with God's idea of "Love" that he decided to remove himself very suddenly to an infinite distance from heaven—he certainly wasn't forcibly cast out or anything like that.
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The Screwtape Letters / int_c4240537	type	Moral Event Horizon
The Screwtape Letters / int_c4240537	comment	invokedMoral Event Horizon: Subverted; Screwtape often argues that the task of making the patient an unrepentant sinner is usually best accomplished without any kind of spectacularly evil act on the patient's part. Spectacular evils tend to bring repentance or at least an awareness of consequences. What one wants is a gradual accumulation of sins as tiny as snowflakes, slowly accumulating, until their total weight is immovable.
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The Screwtape Letters / int_c5f0119c	type	Insane Troll Logic
The Screwtape Letters / int_c5f0119c	comment	In the radio adaption by Focus on the Family, Screwtape is considerably more charismatic than his book counterpart, as he actually has a sense of humor and all of his Insane Troll Logic rationalizations for God's behavior are downplayed.
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The Screwtape Letters / int_c75df49a	type	Shout-Out
The Screwtape Letters / int_c75df49a	comment	Shout-Out: Several, including one to George Bernard Shaw, where Screwtape remembers a comment from Shaw but can't remember how to spell the man's name: "something like Pshaw". (Shaw advocated for English spelling reform.)
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The Screwtape Letters / int_ca87e3ec	type	No Name Given
The Screwtape Letters / int_ca87e3ec	comment	No Name Given: Several human characters — most notably The Patient — are referred to by titles rather than by their names, which implies that devils don't bother seeing humanity as individuals and instead see them as what they are (as opposed to who). The audio drama, however, averts this, as we sometimes hear from the human characters themselves.
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The Screwtape Letters / int_cbdd9a55	type	We ARE Struggling Together
The Screwtape Letters / int_cbdd9a55	comment	We ARE Struggling Together: Screwtape gloats over how well they succeeded in causing factionalism and in-fighting in the Church despite the fact that God commanded that every faction show Christian charity to the others.
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The Screwtape Letters / int_cf3af21a	type	Abilene Paradox
The Screwtape Letters / int_cf3af21a	comment	Abilene Paradox: Screwtape suggests fostering exactly this sort of disagreement. When everyone argues against what they really want and agrees to something that nobody likes, it's a great way for them all to be selfish and hypocritical about it.
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The Screwtape Letters / int_d1814802	type	Big Red Devil
The Screwtape Letters / int_d1814802	comment	Big Red Devil: Screwtape advises Wormwood to use this image as a ploy to prevent his "patient" from believing in real devils, using the fallacious argument that if "something in red tights" is obviously not real or Too Funny to Be Evil, then Wormwood must not be real either.
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The Screwtape Letters / int_d1ceb951	type	Holier Than Thou
The Screwtape Letters / int_d1ceb951	comment	Holier Than Thou: Described by Screwtape as "the strongest and most beautiful of the vices". He also says that those who embrace it "[make] better sport in Hell than" hedonists or even Evil Overlords.
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The Screwtape Letters / int_d4965b6d	type	Too Funny to Be Evil
The Screwtape Letters / int_d4965b6d	comment	Too Funny to Be Evil: One trope that Screwtape advises. Wormwood can get his patient to commit many sins by passing them off as jokes. Ironically, Screwtape blows his top when he finds out that The Patientâ€™s girlfriend is the sort of person that would find HIM funny.
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The Screwtape Letters / int_d4f281a3	type	Villainous Underdog
The Screwtape Letters / int_d4f281a3	comment	Villainous Underdog: Zigzagged. Screwtape rants at length about the "unfair" advantage Heaven has. Certainly you'd think that going up against an omnipotent being would make you the underdog in itself, to say nothing of all the problems Hell causes for itself by being Stupid Evil. However, Hell also seems to be controlling every single aspect of human society except for the Church (and even there it's made great inroads by creating factionalism, fanaticism and strife), and as a result, most are going to Hell these days. It's possible that Screwtape's whining is because Evil is Petty, meaning that no matter how well things are going for Screwtape he's always going to feel sorry for himself because it's not going even better, in which case this trope is subverted. Or conversely, he might just be exaggerating Hell's successes for propaganda purposes.
