The entitled The Screwtape Letters is a unique piece of literature because it shows both the Christian views on life while only presenting letters the devil, who is Screwtape, is sending to another demon named Wormwood. It covers all corners on Christianity without directly stating these points. There is a resounding theme of sexuality found in the book, most of the letters speak about this. Sometimes, it is just a theme and it is not directly explained. Readers will have to try to analyze what the book is really trying to tell you.
In Chapter nine, the lesson is about exploiting “dryness”:
“In the first place I have always found that the Trough periods of the human undulation provide excellent opportunity for all sensual temptations, particularly those of sex.” (Lewis, chapter 9)
Here, the lesson is that sexual temptation can be brought up when a person is going through a phase of dullness or dryness. It is much easier to capture these desires when a person is off-guard. He can be lead to temptation, and this is much easier to make a human believe in, rather than love. They can be able to capture his soul by making the human want pleasure or believe in it. This, can keep him preoccupied. In the Christian sense, this is not acceptable as sex is seen as a gift between two people. When one’s heart is preoccupied with lust and other different types of temptations, he will not be able to see himself through God’s true design. This topic is brought up again in Chapter 18 of the letters:
“The Enemy's demand on humans takes the form of a dilemma; either complete abstinence or unmitigated monogamy” (Lewis, chapter 18)
This eighteenth letter is seen to frustrate Screwtape, he talks about God’s design for sex and love, again. He says that humans find it difficult to choose between total monogamy and abstinence, that is why it is easy to be able to tempt them. He makes fun of marriage, love and the true design of God. He even says that the idea of love and marriage is offensive. There is a fine line between sexual desires and love. Screwtape says that they can use this against the so-called enemy, who is God. They can create confusion that might lead to an infatuation. Instead of wanting a future with that person, they will just have sexual desires. The dilemma presented by the enemy can, in turn, be good for Screwtape and Wormwood, along with other demons.
The 26th letter starts off with this
“The enchantment of unsatisfied desire produces results which the humans can be made to mistake for the results of charity. Avail yourself of the ambiguity in the word “Love”: let them think they have solved by Love problems they have in fact only waived or postponed under the influence of the enchantment. While it lasts you have your chance to foment the problems in secret and render them chronic.” (Lewis, chapter 26)
Although this chapter might not have intended for the theme to be of sex, it can actually apply. Screwtape talks about distorting the image of love and charity, so that they can pervert the two. They said that “love” can be used as an excuse for anything, this might even mean sex. They can use these words like “sex”, “marriage”, “love” or “abstinence” to their own advantage and twist them through temptation of sexual desires. They are saying that they can use the words love, care, trust and other nice things in order to distort the image of Christian or Godly love. This means that if you love a person, you can have sexual intercourse with him or her since it is all about love. This is a form of distraction that the devil can use. God, however views love and sex as a gift. But, if a person is too caught up in his own ideas of love, then they will stray away from the ultimate design of God.
“Don’t forget to use the “heads I win, tails you lose” argument. If the thing he prays for doesn’t happen, then that is one more proof that petitionary prayers don’t work; if it does happen, he will, of course, be able to see some of the physical causes which led up to it, and “therefore it would have happened anyway”, and thus a granted prayer becomes just as good a proof as a denied one that prayers are ineffective.” (Lewis, chapter 27)
In this chapter, Screwtape is getting a bit annoyed and frustrated. He tries to convince Wormwood to use the love the human has for his girlfriend in order to disobey God. In this view, the devil is seen to distort the idea of love and use it as a form of temptation. Instead of growing with God together, they can both be lead to a different path. Unfortunately for these evil spirits, the human found a Christian girlfriend. In this particular passage, Screwtape is trying to convince Wormwood that he can use the human’s prayers to his advantage. If the prayers get answered, then it was really supposed to happen, but if it doesn’t, it is God’s fault. This is seen as distorting or perverting prayer, the way he did with love and sexuality.
Works Cited
Lewis, C. S. The Screwtape Letters. New York: HarperCollins, 2001
