C.S. Lewis named the fictional senior demon who writes advice to his nephew Screwtape.
The Screwtape Letters is an epistolary satire first published in book form in 1942. Its narrator, Screwtape, is an experienced demon who sends letters to Wormwood, an inexperienced tempter assigned to influence a human known as “the Patient.”
Lewis reverses the usual perspective of religious instruction by presenting temptation from the imagined viewpoint of Hell. The letters discuss distraction, pride, social pressure, resentment, and self-deception. Their purpose is satirical: readers are meant to recognize human weaknesses by seeing them described as demonic strategies.
The book is often confused with a conventional fantasy novel because of its demons and invented bureaucracy. It is instead a work of Christian apologetics and moral satire. Wormwood is the nephew receiving the advice; Screwtape is the letter-writing uncle.