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Copywork
About This Passage
Lewis captures the exact mechanism of self-deception in a quarrel: each person clearly sees the cheap, manipulative 'unselfishness' of the other while feeling perfectly innocent and wronged himself. Copying this balanced sentence trains a reader to notice how easily the eye that is sharp toward others' faults goes blind toward its own.
Each side is, indeed, quite alive to the cheap quality of the adversary’s Unselfishness and of the false position into which he is trying to force them; but each manages to feel blameless and ill-used...
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Discussion Questions
Narration Prompt
Reconstruct the argument of Screwtape's twenty-sixth letter to Wormwood in sequence — the exploiting of the ambiguity in 'Love,' the Philological swap of positive Charity for negative unselfishness, the gendered divergence of meaning, the legislating of self-sacrifice while the enchantment lasts, and the Generous Conflict Illusion. Then state the single corruption you take to organize the letter, and weigh how a counterfeit virtue can do more damage than an open vice.
Discussion Questions
- Screwtape distinguishes Charity, which gives 'that others may be happy in having' a benefit, from unselfishness, which gives 'that he may be unselfish in forgoing' it. When the outward deed is identical, is the moral worth of an act determined chiefly by its visible result or by the end the agent intends — and what in the letter to Wormwood helps you decide, and why?
- In an earlier letter the devils replaced the descriptive 'unchanged' with the emotional 'stagnant'; here their 'Philological Arm' replaces 'Charity' with 'unselfishness.' Reading the two letters together, is the manipulation of language a relatively minor tactic or one of Hell's most fundamental tools — and why does altering the words available to a culture exert such deep control over how it can think and act? Use details from this letter and the earlier one to Wormwood, and explain why your reading is stronger.
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Vocabulary Builder
Item 1
Set aside or given up (a right or claim), at least for now.
Item 2
A spell-like state of charmed feeling that clouds clear sight.
Item 3
Arising freely and naturally, without being prompted.
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Critical Thinking
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