The novel is a collection of 31 correspondences composed by the eponymous Screwtape for his nephew and protégé, a younger demon named Wormwood. These letters were written for the express purpose of instructing the young demon on the finer points of how to corrupt the human soul. The unfortunate soul in question is referred to in the novel simply as The Patient and remains unnamed throughout the story. Screwtape heavily emphasizes in early chapters, or his early letters rather, that the best, most efficient way to fully corrupt the human soul is to do this as subtly as possible. He strongly advocates that Wormwood unsure that The Patient abandon reason--all reason--through any number of means: “busy-ness”, being excessively critical of peers, the Church, Christianity, and family, the idle pursuit of creature comforts, convenience, etc. as these would discourage The Patient and keep him too distracted from thinking about and accepting Christianity.
The Screwtape Letters was written during World War II, the horror of war serving as both a backdrop and as a plot driver. Screwtape is quick to capitalize on the situation, knowing that war often brings about extreme reactions in humanity. He sends Wormwood a series of detailed messages on producing fear from the cruelty that can be produced from war. Ironically, he also writes about bravery and virtue as a “warning” to Wormwood because war also causes people to confront the inevitability of their mortality. This reckoning with mortality in turn causes them to carefully evaluate what truly matters most to them, which causes them to act morally or worse yet, at least for their demonic cause, prompts people to genuinely seek out God and embrace Christianity. In response to this Screwtape expertly recommends that Wormwood push The Patient to extremism, either direction will do. Screwtape reasons that because whether The Patient becomes an extreme patriot or an extreme pacifist, any form of extreme inclination will result in sin--save for the extremism for God--which always results in virtue.
Exposed to the threat of constant danger, seeing the bleakness of the wartime situation, and through Wormwood’s subtle prodding The Patient experiences a crisis of faith or “losing his religion” in his own words. He happily reports this to his uncle and he is promptly rewarded with an impatient scolding from Screwtape. He is chided to stick to his tempting duties rather than revel in his success, as people are mercurial beings shuttling often between bouts of depression and periods of elation. Screwtape lectures and cautions his nephew that periods of emotional lows actually serve God’s cause more effectively because it can push people to pursue God more fervently making people virtually corruption-proof over time. Screwtape comes to the conclusion, albeit resentfully, that God genuinely loves humanity and wants them to be with Him in Heaven. He is also quick to observe that the society of that day had a predilection that the infernal forces can fully exploit: an all-consuming mania for the new and trendy. This love for all things new and modern, he reasons, prompts people to forsake Christianity because they feel that it is out of vogue and they would be willing to discard it in favor or more “modern” modes of thinking.
Throughout the novel, Wormwood, as narrated by Screwtape, utilizes both circumstances and people in an attempt to make The Patient fall from grace. The tenth letter introduces the readers to The Married Couple. They are wealthy, glib, outwardly intellectual, and pacifistic; all characteristics that The Patient admires, and as a result The Patient spends a great deal of time with them. The Married Couple’s genteel exterior contrasts strongly with their internal workings however as The Married couple are in quite vitriolic and critically outspoken of Christianity openly and frequently mocking the practices and inconsistencies of believers. Save perhaps for the understandable exception of the demons there haven’t been any characters in the novel that actively tempt The Patient away from God and The Married couple are the only human agents to do so. Screwtape quickly takes advantage of this situation and instructs Wormwood to persuade The Patient to devote as much time with The Married Couple as he can in order to fully imbibe their beliefs and push him away from God. Screwtape cautions his nephew though to make sure that this process of degradation is done slowly, gradually to keep The Patient from realizing that he is sinning which will cause him to repent and seek out the church and ultimately, God.
Wormwood’s success is short-lived however because the next letter reveals that The Patient is back in church. An exasperated Screwtape explains that this set back in The Patient’s “development” was caused by a pleasurable experience. His uncle explains that pleasure per se is not inherently evil, as pleasure was created by God, what makes pleasure evil, and favorable for demons, is the amount of pleasure being desired. The next letter informs readers that temporarily, wartime aggressions cease and these lulls trigger, ironically, feelings of anxiety and fear in The Patient. Screwtape makes use of this respite in fighting to discuss a number of questions raised by Wormwood concerning humanity as a whole and the nature of sin and virtue. He shares his delight over the schisms that the Church of England has suffered, most of which are “self-inflicted wounds” caused by silly, shallow deliberations over petty matters. He also shares his observations of people in that they virtually do their work for them when they become church “connoisseurs.” By this he means that they become so pompous and critical that they hop from one church to another with the same flippancy as sampling dishes from various restaurants critiquing the style, delivery, and wit of the preacher but never really giving of themselves and making a useful contribution to the church. As a parting thought Screwtape then writes a series of treatises concerning the confusion and the incorrect notions that modern society has concerning matters of love, marriage, and lust. He articulates his annoyance at the concept of love remarking that, at least coming from his limited and highly skewed demonic standpoint that the objective of all beings is to compete with one another and hoard as much “stuff” as they can. Despite this though he makes an amazing pronouncement that belies a profound understanding of the inner workings of marriage. He states that it takes hundreds of virtues to make a marriage work properly. Virtues like loyalty, honesty, respect, all of which run counter to their cause, hence the desire to ensure that the haze of confusion surrounding these matters remain.
