“Better to reign in hell than serve in Heaven” -Milton
Milton uses his artistic talents to paint a word picture of an ex-angel, now devil. Who knew what it was like to serve in Heaven but enjoys the more influential role in hell. This devil is a conquer, one who threatens heaven itself. C.S. Lewis says in his book the Screwtape Letters that; “Indeed the safest road to hell is the gradual one- the gentle slope, soft underfoot, without sudden turnings, without milestones, and without sign posts.” This portrays a different devil then Miltons’. This devil is personal and sneaky. Lewis and Milton both are unbelievingly talented, and both used their talents to honor God. In their books Screwtape Letters by Lewis and Paradise
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Lost by Milton, they both portray a devil. There is a lead devil in both pieces of literature. Lewis’s lead devil goes by the name Screwtape, while Milton’s is known as Satan. These devils share many common characteristics such as devious ways and authority. Through artistic modes these devils share another characteristic sympathy. These skillful writers make their readers sympathetic to the devil through their humanizing, their one-sided writing, and the character traits each devil portrays. C.S.
Lewis and Milton use their writer tactics to show sympathy for their devils through humanizing their fiends. Lewis’s devil, Screwtape, is a family man. He always signs off his letter your affectionate uncle. He always wants his nephew to succeed and helps him along the way. He seldom looses his temper and in the end is always loving to his dear nephew. This example of family plays on the emotion of the reader. Nobody wishes to harm a bond as strongly woven as the loving family bond between Screwtape and his nephew. Family makes the reader sympathize with Screwtape, while heroism ignites the readers passion for …show more content…
Satan. Milton draws a passionate picture of Satan through his romantic poetic phrases. From the beginning Satan breaks free from the chains that bind him to the fiery lake. Humans relate with this through their mere desperation. Chains and twine are heavy, and humans hate having to have both. When Satan breaks free something inside the reader wants to break free too. Then in the garden Satan is so gentle and calm. He never harms anyone, with his whispers and lies. Milton’s mosaic of words and qualifiers spent solely on Satan help the reader construct a humanistic portrait of a heroic fiend. Between words and family binds, Milton and Lewis’s devils are put in human terms in the readers mind through the humanizing of the characters in the books. Lewis and Milton show sympathy for the devil by only sharing one side of the story. Lewis briefly mentions God, the enemy in his writings. Screwtape, in his letters to his nephew, is always giving advice as to how to fight for “the patient”. A letter from Screwtape consist of meaningful advice for how to protect “the patient” from “the enemy”. These quick mentions of the other side, never portray the power or truth of the other side. Since the reader only reads one side of the story its hard for them to sympathize with anyone except the devil. This is true for Milton’s Satan. Milton spends most of his artistic talents on Satan, while leaving God as an emotionless high being. Satan says: “The mind is its own place, and itself can make a heav’n of hell, a hell of heav’n.” This confession shows the standing of Satan. He believes in his power and his power alone. Milton paints God as someone who doesn’t care for his offspring. While Satan is the focus, his faults sometimes are covered by Milton’s poetry. This unequal treatment leads the reader to sympathize with the fighter someone who believes in a utopia like them. The utopia Satan and Screwtape wish the reader to believe in is caused by a lack of insight from the other side. Lewis and Milton show sympathy for their devils through the character traits they give them.
