Abstract
Screwtape’s training of Wormwood in the art of deception exposes the tempters’ desire to consume “the other” completely into the self. This insatiable appetite to devour is revealed to be the ruling principle of Hell, where one must eat or be eaten. As competitors, Screwtape and Wormwood can never comprehend the reality of Heaven, which exists by the opposite principle. If the rule of Hell is to consume the other, the rule of Heaven is to serve and celebrate the other. In The Screwtape Letters C.S. Lewis succeeds in depicting the choice to succumb to appetite or submit to a service that is perfect freedom.
Recommended Citation
Moore-Jumonville, Kimberly
(2010)
"Sucking Life: The Principle of Hell in C.S. Lewis's Screwtape Letters,"
Inklings Forever: Published Colloquium Proceedings 1997-2016: Vol. 7, Article 13.
Available at:
https://pillars.taylor.edu/inklings_forever/vol7/iss1/13
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