Preview
Discussion Questions
Narration Prompt
Reconstruct Screwtape's eleventh letter in sequence, ascending from the laughter the devils cannot use to the laughter they prize most. How can you tell that flippancy, not the cruder Joke, is the letter's true climax?
Discussion Questions
- Screwtape confesses the cause of joyful laughter 'we do not know,' that it resembles 'Music' and what 'occurs in Heaven,' and is 'quite opaque to us.' Is Joy a threat to Hell chiefly for its moral effects or for belonging to an order the devils cannot even perceive — and why does Lewis make one of these primary? Use Screwtape's words to Wormwood to defend your reading.
- Screwtape names the 'real use' of the Joke as 'a means of destroying shame.' Why does Lewis treat the dismantling of shame as a more fundamental conquest than any particular sin, and what does it reveal about the function of shame in the moral life? Use Screwtape's words to Wormwood to develop your answer.
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Critical Thinking
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