Preview

Jonathan Edwards Personification

Good Essays
Open Document
Open Document
313 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Jonathan Edwards Personification
Jonathan Edwards incorporates simile, personification, and metaphor as his rhetorical techniques within his sermon Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God. Edwards incorporates rhetorical devices as a means to terrorize and persuade Puritans and to repent their sins.

Throughout his sermon, Edward utilizes details and God himself to construct a frightening corollary for sinners in the after life. Edward emphasizes how dreadful and cruel the wrath of God truly is. For instance, Edward compares the "destruction" of sinners "like a whirlwind" (Edward 4). Here, he explains to his audience their horrofic death that awaits them if they continue to provoke God. This frightens his audience and persuades them to appease God if they wish to avoid his wrath.

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Satisfactory Essays

    Jonathan Edwards wrote this lecture, “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God,” to preach to the congregation of his church during the period of Great Awakening, a time of religious revival. He knows how to persuade and uses numerous techniques to do so. In his sermons, Edward’s expressive, informative, and argumentative writing style and his use of simile, metaphor, personification, imagery, and tone creates a fearful, emotional image in the minds of his readers.…

    • 350 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    In the sermon, “Sinners In The Hands of An Angry God,” Jonathan Edwards utilizes imagery as one of the rhetorical devices in order to scare his audience back to the pious ways of the first generation Puritans. Edwards’ vivid descriptions of hell and eternal torment are examples of the emotional appeal pathos. He uses figurative language including metaphors, similes, and personification to illustrate this unfortunate scenario in the minds of his listeners. For example, Edwards’ states, “The devil is waiting for them, hell is gaping for them, the flames gather and flash about them, and would fain lay hold on them, and swallow them up…” (8-10). In this example the audience can clearly imagine the horrors of hell, which encourages them to look to God for salvation, thus also making use of logos as the audience rationalizes and considers the situation. Hell is described as a “world of misery, that lake of burning brimstone…” (19-10), among many other things. The speaker/writer’s depictions of hell work to keep the audience members on their toes so they remember what they are doomed for if they dare to stray further from the Church or anger God even more than they have already done so. The rich imagery in this sermon is significant to the uniqueness of the piece because Edwards’ uses this literary device to scare the audience into compliance, and it serves as a main support for the author’s overall purpose, which is to get people to solidify ties to the…

    • 263 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    In the beginning of Edward’s sermon, he compares creatures to humans; you’re a nasty dirty thing in the eyes of God if you are a sinner. A tone of fear is already being set, you should be afraid because God “hates you.”…

    • 348 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Through his fire and brimstone teachings Edwards evokes an immense amount of fear in his listeners. To further impart the feeling upon his audience Edwards uses the rhetorical device pathos. Pathos “appeals to the audience’s emotions “(NMSI 13). This helps Edwards to reinforce his purpose and persuade his audience. Edwards informs his audience that “[unconverted men] are now the objects of that very same anger and wrath of God, that is expressed in the torments of hell” (Edwards 40). By telling his listeners that there is just as much anger directed at them as there is expressed in hell Edwards fuels their fear and shows them the horror they face by not converting which in turn persuades them even further to be “born again”. Though, this is…

    • 240 Words
    • 1 Page
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Jonathan Edwards’ “Sinners in the hands of an Angry God” approaches the audience with a call to action. Jonathan does not soften his blows of aggression towards those listening to his sermon. Edwards’ use of imagery and syntax add to the emotional effect of the sermon. “The bow of God’s wrath is bent, and the arrow made ready on the string.” This metaphor is directed to those that sin, and is used as a more blunt approach to those who do bad, than Plato’s “Allegory of the Cave”. Plato approaches the topic of ignorance with ease and softness, using an epic metaphor to compare humans finding self-knowledge to those in a cave. Edwards uses many similes as well, but with a more aggressive impact. “And the fiery…

    • 257 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    Jonathan Edwards used rhetorical strategies to get effectively to get his point across. Such as: imagery, metaphor, simile, pathos, and ethos. All of these rhetorical strategies were successful in this sermon. The ones that I will be explaining in this analysis of his sermon are metaphor, pathos, and imagery. These rhetorical strategies that Jonathan Edwards used, was the best way to get his point across.…