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The Screwtape Letters / int_d62dd556	type	The Chessmaster
The Screwtape Letters / int_d62dd556	comment	The Chessmaster: Screwtape is a very good one (according to himself anyway), but there are even more talented Chessmasters in the lower levels of Hell (including the Man himself). And quite a few Chessmasters on the other side, too, so that Earth is a single Gambit Pileup.
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The Screwtape Letters / int_de9047ac	type	Gambit Pileup
The Screwtape Letters / int_de9047ac	comment	Gambit Pileup: Earth is the site of all schemes hatched from both sides, and they interact with any schemes hatched by mortals.
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The Screwtape Letters / int_e54326a2	type	Hell
The Screwtape Letters / int_e54326a2	comment	In the introduction, Lewis writes that he portrayed Hell as a Vast Bureaucracy rather than the more obvious Fire and Brimstone Hell as an intentional jab against Corrupt Corporate Executives (see below).
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The Screwtape Letters / int_e624f0e8	type	Suspiciously Specific Denial
The Screwtape Letters / int_e624f0e8	comment	Suspiciously Specific Denial: According to Screwtape, the Father Below was so disgusted with God's idea of "Love" that he decided to remove himself very suddenly to an infinite distance from heaven—he certainly wasn't forcibly cast out or anything like that. Screwtape's sudden transformation into a giant centipede was caused by an excess of infernal zeal, not an intervention by the Enemy.
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The Screwtape Letters / int_e8f2d4f2	type	The Devil Is a Loser
The Screwtape Letters / int_e8f2d4f2	comment	The Devil Is a Loser: Screwtape is a grouchy, self-important prig with No Sense of Humor, working a desk job as under-secretary in the middle management of a literally infernal Vast Bureaucracy. Wormwood is bungling and incompetent at his job, makes mistake after mistake, fails at his plan to get Screwtape in trouble, and eventually loses his patient completely. Just in general, Hell and its demons come off as overall miserable, self-destructive and ultimately pathetic- the vibe is far more miserable creatures seething in impotent rage then mighty enemies of the Lord.
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The Screwtape Letters / int_e905c892	type	The Heretic
The Screwtape Letters / int_e905c892	comment	The Heretic: Screwtape is charged with heresy in Hell of all places. Ironically, his heretical belief that God really loves his human subjects actually makes him a more efficient tempter. Towards the end, Screwtape threatens to charge Wormwood with heresy as well, "if he's proceeding on the Enemy's idea of 'justice'".
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The Screwtape Letters / int_e96b33b9	type	Loose Lips
The Screwtape Letters / int_e96b33b9	comment	Loose Lips: Eventually, Screwtape is punished by his superiors for trying to help Wormwood by telling him a secret that they did not want getting out: that God has genuine love for humanity. Unfortunately, despite the painful punishment, it fails to work. After weeks of trying to help Wormwood find a licentious woman for the Patient, the Patient instead finds true love with a Christian woman, resulting in Screwtape flying into rage and accidentally turning himself into a giant centipede.
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The Screwtape Letters / int_eae0129f	type	Anti-Advice
The Screwtape Letters / int_eae0129f	comment	Anti-Advice: On a meta level. The reader is expected to read Screwtape's advice and recognise when their own inner devil is following it.
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The Screwtape Letters / int_eb8ec7c8	type	Jerkass
The Screwtape Letters / int_eb8ec7c8	comment	Screwtape mentions that a good way to tempt a person to be a jerkass is the realization that people often think cruel behavior is funny if you present it cleverly enough.
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The Screwtape Letters / int_eeaeb6df	type	Appeal to Obscurity
The Screwtape Letters / int_eeaeb6df	comment	Appeal to Obscurity: Lewis does one in the introduction where he laments that he couldnâ€™t write the Good Counterpart of this book, alleging that even if he could â€œwrite like Traherneâ€� the result would not be believed. This refers to Thomas Traherne, a 17th-century devotional writer who wrote with ornate Purple Prose. Lewis's complaint is thus not only that such beautiful prose is beyond his own skill, it would be too unfashionable to appeal to readers in the modern publishing market.
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The Screwtape Letters / int_eedee4d	type	The Starscream
The Screwtape Letters / int_eedee4d	comment	The Starscream: Not explicit, but it seems that junior tempters are expected to scheme against their elders and that a devil who succeeds in overthrowing his supervisor is showing exactly the kind of ambition that Hell rewards.
