Religion as a Gothic Element in American Romanticism Essay

In the sermon, “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God”, Edwards displays controversial viewpoints and ideas concerning heaven and hell. As Edwards speaks to the congregation he warns them of the misery and suffering they will face if they do not repent of certain sins. He also describes God as angry which probably struck fear into the hearts on many. To illustrate his own point that hell is unenviable without repentance Jonathan Edwards creates the idea of an angry God using intense similes, a harsh tone, and strong emotional appeal in “Sinners in the hand of an Angry God”.

Jonathan Edwards, a famous preacher in pre-colonial times, composed a sermon that was driven to alert and inject neo Puritanical fear into an eighteenth century congregation. This Bible based and serious audience sought after religious instruction and enlightenment. Through the sermon "Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God," Edwards offers a very harsh interpretation to humankind. Edwards utilizes various rhetorical techniques to evoke an emotional response in his audience and to persuade the members of his congregation that their wicked actions will awaken a very ruthless and merciless God.

In “Sinners of an Angry God,” Jonathan Edwards depicts God as almighty yet wrathful and hell as a grotesque eternal home for sinners. Edwards uses personification, simile, and metaphors to make people to return to the righteous path.

Edwards uses words like “wrath” and “omnipotent” to display the power that God posses, and chooses negative connotation words to describe the relationship between God and man (para. 15, 46). Making the comparison of the relationship between God and humans like a spider web or thread, the author wants the audience to know that it can be broken at any time, and that the “pit is prepared” down in hell for sinners (para. 17). Edward chooses diction that leaves humans hopeless, and at the mercy of God. He wants the audience to know that God is always in control, using words like “if God should permit” and “the mere pleasure of God” (para. 13, 7). Additionally, Edwards uses diction to portray God as merciless and immoral, saying that has God is “without pity” and “will have no compassion upon you” (para. 41). This leaves the audience despaired, and they feel as if they have no choice but to reestablish their relationship with God, or certainly face an “everlasting destruction” at any time God pleases to (para.

In a metaphor used by Jonathan Edwards to tell the audience they have evil in them, every

Edwards' creative choice of words that he uses describes the power of God and the terrible Hell awaiting sinners. These words easily infiltrate into the minds of his congregation and frighten them beyond belief. These choices of words and his use of such vivid images are mostly successful in their intent, to scare and put fear into his audience. Edwards held his audience locked up with his promises of eternal damnation if proper steps were not taken. The congregation felt the intense impact of his rhetorical strategies and lived on the fear of the power of God. In this way, he was able to keep his followers from sin and away from the fiery pits of Hell.

One may say that Edwards’ style of writing is very emotionally persuasive. He mentions several times in his sermon that people who do not follow Christ are going to hell. Furthermore, Edwards makes strong statements in his sermon that could make any non-believer scared, such as, “[the wrath of God] would rush force in inconceivable fury and would come upon you with omnipotent power.” Edwards goes on to say that the strongest man, even “the sturdiest devil in hell”, would be nothing to endure God’s wrath. Edwards not only targets the obvious sinner, but those who seem very holy and moral. “It may

In the sermon, “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God”, Jonathan Edwards’ goal is to provoke the emotion of fear onto the Puritan congregation. When Edward describes Hell and influences his congregation into a helpless state, he invokes a serious tone because he feels like he is responsible for his congregation.     Edward characterized Hell using rhetorical strategies, imagery, and metaphors. He is able to appeal to the emotion of the audience by describing Hell and eternal damnation in detail. He uses the “wrath of God” perpetually throughout the sermon to bring the rise of fear in the congregation.

The author of “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God”, Jonathan Edwards, uses his words to develop a sense of displeasure with those who sin or do not follow in the path of God. He managed to obtain this by the use of symbolism to frighten the audience of the sermon. Edwards, clearly, has the impression that there is only one singular way to gain the audience's attention. His approach was to frighten the audience into the belief that without God, you will be condemned to Hell. Edwards states in his sermon, “There is the dreadful pit of the glowing flames of the wrath of God; there is Hell’s wide gaping mouth

Jonathan Edwards had great power and influence over the people of his church. Edwards “inherited” his church from his grandfather, the Rev Solomon Stoddard, a powerful and loved preacher. How Edwards had this great influence over his congregation was due to the fact that he put the fear of God in them to repent. Edwards talked about how “nothing keeps wicked men at any one moment out of hell, except the mere pleasure of God” (pg 2), and how God takes pleasure in seeing the wicked suffer. The congregation is told that “the arrow of death fly unseen at noonday” (pg 4), meaning that our death can come at any moment and none of us are prepared for our judgement. There is a way, however, to be saved, “an extraordinary opportunity, a day wherein

Edwards takes his work to the extremity of violence of the Puritan belief. Through out his sermon,Edwards hauntingly explains the relationship between God and the sin of humanity itself. As Edwards states in the sermon, “Your wickedness makes you as it were heavy as lead,and to

The gothic literary movement is a part of the larger Romantic Movement. Gothic literature shares many of the traits of romanticism, such as the emphasis on emotions and the imagination. Gothic literature goes beyond the melancholy evident in most romantic works, however, and enters into the areas of horror and decay, becoming preoccupied with death. “The Fall of the House of Usher” by Edgar Allan Poe is a powerful example of gothic fiction, whereas James Fenimore Cooper’s The Last of the Mohicans serves as the romantic predecessor, illustrating the differences and the similarities between romantic and gothic literature.

Edwards uses tools such as predestination to scare his listeners by saying “They are already under a sentence of condemnation to hell.” He repetitively mentions the fact that “it is only the power and mere pleasure of God that holds you up.” His use of long sentences that drag on and on, creating a mood of depression and frustration although he

Each description of the surroundings were simple in the landscape, but rich with emotion. The soul’s pain, torment, longing, and suffering was a physical presence. Without this, all that could be taken from these passages was the simplified reasoning that hell is a dark place where the sun does not shine, and a bareness that overwhelms. It is the souls themselves that make up the

The early nation had been exposed to many classical and rigid writers who wrote to inform rather than to entertain. When Brown emerged as the first Gothic American novelist, he as well as many other early American authors wrote using devices such as moralization in order to “upgrade fiction” (Nutter lecture). Hugh Holman explains that writers who did not hold themselves to the standard of classical thinking wrote in an unknown and foreign nature. Romantics regarded Gothicism to be foreign, “…and to