All 9 Uses of
despair
in
The Screwtape Letters
- There is no need to despair; hundreds of these adult converts have been reclaimed after a I brief sojourn in the Enemy's camp and are now with us.
Chpt 2 (definition 1)despair = give up hope
- If, on the other hand, by steady and cool-headed application here and now you can finally secure his soul, he will then be yours forever--a brim-full living chalice of despair and horror and astonishment which you can raise to your lips as often as you please.
Chpt 5 (definition 2)despair = hopelessness
- It all depends on whether your man is of the desponding type who can be tempted to despair, or of the wishful-thinking type who can be assured that all is well.
Chpt 9 (definition 1)despair = give up hope
- How thankful we should be that ever since our Father entered Hell--though longer ago than humans, reckoning in light years, could express--no square inch of infernal space and no moment of infernal time has been surrendered to either of those abominable forces, but all has been occupied by Noise--Noise, the grand dynamism, the audible expression of all that is exultant, ruthless, and virile--Noise which alone defends us from silly qualms, despairing scruples, and impossible desires.
Chpt 22 (definition 2)despairing = hopeless
- The routine of adversity, the gradual decay of youthful loves and youthful hopes, the quiet despair (hardly felt as pain) of ever overcoming the chronic temptations with which we have again and again defeated them, the drabness which we create in their lives and the inarticulate resentment with which we teach them to respond to it--all this provides admirable opportunities of wearing out a soul by attrition.
Chpt 28 (definition 2) *despair = hopelessness
- There is, of course, always the chance, not of chloroforming the shame, but of aggravating it and producing Despair.
Chpt 29 (definition 2)
- But I fear ... he knows that Despair is a greater sin than any of the sins which provoke it.
Chpt 29 (definition 1) *despair = giving up hope
- It is after men have given in to the irremediable, after they have despaired of relief and ceased to think even a half-hour ahead, that the dangers of humbled and gentle weariness begin.
Chpt 30 (definition 1)despaired = lost hope
- Sometimes I am almost in despair.
Chpt 31 (definition 2)despair = hopelessness
Definitions:
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(1) (despair as in: do not despair) lose hope or feel distress
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(2) (despair as in: she felt despair) hopelessness; or distress (such as extreme worry or sadness from feeling powerless to change a bad situation)