The High Priestess's The Magician The Fool

Respected Puritan minister, Jonathan Edwards in his Sermon, “Sinners In The Hands of An Angry God (1781), Elaborates on the negatives of being a repentant sinner. Edward’s goal is to inform people that sinning can be dangerous. He adopts a serious tone in order to establish a constant fear within Sinners and Non Sinners reading. Using the heavy caution within his readers let him establish a successful Sermon with the help of examples.

The central theme of both John Winthrop’s “City Upon a Hill” and Jonathan Edward’s “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God”, is the prospect of religion in one’s everyday life influencing their future. In order to build up their ideas about acting in a way that pleases the Lord, both these authors use repetition, diction, allusions, and metaphors as a way to build momentum in their speech as they allude to teachings of the bible and their diction install a notion of uncertainty. However, while Winthrop uses his notion of uncertainty to give the audience a sense of security, in their endeavors to the Americas, with the prospect of religion, Edwards does the opposite and makes the audience fear God even more as he talks about his

The damnation of man has been a popular subject since the origination of Heaven and Hell; the question that remains yet consistently changes is how? One of the most popular poison of choice as in the recent era is drugs and alcohol, with an emphasis on alcohol. The effects of this specific poison can be heard in the rantings of Billy Sunday, in the Evangelist Condemns the Curse of Alcohol. According to Sunday, the use of alcohol leads to both social and individual engagements, including but not limited to horrors and condemning crimes, misery, inappropriate taxation, loss of hard earned money and corruption just to name a few.

“To know that nothing hurts the godly, is a matter of comfort; but to be assured that all things which fall out shall cooperate for their good, that their crosses shall be turned into blessings, that showers of affliction water the withering root of their grace and make it flourish more; this may fill their hearts with joy till they run over.” In this quote, Thomas Watson explains to the people that everything happens for a reason and that a person should be satisfied with that reason. “Upon the Burning of Our House” by Anne Bradstreet, expresses a woman’s emotional state of mind during the burning of her house and the fate she has in God. The story “Devil and Tom Walker” by Washington Irving, is about an unhappy married man that makes a pact with the devil that he eventually regrets. In Ben Franklin’s autobiography, it states Franklin’s list of the thirteen virtues and his weekly plan he had to accomplish them.

As people grow up, it is made apparent to them that the Devil is an evil and rather a clever person. The greatest example of the devil in action is when the devil tempts Jesus. As most know, the devil fails to get Jesus to do evil. Jesus is both human and divine while the main character of The Devil and Tom Walker, Tom Walker, is a “meager, miserly fellow”. Unfortunately, Tom Walker is not Jesus so the reader must focus in on Washington Irving’s The Devil and Tom Walker to see just exactly how and when the Devil won his game. Irving portrays to the reader that the devil cannot be beaten at his own game through setting, characters, and plot. As people have seen in sports, the setting of a game (where, when, weather, etc.) can have a big impact on the game. The same goes for The Devil and Tom Walker.

Through the use of imagery and classical appeal of pathos, Jonathan Edwards effectively injects fear into his congregation of their destined fate. "The devils watch them; they are ever by them at their right hand; they stand waiting for them, like greedy hungry lions that see their prey, and expect to have it, but are for the present kept back" (Paragraph 11). The use of

Nathaniel Hawthorne’s short story “Young Goodman Brown,” tells the tale of a man whose Puritan beliefs were shaken to the core because reality turned out to be much different than he was taught in catechism. Goodman Brown showed readers how much he believed in his family’s goodness when he claimed “We have been a race of honest men and good Christians… We are a people of prayer, and good works, to boot, and abide no such wickedness” (Hawthorne 247). Because of this, Brown is surprised when he comes to know that people he thought were holy were in fact advocates for the devil and sinners- especially his wife Faith. People that he held in the highest regard were nothing but the lowest of the low to him now. He becomes surly, loses all faith in humanity, and develops a bitter worldview after this revelation.