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The Screwtape Letters / int_f01a54f1	type	Evil Feels Good
The Screwtape Letters / int_f01a54f1	comment	Evil Feels Good: Inverted. The further one goes into sin, the less fun it becomes. According to Screwtape, it's poor demonic style if you have to actually give something in exchange for a human soul, but the general tone of the book suggests that Hell can't offer genuine pleasure, and so tempters must persuade humans to accept a cheap substitute for the real thing.
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The Screwtape Letters / int_f1919d5b	type	Being Evil Sucks
The Screwtape Letters / int_f1919d5b	comment	Being Evil Sucks: Good demonic style means luring a soul into corruption without actually giving anything in return. None of the demons seem particularly happy either, although they will never admit it. Screwtape in particular seems to be a completely miserable old grump who's totally committed to his crappy job. The audio drama especially emphasizes this with its ending with Screwtape going off on a huge despairing rant on the hollow lives of demons and then going Laughing Mad as he furiously looks for Wormwood.
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The Screwtape Letters / int_f1c17256	type	A Deadly Affair
The Screwtape Letters / int_f1c17256	comment	A Deadly Affair: This trope is discussed by Screwtape, as he gives Wormwood advice about how to incite a type of human lust that can lead to adulteries that, in his own words, end, "if all goes well, in murders and suicides".
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The Screwtape Letters / int_f1d6144a	type	War Is Hell
The Screwtape Letters / int_f1d6144a	comment	War Is Hell: Alluded to, but not played straight. Screwtape admits that war has many "useful" qualities, since the vices are easier to spread when people are frightened and desperate, but on the whole he feels that war is too dangerous a tool. It brings out charity, self-denial and courage in people who would never ordinarily have shown such virtues. It also makes people very aware of their own mortality so they feel the need to get right with God rather than being complacent.
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The Screwtape Letters / int_f2d8e3c2	type	Evil Plan
The Screwtape Letters / int_f2d8e3c2	comment	Evil Plan: Screwtape tries to teach Wormwood how to pull this off, but Wormwood is something of a slow learner.
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The Screwtape Letters / int_f36c4f98	type	Easily Forgiven
The Screwtape Letters / int_f36c4f98	comment	Easily Forgiven: The Enemy will forgive any sinner who repents, and Screwtape finds this terribly unfair. The only solution he knows is to keep people from repenting, ideally by not letting them realize they are sinners at all.
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The Screwtape Letters / int_f4fe270	type	Villainous Glutton
The Screwtape Letters / int_f4fe270	comment	Villainous Glutton: Screwtape advises Wormwood on how to tempt the patient to the sin of gluttony. In a bit of an aversion, Screwtape says that not all gluttony is overeating; what counts is getting the person enslaved to their appetites (even if they only want toast and tea) in such a way that they don't care if they inconvenience others. Or just as good, they might become prideful over their refined tastes. He even gives an example: the Patient's mother, who is so self-satisfied over her refusal to eat too much that she's become impossibly picky about portion sizes, to the point that the Patient hates her for it (though he'll never admit it to himself). Also, the devils themselves are interested in tempting humans mostly because they get to feed on corrupted souls. Despair apparently works something like alcohol, and Screwtape is disgruntled to realize that, after World War II starts, his nephew is writing back drunk.
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The Screwtape Letters / int_f52ae5d8	type	Enemy Civil War
The Screwtape Letters / int_f52ae5d8	comment	Enemy Civil War: Devils are too evil to really be on friendly terms with each other.
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The Screwtape Letters / int_f5e6ed44	type	No Sense of Humor
The Screwtape Letters / int_f5e6ed44	comment	Screwtape is a grouchy, self-important prig with No Sense of Humor, working a desk job as under-secretary in the middle management of a literally infernal Vast Bureaucracy.
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The Screwtape Letters / int_f638e0eb	type	Evil Is Not Pacifist
The Screwtape Letters / int_f638e0eb	comment	Evil Is Not Pacifist: Averted. Screwtape suggests guiding the Patient towards pacifism during the outbreak of WWII, albeit with a number of caveats to make sure it isn't a principled pacifism.
