One of his most powerful sermons, “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God”, used many rhetorical strategies to persuade his unsaved audience to become saved to avoid the torment of hell. One productive approach that was substantial in scaring the unsaved people in the audience is through the use of imagery. Imagery is the usage of words to make an image in the mind of the listener(s); with which Edwards uses adequately to defend his reason. In his case, he utilizes this technique to penetrate the hearts and minds to everyone present. This strategy terrifies his listeners into following his directions and method of redemption.
Edwards uses a stricter and more straight up approach at speaking to his audience. He uses the word “You” a lot to show that it affects each and every one of them individually. This sermon in detail explains what happens to you with your sins and God. For example, using figurative language he says, “Your Wickedness makes you as it were heavy as Lead, ...”. This sentence shows how sins affect you in life.
The lines that follow will clarify the poem and the violent imagery, so as to help the reader understand Donne’s motivations. Batter my heart, addressed towards God, portrays the writers confused and conflicted state of mind. He appears guilty for his sins he has committed in his life but has come to realise that he has no chance of redemption without the help of God’s love, “imprison me…never shall be free”. He also strongly considers he has been wrongly taken by “your enemy”, Satan through his use of metaphors “imprison me”. Satan has captured him “take me to you” through temptation and sin “unto your enemy”.
Jonathan Edwards was a Puritan minister during the time of the first Great Awakening. In his sermon, “Sinners in the Hands of an angry God,” he tries to keep the congregation on the right path away from sinning so they have a better chance of getting into heaven. In his sermon he uses rhetorical devices like anaphora, simile and metaphor to create a frustrated tone and frighten his congregation into obeying the word of God. In his sermon he uses anaphora to frighten his congregation into obeying God’s word. In paragraph three he uses anaphora three times to persuade the congregation to stay on the right path.
The Pardoners Tale Reanalyzed As we all know, most tales deliver a messages to its reader. Chaucer, throughout The Pardoners Tale, focuses on the deadly sin of Avarice and its potential consequences. The conflict that the pardoner portrays, discusses his own greed and greed of others. He, the pardoner, stealing from the less fortunate through church preaching’s about greed as they pay, but preaching against greed as being a sin. This sin of greed sets the theme for the tale, but throughout contradicts the pardoner.
This statement was not on an attention grabber, but evoked fear in the congregation, fear of hell and their own safety from Gods wrath, as well as fear and pity for those sitting around them. Another instance, are the strong emotional appeals used to influence his congregation, "So that, thus it is that natural men (unsaved) are held in the hand of God, over the pit of hell; they have deserved the fiery pit, and are already sentenced to it; and God is dreadfully provoked," potentially evoking fear, pity and even guilt in the Colonists. Lastly Edwards uses common comparisons to appeal to the audience's fear, with a multitude
The first stanza addresses his current overwhelming despair, followed by the second quatrain, that questions the assassin as God the motivation of the attack; the sestet then answers (to the questions posed by Hopkins’ faltering faith) that God was giving a learning experience to Hopkins. The first stanza begins with line one introducing the extent of Hopkins’ despair, “Not, I’ll not, carrion comfort, Despair, not feast on thee,” capitalizing ‘Despair’ to emphasize its power as a feeling, and symbolize the major role it plays in Hopkins’ current life. Although, the feeling is overwhelming, Hopkins refuses to succumb
The Pardoner represents the Ugly Truth. The Knight is grand, the Wife is pretty, but the Pardoner is downright ugly. He is also the only pilgrim to acknowledge his shortcomings - he knows he is a con artist and liar, and in his tale's prologue freely admits this in both words and actions. The Pardoner then proceeds with the tale itself, which is a deception as well. In the sermon, he describes gluttony in detail, and defines it as
His puritan worldview led him to believe that “God has laid himself under no obligation, by any promise to keep any natural man out of hell” (Edwards 175). He thought that one should live his life fearing the Lord, and fearing hell even more. Edwards tries to convince his listeners of life's uncertainty: death is always but a breath away, and for the wicked that meant that perdition was always but a breath away. This sermon was intended as a wake-up call for those in the audience who underplayed the greatness of God and overemphasized their own worthiness. In opposition to Edwards beliefs, through his work Thanatopsis, Bryant portrays an acceptance of death.
In a grand demonstration of his cowardice he says, "Be not silent from any mistaken pity and tenderness for him; for, believe me, Hester, though he were to step down from a high place, and stand there beside thee, on thy pedestal of shame, yet better were it so, than to hide a guilty heart through life. What can thy silence do for him, except it tempt him--yea, compel him, as it were--to add hypocrisy to sin? "(Hawthorn 49). His extreme cowerdice led him to attack Hester publically atop thee scaffold along with Governor Bellingham and Reverend Wilson. He let Hester be judged solely by her effect on the two men implicated in the adulterous triangle, and be shamed and alienated from the rest of the community, while Dimmesdale, himself, was becoming more popular and admired