“And anyway, why should the creature be happy? Your affectionate uncle, Screwtape” (Lewis 41). Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an Original EssayIn the preface to The Screwtape Letters, Christian author and apologist C.S. Lewis essentially clarifies the work's intended audience: "There are two equal and opposite errors into which our race may fall concerning devils. One is not to believe in their existence. The other is to believe and feel an excessive and unhealthy interest in them. They themselves are equally pleased with both errors and acclaim a materialist or a magician with the same joy" (Lewis, preface). this epistolary novel, Screwtape, an elderly devil, instructs his nephew and "young tempter" on how to effectively capture the soul of the human assigned to him, referred to only as "the patient". unconsciously conquer and steal the patient's devotion, exploiting simple and seemingly natural human tendencies that, according to him, were created by demons. Within this interesting form of storytelling, all intuitive “morality” is reversed, as evil becomes good, good becomes bad, and the patient's development of virtues is considered fatal. Through such an ironic reversal of traditionally accepted and encouraged values, Lewis illustrates the psychology of human beings and their moral choices as dictated and manipulated by spiritual beings. All readers of this piece by C.S. Lewis have different beliefs and experiences that shape their interpretation of the text. Perspectives and responses are based on the time period, the reader's gender, whether the reader is Christian, atheist, or of another religion, and a general accumulation of beliefs determined by individual experience and upbringing. This idea of ​​infinite unique perspectives for each text is described by English literary analyst and professor Ross C. Murfin as "reader response" literary criticism, which raises "theoretical questions about whether our responses to a work are the of its meanings". , whether a work can have as many meanings as the responses we have to it, and whether some responses are more valid than others” (Murfin 337). According to reader response critic Wolfgang Iser, readers who actively seek to "bring 'things' into the text" (Cordell 292) are known as "effective readers." According to Iser's interpretation of reader response theory, there are two different types of readers, the "implicit reader, the one the text creates for itself" (Cordell 292) and the "actual reader" (Cordell 292 ) who applies experience, personal beliefs and previous knowledge of the text, thus completing the meaning of the work. Somewhere between the “implied reader” and the “actual reader” lies the true intended meaning, as one is inspired by the author and the other by the reader. This research paper will attempt to address the numerous factors that might influence different interpretations of Lewis's Screwtape Letters and how these perspectives reveal the intended meaning. I will compare opposing points of view using secondary criticisms of the novel, two of the most essential predispositions being whether the reader is Christian or atheist. I will also discuss the validity of some views over others and how this is determined. The Screwtape Letters by C.S. Lewis allows readers to place their own individual experiences, knowledge, and beliefs into the context of the story to effectively convey the flaws he often sees in Christian lifestyles. The notion of warspiritual, or constant struggle of demons to manipulate and win individual human devotion, seems absolutely absurd to many. From the lens of a reader influenced by a progressive and increasingly less religious society, this idea seems like one that only the Christian interpretation of inerrancy, or the belief that everything within the Bible is fundamentally and historically accurate, would support. An atheist or non-believer could easily regard Lewis's narrative as simply an accurate description of the human sociological condition, and that the involvement of demons in the midst of a natural and common mistake (or a morally neutral action) is completely irrelevant and absurdly false. For this reason, it seems that the effectiveness of this piece lies in the reader's predisposition to Christian faith or atheism. Lewis does not attempt to convince the non-believing reader of the legitimacy of his claims about the existence of these demons, but rather writes in a way that very convincingly reveals their existence and practices to the already Christian reader. Reading the series of letters without any background knowledge or experience as a Christian, there appears to be no support for the claim that these devils dictate the evil that is present in the world. As someone who grew up conditioned to believe in the existence of a God and spirits, a physical manifestation of the struggles common in Christianity, can be logically justified to me. This is due to my heavy reliance on what I have personally felt and experienced in my life thus far, an interesting human tendency considering our plethora of proven historical and scientific data that would more logically fuel our decisions and beliefs. This division – experience versus fact, ethereal versus concrete, real versus subjective – is approached from the elder to the younger devil as a construct of the Devil himself: “The general rule which we have now pretty well established between them is that in all experiences which may make them happier or better only the physical facts are “Real” while the spiritual elements are “subjective”; in all experiences that may discourage or corrupt them, the spiritual elements are the main reality and to ignore them is to be evasive. Thus at birth the blood and pain are "real", the joy a mere subjective point of view; in death, the terror and ugliness reveal what death “really means” (Lewis 77). According to Screwtape, the speaker, I have just proven to be a victim of his master's creation of the belief in subjectivity within experience. A categorization of everything that happens, everything that exists physically, and everything that is thought into a spectrum of reality dependent on our incredibly limited human perspective is fundamentally absurd; this notion is warped by our predisposition to recognize tangible things as more “real” than the thought of our own existence and mental capacity, which allows us to ask this question in the first place and should therefore seem like the most concrete reality there is. Lewis states that this is one of the many short-sighted human tendencies that Screwtape tells Wormwood the demons have created to lure the patient further and further away from God. Lewis uses the perspective of the tempters or demons to address the common flaws he sees in a typical quest for faith: “It's funny how mortals always imagine us putting things in their minds: in reality our best work is done by keeping things out” (Lewis 18). This passage is a perfect example of what I feel is the overall purpose of the piece as a whole. Through the ironic perspective of the direct supporters and “creators” of all evil in the world (according to Lewis), it is attractingthe focus on harmful Christian practices and habits that he personally believes need to be addressed. In the passage mentioned above, he's essentially saying, “He's as funny (or ignorant) as other people all the time. . .” fill in the blank. Using the Devil as a target makes the message even more powerful, as it does not come from another human being judging, but rather from the source and creator of evil itself. By using Screwtape as a narrator, Lewis is simply giving his authorial voice more weight and credibility. While Lewis attacks certain habits that Christians often fall into, he is also making the point that it is not because of our natural wiring that this happens, but rather the work of demons like Screwtape and Wormwood. This may seem, depending on one's upbringing, to be just an excuse that Christians can use to not measure up. To a non-Christian, this probably seems more like a petty justification for bad behavior than anything else. However, because Lewis uses Screwtape as a creative literary device to further his argument, he also truly believes in the existence of demons, the novel's New York-based secondary critic Adam Lee states, "Although the book may be intended allegorically, In complex leaves little doubt that Lewis sincerely believed that evil spirits existed and constantly assaulted human minds” (Lee). Regardless of the author's intended message or personal beliefs, the work will always be viewed differently by everyone readers As a New York writer and minor critic of Screwtape reminds us: “The novel remains extremely popular because, whether or not you agree with Lewis that the Devil is real, the evils promoted by Screwtape – greed, gluttony, pride, envy and violence – they certainly are” (Cep). Lewis uses a writing style that allows for the insertion of one's own experience into the context of what is being discussed. Rather than delve deeply into the life of the “patient,” Lewis simply uses him as a representative of the human race to reveal common Christian errors and the Devil's dictation and manipulation of those errors: “When the patient is a recently adult reconverted to the party of the enemy [of God], like your man, is best done by encouraging him to remember, or think of remembering, the parrot nature of his prayers in childhood. In reaction to this, he can be persuaded to aim for something entirely spontaneous, internal, informal and unregularized; and what this will actually mean for a beginner will be an effort to produce in himself a vaguely devotional state of mind in which real concentration of will and intelligence has no part” (Lewis 18). Since the patient is not even given a name and Lewis does not delve into his personal life but rather focuses on the devil's role in it, the reader can easily put himself in the patient's position and recall moments when the same or a similar case it happened in his life. Lewis perfectly allows for a deep, individual, and unique response, as the reader will naturally connect all discussions to their own life and experiences. As Louise Rosenblatt, a pioneer in reader response criticism, suggests, “readers interact with the text by bringing with them their past life experiences to help interpret the text” (Cordell 298). This response is also greatly influenced by the reader's emotion along with the experience, Wolfgang Iser recognizes "the simple fact that readers respond to literature on an emotional level and that such responses are important to understanding the work" (Cordell 292). While reading the novel, a person's emotional capacity, orthe level at which one is naturally emotionally affected will inevitably influence his interpretation of the text. Likewise, the level at which the reader relates to the methods of temptation employed by the demons will impact the emotional response, and therefore the overall interpretation of the meaning. With a modern and progressive perspective, you will notice some unequal representations when reading this work. Throughout the novel, sexist undertones can be recognized in Lewis' selection of characters, which can be seen simply in the lack of female characters, particularly in the fact that all of the demons mentioned are male. Even excluding women from such a negative role, there is inherent inequality. However, Lewis also demonstrates a remarkable awareness of sexual double standards: “It is the business of these great masters to produce in every age a general misdirection of what may be called sexual “taste.” It's all false, of course; figures in folk art are drawn falsely; real women who bathe in dresses or pantyhose are actually pinched and propped up to make them appear firmer, slimmer and more masculine than nature allows a grown woman to be. Yet at the same time, the modern world is taught to believe that it means to be “frank” and “healthy” and return to nature. As a result we increasingly direct men's desires towards something that does not exist” (Lewis 51). Attributing this unreasonable sexual standard to the work of demons in the early 1940s, metaphorically or otherwise, is socially progressive. At the time the novel was written, the existence of God and demons was more widely accepted than in today's culture. A modern reader, with a deeper scientific awareness and conditioned skepticism about religion, may not be as fully immersed in the work as someone from the 1940s. The novel, however, speaks to a series of ideas and life struggles that have remained largely unchanged over time due to our sociological hardwiring: “For all readers, regardless of creed, the letters frame human experience as a familiar sequence of evidence, from how you drink your tea and which parties you attend, what kind of person you choose as a partner and what kind of politics you adhere to” (Cep). Because of the clearly intended audience, the meaning of this work is not as subjective or malleable to the reader's interpretations as many other novels. Rather, the reader's level of understanding, and therefore interpretation, of the piece is determined largely by prior knowledge and experience with Christianity. While an infinite number of interpretations are possible, regardless of context, the most revealing aspects of the novel can only be understood by a Christian reader. However, although there may be a clear meaning intended by the author, the reader's response to literary criticism suggests that all interpretations are valid, as everyone experiences the text in different ways: "Even if all our evidence for a certain interpretation comes from the work itself, and even if everyone who reads the text interprets it in the same way (however unlikely that may be) it is still us, the readers, who interpret, assigning meaning to the text. Reader response criticism not only allows, but it is also interested in the way in which these meanings change from reader to reader and from time to time” (Millikan). slightly different The only valid way to judge the validity of one's interpretation is to compare it with the original intent, 2000. 291-306.