Comparison Of Hawthorne’s The Minister’s Black Veil And Edwards’ Sinners In The Hands Of An Angry God
Throughout the Puritan religion era there were two writers named Jonathan Edwards and Nathaniel Hawthorne. They had mostly different but, a few similar writing techniques and ethics. Edwards, the writer of “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God”, tried to put the fear of God into his congregation. Meanwhile, Hawthorne, the writer of “The Minister’s Black Veil” tried to show the effects of sinning.
In Edwards’ story he is a preacher, preaching his sermon to make his congregation renew their loyalty and belief to the Puritan religion. Throughout his sermon he used strong imagery to scare his congregation. For example, in the story, it said,” The God that holds you over the pit of hell, much as one holds a spider, or some loathsome insect over the fire, abhors you, and is already provoked”. He said that because, he wanted to make his segregation scared enough to never even think of leaving the Puritan religion. Jonathan Edwards used metaphors to show his congregation the terrible situation they were in at the moment. In the story, it said, “You have offended him infinitely more than ever a stubborn rebel did his prince.
In Hawthorne’s story he is also a preacher, but he doesn’t talk about what he says in his sermon. He wears a black veil to physically, not vocally, how the effects of sinning can do to a person. Throughout the whole story everyone is scared of him because, his face is covered by the black veil and he looks so depressed and sad. Him wearing the black veil scared and amazed his congregation. In the story, it said,” At the close of the services, the people hurried out with indecorous confusion, eager to communicate their pent-up amazement, and conscious of lighter spirits the moment they lost sight of the black veil.”. He wore the black veil as a symbol (emblem) to show his congregation what it’s like to sin in the eyes of God. Unlike Edwards, Hawthorne mainly used personification to help get his message through everyone there or reading his story. For example, in the story, it said, that the minister and the Maiden’s spirit walk hand-in-hand.
They had a couple of similarities though. They both used imagery and irony. An, example of imagery is, “The God that holds you over the pit of hell, much as one holds a spider, or some loathsome insect over the fire, abhors you, and is already provoked”. Also, “The black veil, though it covers only our pastor’s face, throws its influence over his whole person, and makes him ghostlike from head to foot”. In the “The Minister’s Black Veil”, it said, Kind and loving, though unloved. In the other story, it said,”The God that holds you over the pit of hell, much as one holds a spider, or some loathsome insect over the fire, abhors you, and is already provoked.
To conclude this comparison, Edwards and Hawthorne used different ways to get to their completely different purposes. Edwards used frightful and horrifying ways to scare his congregation into staying loyal to the Puritan beliefs and religion. However, Hawthorne used a physical, not vocal, of wearing a black veil to show his congregation what it’s like to sin in God’s eyes. Even though, they both used multiple writing techniques, for example, irony and imagery to help us understand.
