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About This Passage
Lewis exposes a quiet word-swap here: replacing 'Charity' (positively wanting another's good) with 'unselfishness' (merely going without) shifts a kind act's whole aim from the other person's happiness to the giver's own virtue. Copying these sentences trains a reader to notice how changing one word can change what a person is really trying to do.
Note, once again, the admirable work of our Philological Arm in substituting the negative unselfishness for the Enemy’s positive Charity. Thanks to this you can, from the very outset, teach a man to s...
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Discussion Questions
Narration Prompt
In your own words, tell the story of Screwtape's twenty-sixth letter to Wormwood. How do the devils swap the word 'Charity' for 'unselfishness,' and how do a man and a woman come to mean different things by it? Then explain the funny, sad tea-in-the-garden quarrel and the 'secret grudge' hidden beneath it.
Discussion Questions
- Screwtape has the devils swap 'Charity' — which positively wants another's good — for 'unselfishness,' which only means going without. When a person gives a thing up, is the kind act really about the other person's happiness or about the giver's own virtue — and how can you tell which it is? Use Screwtape's words to Wormwood to defend your reading.
- In an earlier letter the devils replaced the plain word 'unchanged' with the loaded word 'stagnant'; here their 'Philological Arm' replaces 'Charity' with 'unselfishness.' Reading the two letters together, how does changing the words people use change what they are able to think and do, and why is corrupting a vocabulary such a useful tool for Hell? Use details from this letter and the earlier one to Wormwood to develop your answer.
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Vocabulary Builder
Item 1
Real love that actively wants and seeks the good of others.
Item 2
A secret feeling of resentment held against someone.
Item 3
Having to do with home and family life.
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Critical Thinking
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