With Yorick’s discovery of an innovative communication system, Sterne reveals that this new form is more effective than explicitly revealing his character’s emotions. During his encounter with the Lady of Calais, Yorick explains that her melancholy produces a certain feeling of tenderness that causes him to want to cherish her, but instead of conveying this through conventional language, he accomplishes it using the “the pulsations of the arteries,” which he uses to pass along the message from his fingers to hers (Sterne 20). This interaction through the pulses of the heart reveals that not only is bodily function a more convenient form of communication but also a genuine method as it directly involves body organs. After making contact with
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In Edwards’s narrative, he elects to designate the description of the supernatural light to occurrences in the natural world. He patterns the effects of the divine light to an appearance of a thunderstorm; he likens God’s glory to sunshine in spring; he compares the purifying effect of the supernatural light to that of water (Puckett 66). Edwards establishes these associations of the divine and the supernatural into nature, because it is a source of “God’s excellency,” and according to Edwards, God’s purity appears in everything in nature (Puckett 64). Hence, Edwards’s naturalistic metaphors are the result of the natural world mimicking the knowledge and glory of God. Likewise, Sterne’s incorporation of body language to communicate emotions is a product of the sentiment being most visible in the body’s nonverbal reactions. This nonverbal reaction occurs in the episodes of the Lady of Calais. Yorick, who develops sentiments towards the lady, constantly flashes her a “look of kindness” (Sterne 27). The lady, taking notice of his repetitive gesture, interprets it as his approach of “making love” to her (Sterne 27). In other words, emotions are most evident in body language, because it produces both voluntary and involuntary reactions that one can interpret. Therefore, both Edwards and Sterne result to using naturalistic rhetoric to conquer their difficulties, because nature is the closest thing that can describe the supernatural and
In Edwards’s narrative, he elects to designate the description of the supernatural light to occurrences in the natural world. He patterns the effects of the divine light to an appearance of a thunderstorm; he likens God’s glory to sunshine in spring; he compares the purifying effect of the supernatural light to that of water (Puckett 66). Edwards establishes these associations of the divine and the supernatural into nature, because it is a source of “God’s excellency,” and according to Edwards, God’s purity appears in everything in nature (Puckett 64). Hence, Edwards’s naturalistic metaphors are the result of the natural world mimicking the knowledge and glory of God. Likewise, Sterne’s incorporation of body language to communicate emotions is a product of the sentiment being most visible in the body’s nonverbal reactions. This nonverbal reaction occurs in the episodes of the Lady of Calais. Yorick, who develops sentiments towards the lady, constantly flashes her a “look of kindness” (Sterne 27). The lady, taking notice of his repetitive gesture, interprets it as his approach of “making love” to her (Sterne 27). In other words, emotions are most evident in body language, because it produces both voluntary and involuntary reactions that one can interpret. Therefore, both Edwards and Sterne result to using naturalistic rhetoric to conquer their difficulties, because nature is the closest thing that can describe the supernatural and