Lewis gives just authority to Screwtape. This authority leads to his correspondences to his nephew, which brings forth another more appealing trait-love. As said before Screwtape signs his letters your affectionate uncle. He also takes time to religiously communicate with his nephew. These simple yet powerful acts play with a reader’s emotions. The reader likes when authority is used to help others and that is exactly how Screwtape uses his authority. He also is knowledgeable giving him another reason to be put in his current position. Sympathy for Screwtape comes from his actions and the way he handles himself in the position he is given. This sympathy follows over to Milton’s
Satan. Satan was a leader all through paradise lost. His throne in hell was earned through defiance of authority. Milton struggled with the same problem in his life. The authority at the time was the church. He disagreed with this authority which lead to sleepless nights and his family rejecting him. He truly relates and sympathizes with his devil because he is fighting the same uphill climb. The reader, like Milton, sympathizes with Satan because he is always trying to further what he believes while being shot down by an omnipotent opponent. Readers face what they believe is the same up hill climb. This sympathy is drawn through the real frustration of Milton and is enhanced in the readers imagination by the rugged leadership role Satan is given by Milton himself. C.S Lewis’s devil, Screwtape, brought sympathy through his love towards his nephew and his high position in Hell. While, John Milton’s devil, Satan, brought sympathy through his actions. These two devils were sympathized by readers through their creators humanizing them, the untold other side, and their admirable character traits. Milton doesn’t fail to recognize Satan’s vast power while still recognizing God’s unbeatable power. This is why Milton is a greater portrayer of the devil then Lewis. His devil is cunning and devious. He exploits the mind, body, and soul to enhance his plans. This is the way of the devil, he is egotistic and uses simple tactics to make you believe into his lies. C.S. Lewis does a great job of showing the simple ways of the devil, but leads, with his smooth and eloquent letters, to a mutual standing with the devil. The reader is left feeling sympathy and understanding for the being who is trying to destroy them. Milton shows his readers the ugly side and truth about the devil, while also sympathizing closer with him, then Lewis at the same time.
The Screwtape Letters by C.S. Lewis is a book of thirty –one letters in which a retired, senior demon named Screwtape coaches his newly educated nephew, Wormwood. Wormwood is quite troubled when it comes to tempting his “patient.” Nevertheless, he need not fear because faithful uncle Screwtape has offered his services. A unique character featured in the letters is, “The Enemy.” This character refers to God, the natural enemy of Satan. Of course Satan is referred to as “Our Lord.” In the letters, and Wormwood and Screwtape try their very best to please Satan and bring him glory. Although the book is written from the demons’ perspective, Lewis naturally uses it to highlight important truths of the Christian faith.
A Faustian legend is a story in which a character trades something of great personal value to the devil in order to receive personal gain. Since this type of literature originated in the Fourth Century it has spread throughout the world. Two relatively recent versions of this legend are “The Devil and Tom Walker” by Washington Irving and “The Devil and Daniel Webster” by Vincent Benét. These stories show many similarities as well as a few differences. While both Benét and Irving present similar themes in setting of the tales and motivation in the Faustian character, they do differ in the nature of that character and their visual presentation of the Devil.
C.S Lewis was like a rebellious teenager of the modern time period. He lived only during the modern era and very beginning of the postmodern era, but in his later years Lewis liked to describe himself as "old-fashioned", writing using ideas contrary to the time periods in which he lived. The modern and postmodern time periods began to view religion as a myth, and used reason to perceive the world instead. During his younger years Lewis embraced the ideas of the modern era, but his world-view changed upon his conversion to Christianity. Since he had dabbled in aspects of both modern and pre-modern eras, his later works intertwined the ideas of both literary periods.
The Screwtape Letters are a fictional series of letters compiled into a book and written by the highly acclaimed apologist and author, C.S. Lewis. The Letters discuss topics such as salvation, the Christian lifestyle, depression, love, and many other subjects that are pivotal to the way we live, think, and interact with others and the world around us.
Screwtape is an older demon who is trying to turn his nephew, Wormwood, away from the Enemy and to the father. In The Screwtape Letters, the enemy is God and the Father is Satan. C.S Lewis does this to draw attention to the story. A book coming from a devils point of view is much more interesting than a book coming from an angel’s point of view (Dr.Chisholm). The point of this essay is to compare my beliefs to Screwtape’s and see how they are similar.
In all aspects, Washington Irving’s, “The Devil and Tom Walker” is a classic example of American Romanticism. It incorporates all of the defining characteristics of Romanticism in literary works, and makes them stand out. Irving uses nature’s influence, Tom Walker’s miserly outlook, and the weight of supernatural strength, to shape his story, resulting in the story’s exemplar position as the best illustration of American
All in all, the Screwtape Letters is a noteworthy book that can give Christian an insight to temptation, and may allow them to find their own weakness in temptation and how they can heal themselves and ovoid temptations, or how to stray from them and to God. This book helped me to explore my inner faith and personally helped me to understand my position in how I can ovoid the devil’s tricks and how to grow closer to God. Although C.S. Lewis intended this book to mostly fictional, it still helps one realize their faults or how they are being tricked into growing away from their faith in ways one could explain and understand.
