Preview
Copywork
About This Passage
Here Screwtape gives a small, almost comic example of a very large claim: that the devils can change what whole peoples find admirable. They have, he boasts, 'triumphed over nature' so far as to make something as ordinary as a beard go in and out of favour — and he hints there is 'more in that than you might suppose.' Copying these two sentences shows a writer how one humble example can prove a sweeping point: if even a beard can be made fashionable or unfashionable by the right pressure, then the tastes a person thinks are simply his own may have been arranged for him.
Thus we have now for many centuries triumphed over nature to the extent of making certain secondary characteristics of the male (such as the beard) disagreeable to nearly all the females—and there is ...
Full copywork activity with handwriting lines available in the complete study guide.
Discussion Questions
Narration Prompt
In your own words, tell the story of Screwtape's twentieth letter to Wormwood. First, how do the devils shape what people find admirable by controlling fashion? Then, what does Screwtape say about the two very different ways a person can love or want someone else?
Discussion Questions
- Screwtape says the devils 'produce in every age a general misdirection' of taste, working through 'popular artists' and advertisers to decide the fashionable look. What makes it tempting to admire whatever the fashion shows you, and why does Lewis want the reader to know the fashion was chosen for us on purpose? Use Screwtape's words to Wormwood to defend your reading.
- In an earlier letter the devils tried to replace a man's 'own real likings' with 'the standards of the World, or convention, or fashion'; here Screwtape shows how those fashions are manufactured. How do these two letters together reveal that steering what people want is one of Hell's steady aims, and why is a person's honest, first-hand liking such a threat to it? Use details from this letter and the earlier one to Wormwood to develop your answer.
+ 3 more questions in the complete study guide
Vocabulary Builder
Item 1
A deliberate steering of people the wrong way.
Item 2
Lasting only a short time; quickly passing.
Item 3
Excessive pride in one's looks or worth.
+ 5 more vocabulary words in the complete study guide
Critical Thinking
+ 5 more questions in the complete study guide
Get the complete study guide — free
Sign up and get your first book with every chapter included. Copywork, discussion questions, vocabulary, and critical thinking.
Sign up free