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Kierkegaard Use An Image Of A Coppersmith Hammering A Kettle?

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Kierkegaard suggests it is easy to understand when things are quiet to the point of hearing “a grain of sand fall”, it is entirely different “to sit in the kettle the coppersmith is hammering on and then to understand the same thing.” Why does Kierkegaard use an image of a coppersmith hammering a kettle? On the one hand, the image is somewhat comical. The two scenarios Kierkegaard presents are completely opposite. The first is a scene of total tranquility (quietly hearing a grain of sand fall), and the second of total mayhem (the reader sitting in a kettle being banged about). Imagining being in a kettle or any other metal object that’s being hammered on is enough to give a headache just thinking about the absurd volume of noise and shaking such an act would be. It’s also funny because I doubt any coppersmith, knowing there’s someone somehow shrunk down to be inside the kettle, would knowingly be hammering about like everything is normal. The coppersmith becomes an unknowing comical agent, bringing an element of dramatic irony. …show more content…

It is a physically demanding job requiring a level of physical strength. This is seen even in Kierkegaard’s sentence, as the coppersmith is hammering away at a metal kettle. There is a contrast between the person sitting in the kettle, thinking, and the coppersmith outside the kettle actually working and producing something. In this scenario, the coppersmith isn’t just producing the kettle the coppersmith is creating, but the coppersmith also produces a challenging, stimulating environment. This environment isn’t necessarily bad, and in fact is what Kierkegaard holds up as the standard; anyone can understand in silence, but not everyone can understand when things are chaos around them. The coppersmith, through doing their normal job, inadvertently creates this learning environment that is difficult to endure but is actually

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