Religion is a perilous subject, regardless of who you choose to discuss it with; everyone has their stance about it. In the pamphlet ‘The Age of Reason’ by Thomas Paine, the author offers his perspective of religion in which he provides factual arguments as to why he despises it and refutes its ‘message’. Paine challenges the authenticity of the Bible while also addressing its contradictions, inconsistencies and false claims. From the moment it was published, Paine knew the pamphlet would cause controversy simply by the nature of which it is based upon. Paine openly and willfully ridicules the church, the mythology of the church, the word of God and the legitimacy of the authority of which the Bible has ascribed certain individuals to. The pamphlet itself is dichotomized as follows: section one and section two. Section one consists of Paine loosely planting the roots of his arguments and satirically dissecting the basis of religion. Section two provides a close examination of the New and Old Testament where Paine directly addresses the contradictions, logical inconsistencies and empirical falsehoods of the Bible and its many books and anecdotes that will be discussed in this essay. Although some may feel offended by the nature of the pamphlet and its contents, Paine does not set out to force a conversion or instill his philosophical state of mind upon others, he simply strives to ventilate his beliefs and disbeliefs.

Hawthorne’s use of elaborate symbolism is seen through out the entire story. The naïve man represents all people, who at first are blind to all the wicked darkness in life. The forest is a foreshadowing of evil, and is used to set the atmosphere in the story. Hawthorne cleverly uses "Faith" as the Puritan’s wife’s name to show his readers that even those whom we entrust with our most intimate love and faith often experience the same temptations and desires as the rest of mankind. The Devil’s fire, around which all the townspeople danced, is a representation of all their sins. At the end of the Puritan’s journey his transformation is a symbol of what happens to people when faced with the realization that no individual is sinless. This situation is similar to when a child discovers that its once loving and all knowing parents have flaws, it goes through this transition and it too looses its innocence. Through this gloomy allegory filled will elaborate symbolism Hawthorne conveys his ideas on the darkness of human nature.

Pathetic Fallacy is used by Shakespeare to create a mood of malevolence and darkness. Thunder and lightning is used frequently in the early stages of the play to highlight the lack of balance in the natural world. For example, when the conspirators are trying to convince Brutus to join the conspiracy there is a storm with thunder and lightning, this creates an ominous tone as an Elizabethan audience would have recognised the storm as an omen of unrest. The Elizabethans believed that storms released forces of evil and unrest, this indicates the unnatural dominance of corruption. The turmoil of the heavens directly represents the state of Rome and the minds of men, in particular, Brutus. The rampant storm and the peculiar signs of disharmony are misinterpreted by Caesar and this becomes an increasing important concern in the play. The ambiguities present in the omens are summed up by Cicero, men may construe things after their fashion clean from the purpose of the things themselves. This is one message that Shakespeare presents to the audience, men at some stage are masters of their fates.

Hawthorne uses nature as the protector of sin to disprove the Puritan’s beliefs that it is unnatural to sin. Hawthorne is trying to

“‘Faith! Faith!’ cried the husband. ‘Look up to Heaven, and resist the Wicked One!’” (Hawthorne 1297) These were the words expressed by Young Goodman Brown during the evil baptisms. Whether Goodman Brown was speaking to himself or his pleasant wife Faith, it is easily seen that there is a definite need of Faith and God to be saved from the “Wicked One”.

J. Eckleburg and God exists only in George Wilson’s grief-stricken mind – in Chapter 8: ‘You may fool me, but you can’t fool God!’”

In William Shakespeare’s book, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, magic is a powerful and useful tool for the characters that have the capability to use it. Some of the characters abuse the power of magic, while others are more responsible in how they use it. Oberon is one the characters that abuses the power of magic. Oberon’s magic has an immense impact on the plot of A Midsummer Night’s Dream. More specifically, Oberon’s magic affects his own life, the lives of other characters, and all the characters in the story experience his magic differently. We will see that even the person who has power to use the magic can become surprised by it. Magic, the ultimate supernatural power, is often unpredictable and inexplicable.

The Magician, the Witch, and the Law was a timeline of the people, events, and documents that significantly influenced the development of magic and witchcraft persecution. Edward Peters formed his timeline beginning with early Christianity and ending with the sixteenth century. The study argued that these people, events, and documents led to the persecution and burning of witches in the seventeenth century. The timeline began with the explanation of harsh Greek and Roman laws against magos. The laws were harsh because magic was a disruption of society and the cause of political instability (9). Magos were practitioners of magic or those who used the power of divine or demonic sources. Christians were primarily concerned with first proving that