The Screwtape Letters

Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 1942

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Summary

Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Preface-Chapters 4

Chapters 5-7

Chapters 8-9

Chapters 10-12

Chapters 13-17

Chapters 18-21

Chapters 22-25

Chapters 26-28

Chapters 29-31

Epilogue

Character Analysis

Themes

Symbols & Motifs

Important Quotes

Vocabulary

Essay Topics

Quiz

Tools

Discussion Questions

Epilogue

Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Epilogue Summary: Screwtape Proposes a Toast

This piece was published separately much later, in 1959. It is essentially an epilogue to the novel. It is a speech given by Screwtape at a devils’ banquet in honor of the young devils graduating from the Tempters’ Training College. Screwtape discusses the tastiness of the damned souls on which the devils are dining. He laments how there are fewer and fewer really delicious sinners like Hitler to devour. He does, however, relish the wine that has been made from the souls of religious fanatics such as those labeled Pharisees in the Bible.

Epilogue Analysis

In this epilogue, Screwtape sounds optimistic on the quantity of sinners over quality. He believes that modern democratic societies are producing undisciplined, ignorant souls ripe for the picking.

He is also cheered by the continuing intensity of religious intolerance he sees among humans. The religiously intolerant who hate anyone who does not believe and practice as they do provide fertile ground for Screwtape and the tempters.