    • 525 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Edward uses so many images of Hell, suffering, and eternity because he wants people to understand what he’s talking about and he repeats them so that people will remember what he tells them. Edward says “ your wickedness makes you as it were heavy as lead, and to pressure you towards Hell; and if God should let you go, you would immediately sink and swiftly descend and plunge into the bottomless…

    • 229 Words
    • 1 Page
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    In the sermon "Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God" by Jonathan Edwards the author describes how God will condem all sinners into hell. Jonanthan Edwards vividly informs his audience that God has infinite power and that the almighty will not hesitate to send anyone in the fiery pit of hell. He disguises his message under a variety of methods such as imagery, alliteration, and similes.…

    • 420 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Minister's Black Veil

    • 761 Words
    • 4 Pages

    Edwards’ style was more effective because he was very descriptive of how God would be angry about the things people do in their everyday lives. Edwards’ style of preaching this sermon was also very hyperbolic, however he got his point across to the audience. The way he presented the text makes the reader second think their decisions at the moment as God looks down on them would he perhaps like the activities he’s seen out of people. When Edwards’ exaggerated in his text it made the text more alive.”His mere pleasure from this moment swallowed up in everlasting destruction.”…

    • 761 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Jonathan Edwards preached his sermon “Sinners in the hands of an angry God” at a time of religious revival. In his sermon Jonathan Edwards uses many techniques, his biggest one being metaphors. Edwards uses his metaphors to reach out to his followers as well as to the sinners. One of the images Jonathan Edwards portrays is the image that Gods wrath is a “ bow”, ready with an arrow to pierce the sinners. Another striking image that Edwards delivers to make the sinners change their ways was the comparison of God's wrath to “great waters” that will rise up, destroying the sinners. Edwards used these and many more metaphors to convey the image of God. In doing this, many people understood the weight of God's wrath. Using metaphors, Edwards not…

    • 224 Words
    • 1 Page
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Jonathan Edwards uses metaphors to connect to the people’s everyday lives. He tells them that their sin is as “heavy as led” and will pull them straight down to hell. “Your wickedness makes you as it were as heavy as lead, and…

    • 598 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    For example, Edwards first uses pathos when he describes what hell is like for sinners who do not repent, “There is the dreadful pit of the glowing flames of the wrath of God; there is Hell 's wide gaping mouth open; and you have nothing to stand upon, nor any thing to take hold of; there is nothing between you and Hell but the air; it is only the power and mere pleasure of God that holds you up” (Edwards 108). This example clearly manipulates the fear of the Puritans as most did not know if they were saved or not. Edwards exploits the feelings of his audience with pathos by appealing to their fear of the power of God. Also, Edwards uses pathos when he explains how God holds the power and choice for them to live as he states, “The bow of God’s wrath is bent… and justice bends the arrow at your heart, and nothing but the mere pleasure of God, and that of an angry God, without any promise or obligation at all, that keeps the arrow one moment from being made drunk with your blood” (Edwards 109). He explains that God can simply change his decision and kill them if they do not change their ways. This quote shows pathos by appealing to the Puritans’ fear of death. In conclusion, pathos is an effective method for Jonathan Edwards to persuade his…

    • 959 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Edwards uses several examples of literary devices to convince his audience that if they are…

    • 468 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    Johnathan

    • 334 Words
    • 2 Pages

    Using specific examples, give one example of a metaphor, one example of a simile, and one example of an allusion that Edwards uses in this passage from the sermon to elicit this particular mood.…

    • 334 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God” is sermon that deals with the concept of wrath. Edwards states that at any moment men will be sent down to hell and they should be living in peril because, “As he that walks in slippery places is every moment is liable to fall” (Edwards 430). The only reason why they are not in hell yet is because, “God’s appointed time is not come” (Edwards 430). It is God’s judgement that casts men into hell at any moment. These statements instill a sense of fear into the audience. Edwards…

    • 876 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Better Essays