In keeping true with his demonic nature Wormwood manages to blackmail his uncle with the threat of exposing a to the infernal equivalent of the Gestapo a “heretical” notion that Screwtape had mentioned in his previous letter. He is referring to Screwtape’s realization that God truly loves humanity, a belief that nullifies the widely held demonic belief that the goal of all mankind is to compete with others for limited resources. In a reversal of fortunes the readers now find Screwtape anxiously petitioning his nephew Wormwood not to expose him and he reverses his stand stating that God doesn’t actually love humanity. This love is a ruse to obscure his actual plan: a plan so mysterious that no demon has ever understood it. This shows the true root and nature of infernal evil---the inability to understand and accept the love of God at face value.
Screwtape expounds on the erroneous belief The Patient espouses in the next letter. Screwtape debunks The Patient’s belief that he has the right to indulge himself in free time/me time. He explains to Wormwood that The Patient owes the very time--and most everything else such as talent and wealth--that he has on Earth to God and that it is stupidity to think that one is entitled to anything. He muses that God desires all humanity to come to a point in their lives where they are acutely aware that all their talents, time, and resources, despite being benefitted by them all come from God and they owe Him for it. Wormwood reports to Screwtape that The Patient has fallen in love with a truly righteous, genuinely Christian woman. So virtuous in fact that she sickens Screwtape so much that it causes him to transform into a gigantic centipede. This new form however doesn’t impede him in the least. In fact he informs Wormwood that his attempts to betray him to the demonic Secret Police have failed and that he now under the threat of punishment himself if he fails to turn The Patient away from God.
The succeeding letters now deal with The Patient and The Patient’s Lover and chronicle their courtship and meeting with her highly educated, Christian family. Screwtape, ever the schemer and opportunist, advises his protégé to manipulate The Patient’s ego and desire for novelty. Humans, but most especially modern humans, he expounds have an unexplainable obsession for new things, a desire that he considers absurd because things are by their very nature completely neutral. As the relationship of The Patient and his lover grows he advises Wormwood to make full use of the situation to corrupt The Patient by making their romance an all-consuming obsession that will, over time, mutate into genuine resentment for one another, realizing that maintaining such a degree of intensity requires work that cannot be sustained over long periods of time without other virtues driving it.
The war rages once again and The Patient is drafted to fight and this development alarms Screwtape greatly. He warns his protégé that The Patient may die in a state of virtue ensuring that his soul goes to God. He also points out that humans as a whole fear death greatly and enjoy life even more than they fear death. He mentions these key thoughts to emphasize that the experience of life is beneficial to their infernal cause as it heightens appetite for sensual experiences or as time goes on humans experience hopelessness and gravitate towards sin. Nearing the end of the novel, the war escalates and air attacks happen within The Patient’s immediate vicinity. Once more, ever the opportunist, Screwtape manages to use the situation to advance their cause. He informs Screwtape that he should make it his objective to move The Patient to harbor hate for the Germans and mask that hate under the guise of patriotism and love for his community. He warns Wormwood however that accomplishing this task is more difficult than it seems as moving The Patient to feel love for his community may make him a more genuinely loving individual. Alternatively Screwtape advises that Wormwood manipulate The Patient to feel fearfulness. This move though comes with its own set of challenges, making The Patient fearful would have him feel helpless and as a result move him to seek God all the more. Ironically, all of these suggestions for angles of attack and utilizing situations for their purposes drives Screwtape admit to the difficulty of the task, stating that no matter what method they use humanity has a way of embracing God and faith.
Screwtape writes his final letter to Wormwood explaining that The Patient has died in a bombing run and that he “saw God” in his final moments on earth and had an epiphany that no temptation could overcome him. This concluding letter begins with a great deal of affectionate terms addressed to Wormwood, different from the rest of his letters. The readers however are soon made aware of the sarcasm behind the warmth and this is foreshadowing of Wormwood’s fate. Screwtape acknowledges the he is completely baffled by God’s love for man and hasn’t a clue of what will happen to The Patient now that he is in heaven. Paradoxically, he even articulates a desire to learn what heaven is like, if for nothing more than to satisfy his curiosity. The letter ends with him explaining that the punishment for failing to accomplish his task, which was to corrupt The Patient and turn him to sin, is to be eaten alive--by none other than the eponymous Screwtape--a task that he looks forward to accomplishing with great gusto.
