Analysis of Argument

The Screwtape Letters by C.S. Lewis

Letter 3

In letter 3, Screwtape makes the main point that Wormwood can effectively keep his patient far
from God by using irritability and annoyance about others. The context is that Wormwood has
written Screwtape that the patient doesn’t have a good relationship with his mother, with whom
he lives. Screwtape tells Wormwood how to maximize the effects of the “daily pinpricks” of
irritating habits to increase the distance between the patient and God (Lewis 11). Four specific
steps to take are presented, but Screwtape’s reasons for these steps are not stated outright.
Instead, Screwtape’s reasons must be inferred as the reader thinks about the letter.

The first reason Screwtape says that this annoyance with someone else is effective for keeping
patients away from God is that it makes the patient focus on himself. Screwtape points out that
the patient’s idea about his recent conversion to Christianity is mostly about himself and not
about how he treats others. Wormwood can use this to put more distance between the patient
and God if Wormwood will encourage the patient to focus more on his annoyance with his
mother rather than on what he should be doing for her. A side benefit will be that the patient will
grow increasingly aware of his mother’s faults and simultaneously less aware of his own faults.
Screwtape points out that this is a way to make the human NOT see reality or truth of the
human’s own situation, but instead to focus on his own feelings. This is one of the over-arching
goals that Screwtape and Wormwood have in their dealings with humans. The more we focus
on our feelings, the less we see ourselves realistically. Why would humans need a Savior if they
have no faults or sins?

The second reason Screwtape says that this annoyance with someone else can keep humans
away from God is that in a family situation, the annoyance will happen very often. Screwtape is
aware that the more often a human does something, the more normal it feels. So the human
patient will become more and more convinced that it’s the other person who is annoying and the
normal response will be to be irritated. The human patient will believe that his annoyance is
normal; he will believe that all normal humans are irritated by their mothers; he will no longer
see his annoyance as something he should control, but instead it is perfectly normal to feel --
and to show -- annoyance.
The third reason Screwtape says that a human patient being annoyed daily with someone else’s
behavior is a good way to keep them away from God is that he will continue to see other
people’s sins and mistakes as more serious than his own. Thus he will be focused on the sins of
other people, developing a critical attitude toward others, yet he will not be aware of his own
sins. As long as he is not aware of his own sins and mistakes, he will not turn to God in
repentance to gain forgiveness. Instead, his heart will harden toward God as he sees himself as
not needing forgiveness.

In this letter, Screwtape urges Wormwood to work with Glubose, whose patient is Wormwood’s
patient’s mother. When the devils work together, the negative effect on the humans is multiplied.
This can make it even harder for the humans to step away from the annoyance and irritability.
While it seems a small annoyance, the fact that the annoyance happens every day means that it
becomes a major distraction away from God.