Comparing The Crucible And Sinners In The Hands Of An Angry God

Literary analysis of “The sinners in the hands of an angry god” The great awakening was a religious revival that occurred in the 1730s and 1740s. It started in England and then gradually made its way over to the American colonies. During this time, many different preachers and religious speakers went around and gave speeches to the people. Jonathan Edwards was one of Americas most important and original philosophical theologians who also went around and gave speeches about God and hell.

At this point Edwards has grasped the attention of his listeners by using pathos to pertain to their emotions and feelings. Towards the end of the sermon his tone switches to one of reason in terms of not neglecting his words. He asks a series of rhetorical questions such as those who are unconverted and do not teach their children of Christ that they too will have to witness the wrath of God. As for literary devices such as metaphors, similes, and allegories, Edwards does not disappoint for his use of them most likely whipped a lot of Puritans back into their faith.

The Crucible by Arthur Miller is a dramatic play that expresses a very important message and that is how far people would go to save themselves from the hands of death. There are many characters in the Crucible who are guilty of taking innocent lives, but there are three major characters who, without a doubt, are the most at blame. The play takes place in the city of Salem, a city filled with people that would do anything to keep their reputation clean. Throughout the play, Miller is introducing multiple characters that experience changes in their decisions and negatively influence more people eventually leading up to the witch trials. The main point that the story revolves around is that people would rather lie and blame someone else instead of confessing and accepting the punishment.

Rhetorical Analysis: Sinners A Puritan pastor in the early 1700s and philosopher, Jonathan Edwards, in his sermon, “Sinners in the Hand of an Angry God”, describes how angry God is towards sinners. Edward’s purpose was to scare sinners and unconverted men with the realities of hell so that they would seek a relationship with God. He adopts an aggravated tone to express to the sinners in his congregation that they should seek redemption because God can send them down to hell at any moment, but instead He gives them another chance. The metaphors and imagery that Edwards use in his sermon for the Great Awakening helps him to describe God’s wrath against sinners to make unsaved people convert back to the original ways of Puritans.

Johnathan Edwards throughout his life time was able to captivate the attention and hearts of his audience with impactful speeches that boasted clever rhetorical devices. Using rhetorical devices to evoke emotional responses from his audience, Johnathan Edwards was able to maintain a potent role in his society throughout the early 1700’s. In “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God.” Edward’s displayed the potential of rhetorical devices as he delivered his message of fear to the audience in an effective manner. Throughout the sermon Edwards utilized several forms of rhetorical devices including, similes and metaphors, repetition and alliteration, and parallelism.

In the sermon "Sinners In The Hands Of An Angry God" Jonathon Edwards uses various rhetorical devices to persuade his audience. The sermon was made on July 8, 1741 at a time were everyone believed in God and everything revolved around the bible. In his sermon, Edwards used allusions, similes, and personification to show God's anger towards humans. In the 17th century people's beliefs were all based on the bible. Everyone could refer to the bible as one of the only books they knew.

Imagine everyone’s life was judged every second of everyday. By a greater power, God. And that greater power would hold someone over a pit of fire, because they committed a sin, would you commit a sin? Jonathan Edwards was a powerful fire-and-brimstone preacher during the Great Awakening and author of the sermon “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God”. Edwards uses a variety of metaphors in his writing, all metaphors have a strong effect on what Edwards experience during the Great Awakening.

In “The Black Veil” by Nathaniel Hawthorne and “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God” by Jonathan Edwards both have a similar yet different style of writing and delivery.however Edwards gave more detail to make to his sermon which made it more effective than Hawthorne were his was of an inference to the theme. Edwards and Hawthorne diction was archaic, the themes of the texts was that everyone is a sinner whether a black veil is upon a face or hanging from the hand of God. In the same fashion way, the themes from “The Minister’s Black Veil” and Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God” are similar. For example, both themes centers on sinners/sins.

The sermon “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God” was written with many purposes. The main concept that Jonathan Edwards, the minister who wrote the sermon, wanted to get across is that God does not give any pity to those who do not believe in him and his gospel. He casts all of the sinners into the pits of hell and lets those who have been good live for eternity. This sermon was written after many reports of witchcraft came about in the New England colonies. These reports caused the Salem Witch Trials to occur and many people to become non-believers.

What is a Puritan? A Puritan is a member of the English Protestant in the late sixteenth and seventeenth century who believes they must live by the Scriptures to abide by God. Anne Bradstreet a Puritan writer of To My Dear and Loving Husband and Upon the Burning of Our House addresses her thoughts and feelings in her writings about God and his actions. Another author Jonathan Edwards who wrote the sermon Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God justifies God’s punishment on those who sin. Bradstreet and Edwards view on God and his actions contradict each other however they express their beliefs in related forms.

In sinners in the hands of an angry God Jonathan Edward’s most effectively appeals to the people who have yet to convert to a puritan's by using rhetorical analysis. One of the first metaphors he uses was when he was describing the fire that God holds you over and if provoked (when you sin) he will drop you down to hell. He uses a great analogy when he talks about it because he says”The God that holds you over the pit of hell much as one holds a spider or some loathsome insect over the fire”, and that is a real interpretation of what we are to God in Edward’s eyes. All these metaphors can also be used as imagery too because the author uses such good words and phrases it good that you can imagine what he is saying.