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The Screwtape Letters / int_f64a9cf7	type	Earn Your Happy Ending
The Screwtape Letters / int_f64a9cf7	comment	Earn Your Happy Ending: The "Patient" takes every temptation Screwtape and Wormwood throw at him, almost turns away from the good side, but makes his way back only to be killed in a bomb blast and wind up in Heaven after all. Due to the Perspective Flip, this is seen as a bad thing.
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The Screwtape Letters / int_f68664dc	type	Science Is Bad
The Screwtape Letters / int_f68664dc	comment	Science Is Bad: A pointed subversion in the first letter. Humans are best kept away from science entirely, especially the natural sciences, because those instill wonder and perspective. The best (read: worst) sort of human never goes beyond the immediate sense experience. Reason as a whole is an awful way of causing humans to sin, because rational arguments are open to rational counterarguments. Insane Troll Logic works much better. However, using rationalism to promote atheism is encouraged, since souls that simply convince themselves there is no God by way of rational deduction do end up in Hell. They're not especially tasty, but it ensures the devils will never starve. The mindset Screwtape encourages Wormwood to nurture is one in which the Patient will complacently declare that "Science says" this, that and the other thing, based not on any knowledge of actual science at all nor any study of it beyond, at best, an extremely dumbed-down version of it from the popular newspapers.
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The Screwtape Letters / int_f76842b1	type	The Fundamentalist
The Screwtape Letters / int_f76842b1	comment	Evil religious zealots are made into wine for demons in Hell by being blended in with other evil religious zealots they hated and opposed in life. Conversely, atheists are mentioned as bland but filling fare in "Screwtape Proposes a Toast", and devils work hard to promote atheism as a general state of being before concentrating on "refining" tastes with other sinful encouragement.
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The Screwtape Letters / int_f8e010ce	type	Evil Cannot Comprehend Good
The Screwtape Letters / int_f8e010ce	comment	Evil Cannot Comprehend Good: Hell actually has a division of their research department trying to do this. They haven't made any progress in millennia. According to Screwtape, they've been right on the verge of something big for millennia now. The trouble is that the devils can't understand the concept of freely-given, no-strings-attached love and affection that comes from Heaven, so they'll be forever stuck. It's the diabolic equivalent of Reassigned to Antarctica. The Enemy has apparently made it clear to them that if the populace of Hell could begin to understand the concept of "love", then the war against Heaven would be ended. Screwtape misinterprets this as the key to outmaneuvering The Enemy — and thus retaking Heaven by force. Which is why they've got the aforementioned department that isn't succeeding.
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The Screwtape Letters / int_f9a8e95e	type	Place Beyond Time
The Screwtape Letters / int_f9a8e95e	comment	Place Beyond Time: Screwtape tells Wormwood that God is a being beyond time, and that this actually explains how he can be The Omniscient without destroying free will: He sees the Past, Present, and Future as Now, and you can obviously watch someone do something without making them do it.
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The Screwtape Letters	hasFeature	The Screwtape Letters / int_f9a8e95e
The Screwtape Letters / int_fbd285b7	type	Comically Missing the Point
The Screwtape Letters / int_fbd285b7	comment	Comically Missing the Point: Screwtape commits any number of examples, most notably with love, which he seems to think is defined as "one person's good being another person's good", and which he is convinced (though he contradicts himself on the matter) does not really exist and instead is only a cover beings have for selfish motives. At one point, he alludes to the other side admitting that if the demons ever came to understand what love is then the war would be over and the demons would re-enter heaven, and says that this confirms that God's throne rests upon the secret, which Hell spends lots of time and resources trying to unravel (that department has been 'on the cusp of a big breakthrough' for millennia)â€¦ In the preface to the second edition, Lewis recounts that when the letters were first serialized in a religious periodical, a country clergyman wrote in to cancel his subscription on the grounds that "much of the advice given in these letters seemed to him not only erroneous but positively diabolical."
