The letter begins by brining up the patient's new girlfriend and Screwtape seems really annoyed that the nephew has not included this significant fact in his last letter. In response to his annoyance he sends his nephew a booklet.
Screwtape seems very disgusted by the patient's new girlfriend calling her a "brute" and states "she makes me want to vomit" why does Screwtape feel this way about the girlfriend?
When he talks about her house he speaks of it reeking and that anyone who visits smells horribly after they leave the house. What is the smell suppose to symbolize?
I also thought that it was very interesting that at the end of this letter he turns himself into a centipede...how that happened I am not quite sure though.
Overall this was just a very jumbled and confusing letter.
Hopefully some of you can help me to better understand the deeper meaning!
4 comments:
Well my understanding of the letter was that Screwtape was talking bad about the girl because he realizes that she is a very good person. Screwtape knows that by the patient loving this kind and religious women they could loose him forever, for love can truly change and humble a person. This new girl could teach the patient how to be a true follower of God, and Screwtape does not want this to happen.
I agree with the previous response. Screwtape is just completely disgusted by this girl, because he recognizes that she is a very strong Christian, and thus a very dangerous girl for the patient to be in love with. He is extremely likely to take on her strong faith, which Screwtape would despise. However, the only redeeming quality that Screwtape finds in her is that she exhibits spiritual pride to an excess. She is so religious in fact, that she considers herself better than others. Screwtape urges Wormwood to try and exploit this fact within the patient. I think the whole catepillar metamorphisis thing was just a little bit of comedy, showing that Wormwood got so mad and frustrated, that he accidently turned himself into a different creatures. Demons can do that I guess...
In some ways it seems like Screwtape just can't wait to catch a break with the patient. We're now 20 some chapters into the book and the patient is probably no worse off than he was at the beginning. What would be better than for him to run across a women who Screwtape realizes will turn him into a complete head case? This could also be an indication of the effects of family on people since despite how often people will say that they're independent of such influences, it's really hard to make it actually happen.
Corianna, I also thought that this chapter was a little harder to understand. But I think that a lot that had to do with the fact that he mainly just bashed this women to pieces. I didn't understand the smell either but the only correlation that I can see is that he points out a lot of things that make us familiar with people and places? Don't ask me what that means... haha Sorry I couldn't be of more assistance!
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