Both Uses of
provoke
in
The Screwtape Letters
- It was, I imagine, at this stage in the interview that Our Father's disgust at such an unprovoked lack of confidence caused him to remove himself an infinite distance from the Presence with a suddenness which has given rise to the ridiculous enemy story that he was forcibly thrown out of Heaven.†
Chpt 19unprovoked = not justified or explained as an understandable reaction to another actionstandard prefix: The prefix "un-" in unprovoked means not and reverses the meaning of provoked. This is the same pattern you see in words like unhappy, unknown, and unlucky.
- But I fear you have already let him get too far in the Enemy's school, and he knows that Despair is a greater sin than any of the sins which provoke it.†
Chpt 29 *provoke = cause (a reaction)
Definition:
to cause a reaction — often an emotional reaction like anger, and sometimes done on purpose