Milton establishes himself as the legitimate teller of the tale – and this tale will take us beyond the mythology of the Greeks’Aonian Mount and inoculate us against Hell’s prodigiousness. He is taking us beyond mythological or explanatory pictures of ourselves, to an area where we may bask in a greater comfort:
In C.S. Lewis’ The Screwtape Letters is about about two demons: Screwtape and Wormwood, who are guiding a human being referred as “the patient”. Lewis presents to the audience in his work numerous practical theological insights regarding the fight against the passions and the development of the virtues. In letters eight and nine both mainly discuss about the Law of Undulation. In the eighth letter. it discusses about what is the Law of Undulation itself and how God makes us serve this law. In the other hand, the ninth letter also discusses about the law, but it specifically explain how do we as the devils make use of this law.
After God created the Earth and mankind, all was right in the Holy kingdom. That is until, a friend, the bearer of light, the morning star fell in battle and ultimately in darkness. This fateful battle made true everything we know and live now. Milton and Dante play on this every concept in two very different ways, for Milton a cunning reflection of man and for Dante an animalisitic dunce. Milton and Dante use the Bible stories as a backdrop for their epic poems of love and of loss wherein a single unique character, a bearer of light is made to reverberate humanity and the supreme basic darkness that is the soul of man, one can note these key elements vis-a-vis his appearance, domain and the influence of Lucifer.
Many arguments have been made that Dante’s Inferno glimmers through here and there in Milton’s Paradise Lost. While at first glance the two poems seem quite drastically different in their portrayal of Hell, but scholars have made arguments that influence from Dante shines through Milton’s work as well as arguments refuting these claims. All of these arguments have their own merit and while there are instances where a Dantean influence can be seen throughout Paradise Lost, Milton’s progression of evil and Satan are quite different from Dante. Dante’s influence on Milton is noted by many scholars and is very apparent in several instances throughout Paradise Lost, however, Milton shows a progression of evil through his own vision of Satan and creates a Hell that is less meticulously constructed than Dante’s and more open to interpretation.
Milton’s Satan in Paradise Lost is a complex character meant to be the evil figure in the epic poem. Whenever possible Satan attempts to undermine God and the Son of God who is the true hero of the story. Throughout the story Milton tells the readers that Satan is an evil character, he is meant not to have any redeeming qualities, and to be shown completely as an unsympathetic figure. Satan’s greatest sins are pride and vanity in thinking he can overthrow God, and in the early part of the poem he is portrayed as selfish while in Heaven where all of God’s angels are loved and happy. Satan’s journey starts out as a fallen angel with great stature, has the ability to reason and argue, but by Book X the anguish and pain he goes through is more reason for him to follow an evil path instead. Even so, Milton uses literal and figurative imagery in the description of Satan’s character to manipulate the reader’s response to the possibility that Satan may actually be a heroic figure. As the plot of the story unfolds there are moments where the reader can identify with Satan’s desires and relate to his disappointments.
Lewis, C.W. "Satan." Milton: Modern Essays in Criticism. Ed. Arthur E. Barker. New York: Oxford University Press, 1965. 196-204. Print.
It is thus that Books I and II of "Paradise Lost" are so unique, as is the alternative, and less-frequently explored world of the devils, is probed in such a. fascinating manner of the story. Milton uses the story of the fallen angels to open up on numerous eras, civilisations, myths and stories, allowing him to convey his own. perception of the world's history, as the reader is guided through various. points in time to be made. Before we are introduced to the individuals, Milton. depicts an enormous army of different species, each of changeable size and.
Although the epic poem centers around the story of the fall of man, it is interesting that Milton intertwines in this story the fall of Satan from heaven and the consequences it has not only for Satan himself, but for Adam, Eve, and the world as a whole. Milton allows the reader to see the fall from the point of view of Satan, God, as well as Adam and Eve. Because Milton gives insight into these characters feelings regarding the fall, it is no surprise that he uses “eternal providence” in conjunction with the stories of Satan, Adam, and Eve. The providence being described here is the knowledge of good and evil. However, ev...