From the earliest of ages, literature has proven to be a pivotal catalyst in the events that have driven this nation to achieve its lasting prestige. Although derived from different eras in American history, Jonathan Edwards’s “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God” and Nathaniel Hawthorne’s “Young Goodman Brown” are of major significance in American Literature’s role in religious reformation. The works are closely related in that they each promote abstinence from sin and warn of probable punishment using similar language, yet they vary in literary form and highlight separate aspects of morality; however, these factors gave rise to a new religious outlook on America in its primal years. To begin with, Hawthorne and Edwards equally reflect a
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In “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God,” the preacher mentions that “the pit is prepared, the fire is made ready, the furnace is now hot, ready to receive them,” (Edwards 211) thus describing hell to the congregation as an eternal place of condemnation and suffering. Likewise, the character young goodman Brown recounts his vision of hell as “a loftier flame, and obscurely discovered shapes and visages of horror on the smoke wreaths, above the impious assembly,” (Hawthorne 626) which also portrays its perpetual inferno and eerie ungodliness. The two authors similarly delineate hell as a ghastly, evil sight and the devil as a sinister entity capable of converting even the most pious of souls; furthermore, they both apply graphic imagery to illustrate climatic events and urge their audiences to avoid such agony by rejecting …show more content…
Primarily, “Young Goodman Brown” is an allegorical narrative concerning a protagonist’s personal experience with the devil and evil sorcery in his village. On the other hand, “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God” is a sermon in which Edwards is blatantly accusing his parishioners of succumbing to sin and is passionately informing them of the possible consequences of their decisions. Overall, the difference lies between the direct address of Jonathan Edwards to his church and the indirect address of Nathaniel Hawthorne to his
In “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God,” the preacher mentions that “the pit is prepared, the fire is made ready, the furnace is now hot, ready to receive them,” (Edwards 211) thus describing hell to the congregation as an eternal place of condemnation and suffering. Likewise, the character young goodman Brown recounts his vision of hell as “a loftier flame, and obscurely discovered shapes and visages of horror on the smoke wreaths, above the impious assembly,” (Hawthorne 626) which also portrays its perpetual inferno and eerie ungodliness. The two authors similarly delineate hell as a ghastly, evil sight and the devil as a sinister entity capable of converting even the most pious of souls; furthermore, they both apply graphic imagery to illustrate climatic events and urge their audiences to avoid such agony by rejecting …show more content…
Primarily, “Young Goodman Brown” is an allegorical narrative concerning a protagonist’s personal experience with the devil and evil sorcery in his village. On the other hand, “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God” is a sermon in which Edwards is blatantly accusing his parishioners of succumbing to sin and is passionately informing them of the possible consequences of their decisions. Overall, the difference lies between the direct address of Jonathan Edwards to his church and the indirect address of Nathaniel Hawthorne to his