The Screwtape Letters / int_fbd285b7	featureApplicability	1.0
The Screwtape Letters / int_fbd285b7	featureConfidence	1.0
The Screwtape Letters	hasFeature	The Screwtape Letters / int_fbd285b7
The Screwtape Letters / int_fe64d5a1	type	Evil Is Petty
The Screwtape Letters / int_fe64d5a1	comment	Evil is Petty: Screwtape's preferred method of damning souls is to encourage consistent patterns of petty vice rather than great sins that are easily repented. It doesn't make for exceptionally fine meals, but it leads to a steady flow of souls Hellward. In "Screwtapes Proposes A Toast", Screwtape mentions that one of the reasons to continue leading weak souls into Hell, even if they don't provide much substance, is that it's food, yes; but most importantly, the Enemy placed value in those souls and wanted them (for some reason), and by turning them away from Him, they spite Him that.
The Screwtape Letters / int_fe64d5a1	featureApplicability	1.0
The Screwtape Letters / int_fe64d5a1	featureConfidence	1.0
The Screwtape Letters	hasFeature	The Screwtape Letters / int_fe64d5a1
The Screwtape Letters / int_fe6c146e	type	The Corrupter
The Screwtape Letters / int_fe6c146e	comment	The Corrupter: Obviously, there are a lot of devils trying to corrupt humans into sin and evilness. That's the point of the letters; teach Wormwood how to be one of these.
The Screwtape Letters / int_fe6c146e	featureApplicability	1.0
The Screwtape Letters / int_fe6c146e	featureConfidence	1.0
The Screwtape Letters	hasFeature	The Screwtape Letters / int_fe6c146e
The Screwtape Letters / int_name	type	ItemName
The Screwtape Letters / int_name	comment
The Screwtape Letters / int_name	featureApplicability	1.0
The Screwtape Letters / int_name	featureConfidence	1.0
The Screwtape Letters	hasFeature	The Screwtape Letters / int_name
The Screwtape Letters / int_name	itemName	The Screwtape Letters

The following is a list of statements referring to the current page from other pages.

The Screwtape Letters	hasFeature	A Deadly Affair / int_ad6b641b
The Screwtape Letters	hasFeature	A Form You Are Comfortable With / int_ad6b641b
The Screwtape Letters	hasFeature	Abilene Paradox / int_ad6b641b
The Screwtape Letters	hasFeature	Academy of Evil / int_ad6b641b
The Screwtape Letters	hasFeature	Afterlife Welcome / int_ad6b641b
The Screwtape Letters	hasFeature	All Take and No Give / int_ad6b641b
The Screwtape Letters	hasFeature	Answer to Prayers / int_ad6b641b
The Screwtape Letters	hasFeature	Anti-Advice / int_ad6b641b
The Screwtape Letters	hasFeature	Audio Adaptation / int_ad6b641b
The Screwtape Letters	hasFeature	Bad Boss / int_ad6b641b
The Screwtape Letters	hasFeature	Bad Is Good and Good Is Bad / int_ad6b641b
The Screwtape Letters	hasFeature	Being Evil Sucks / int_ad6b641b
The Screwtape Letters	hasFeature	Big Red Devil / int_ad6b641b
The Screwtape Letters	hasFeature	Christian Fiction / int_ad6b641b
The Screwtape Letters	hasFeature	Church Militant / int_ad6b641b
The Screwtape Letters	hasFeature	Creative Sterility / int_ad6b641b
The Screwtape Letters	hasFeature	Defied Trope / int_ad6b641b
The Screwtape Letters	hasFeature	Demon Lords and Archdevils / int_ad6b641b
The Screwtape Letters	hasFeature	Demon Works / int_ad6b641b
The Screwtape Letters	hasFeature	Determined Defeatist / int_ad6b641b
The Screwtape Letters	hasFeature	Divinely Appearing Demons / int_ad6b641b
The Screwtape Letters	hasFeature	Double Speak / int_ad6b641b
The Screwtape Letters	hasFeature	Easy Road to Hell / int_ad6b641b
The Screwtape Letters	hasFeature	Egocentrically Religious / int_ad6b641b
The Screwtape Letters	hasFeature	Epistolary Novel / int_ad6b641b
