Preview
Copywork
About This Passage
These two sentences hold the chapter's hidden machinery: cowardice only ever hurts, but hatred 'has its pleasures,' so a frightened person reaches for hatred as a kind of payment for the misery of fear. Copying the passage helps a reader see why fear so easily curdles into anger, and why the devils are pleased when it does.
Cowardice, alone of all the vices, is purely painful—horrible to anticipate, horrible to feel, horrible to remember; Hatred has its pleasures. It is therefore often the compensation by which a frighte...
Full copywork activity with handwriting lines available in the complete study guide.
Discussion Questions
Narration Prompt
Retell Screwtape's twenty-ninth letter to Wormwood in order: the choice between cowardice, courage, and hatred; why the devils cannot make the man brave; why fear breeds hatred; the danger that facing cowardice could wake the man up; and why courage is the test of every virtue. Then say which single idea you think holds the whole letter together.
Discussion Questions
- Screwtape draws a sharp line between 'the emotion of fear,' which is 'in itself, no sin,' and 'the act of cowardice,' which 'is all that matters.' What difference is he pointing to, and how should it change the way we judge a frightened person who still stays at their duty? Which detail in the letter to Wormwood helps you decide?
- Screwtape says a mercy 'which yields to danger' is merciful 'only on conditions,' and that 'Pilate was merciful till it became risky.' Why might danger reveal whether a person's goodness is real, in a way that easy and safe times never could? Name the detail in the letter to Wormwood that helps you decide.
+ 3 more questions in the complete study guide
Vocabulary Builder
Item 1
The failure to do what is right because fear wins out.
Item 2
Something that soothes or numbs pain or distress.
Item 3
Turning away from a wrong with honest sorrow for it.
+ 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