The Screwtape Letters	hasFeature	Even the Loving Hero Has Hated Ones / int_ad6b641b
The Screwtape Letters	hasFeature	Evil Has a Bad Sense of Humor / int_ad6b641b
The Screwtape Letters	hasFeature	Evil Stole My Faith / int_ad6b641b
The Screwtape Letters	hasFeature	Food Porn / int_ad6b641b
The Screwtape Letters	hasFeature	God Is Good / int_ad6b641b
The Screwtape Letters	hasFeature	God's Hands Are Tied / int_ad6b641b
The Screwtape Letters	hasFeature	Good Is Boring / int_ad6b641b
The Screwtape Letters	hasFeature	Hell / int_ad6b641b
The Screwtape Letters	hasFeature	Hollywood Thin / int_ad6b641b
The Screwtape Letters	hasFeature	Horny Sailors / int_ad6b641b
The Screwtape Letters	hasFeature	Hot as Hell / int_ad6b641b
The Screwtape Letters	hasFeature	In Love with Looks / int_ad6b641b
The Screwtape Letters	hasFeature	Involuntary Shapeshifting / int_ad6b641b
The Screwtape Letters	hasFeature	Ironic Hell / int_ad6b641b
The Screwtape Letters	hasFeature	"Just Joking" Justification / int_ad6b641b
The Screwtape Letters	hasFeature	Laughably Evil / int_ad6b641b
The Screwtape Letters	hasFeature	Lawful Evil / int_ad6b641b
The Screwtape Letters	hasFeature	Micro Dieting / int_ad6b641b
The Screwtape Letters	hasFeature	Minion with an F in Evil / int_ad6b641b
The Screwtape Letters	hasFeature	Misery Builds Character / int_ad6b641b
The Screwtape Letters	hasFeature	Monstrous Cannibalism / int_ad6b641b
The Screwtape Letters	hasFeature	Niceness Denial / int_ad6b641b
The Screwtape Letters	hasFeature	No Music Allowed / int_ad6b641b
The Screwtape Letters	hasFeature	No Sense of Humor / int_ad6b641b
The Screwtape Letters	hasFeature	Nostalgia Filter / int_ad6b641b
The Screwtape Letters	hasFeature	Not Using the "Z" Word / int_ad6b641b
The Screwtape Letters	hasFeature	Obstructive Bureaucrat / int_ad6b641b
The Screwtape Letters	hasFeature	Original Flavour / int_ad6b641b
The Screwtape Letters	hasFeature	Our Souls Are Different / int_ad6b641b
The Screwtape Letters	hasFeature	Outhumbling Each Other / int_ad6b641b
The Screwtape Letters	hasFeature	Pacifism Is Cowardice / int_ad6b641b
The Screwtape Letters	hasFeature	Pascal's Wager / int_ad6b641b
The Screwtape Letters	hasFeature	Passive-Aggressive Kombat / int_ad6b641b
The Screwtape Letters	hasFeature	Place Beyond Time / int_ad6b641b
The Screwtape Letters	hasFeature	Rock Me, Asmodeus! / int_ad6b641b
The Screwtape Letters	hasFeature	Satan / int_ad6b641b
The Screwtape Letters	hasFeature	Satan Is Good / int_ad6b641b
The Screwtape Letters	hasFeature	Satire / int_ad6b641b
The Screwtape Letters	hasFeature	Self-Inflicted Hell / int_ad6b641b
The Screwtape Letters	hasFeature	Soul Eating / int_ad6b641b
The Screwtape Letters	hasFeature	Soul-Powered Engine / int_ad6b641b
The Screwtape Letters	hasFeature	Supporting Protagonist / int_ad6b641b
The Screwtape Letters	hasFeature	Terms of Endangerment / int_ad6b641b
The Screwtape Letters	hasFeature	The Apocalypse Brings Out the Best in People / int_ad6b641b
The Screwtape Letters	hasFeature	The Devil Is a Loser / int_ad6b641b
The Screwtape Letters	hasFeature	The Hedonist / int_ad6b641b
The Screwtape Letters	hasFeature	The Horseshoe Effect / int_ad6b641b
The Screwtape Letters	hasFeature	The Punishment Is the Crime / int_ad6b641b
The Screwtape Letters	hasFeature	To Serve Man / int_ad6b641b
The Screwtape Letters	hasFeature	Twisting the Words / int_ad6b641b
The Screwtape Letters	hasFeature	Unit Confusion / int_ad6b641b
The Screwtape Letters	hasFeature	Unsatisfiable Customer / int_ad6b641b
The Screwtape Letters	hasFeature	Vast Bureaucracy / int_ad6b641b
The Screwtape Letters	hasFeature	Your Soul Is Mine! / int_ad6b641b

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