The Crucible, Act Four

In this blog, I will be comparing the two literatures, Sinners In the Angry Hands of God and The Crucible.

Both of these two writings contain a lot of religion in them. This was of course very popular in Puritan-style writings. One thing that Sinners In the Hands Of An Angry God and The Crucible have in common is that they both center around religion. They both display an angry God. In both of these writings, God is punishing his people. In Sinners In the Hands of An Angry God, it talks about how God is very angry (Hence the title) and he wants to punish his people. God is upset because his people are not being loyal to him anymore and they keep sinning. They have settled down recently and are feeling more independent and like they do not need him. They are beginning to do their own thing and God is not happy. Basically, the sermon is saying that if the people do not step up and be better Christians, they are all going to Hell.

In Sinners In the Hands of An Angry God, the people are starting to leave God in a way. They are not being very good Christians. They only go to God when they are having bad times and the narrator says that this is not okay. The people feel that when things are good as they have been, they do not need God and they kind of forget about him. The same thing happens in The Crucible. The characters begin to focus more on unholy things that they should not be focusing on. People are lying and blaming others and killing innocent people. People are being accused of witchcraft and some may even be doing witchcraft which is like devil stuff. So God is probably not too happy about that either.

One obvious similarity between Sinners In the Hands Of An Angry God and The Crucible is that Sinners In the Hands Of an Angry God is written as an actual sermon. It was written to scare people in to prying more and going to church more and just acting more like Christians inside and outside of the church. The preacher tells (more like screams at) the people that they need to be better Christians so that they can go to Heaven. The Crucible, on the other hand, was written as a story. It was written for the purpose of entertainment.

Sinners In the Hands Of An Angry God has a very different tone than The Crucible. It has a very harsh tone. It is harsh because the narrator is not trying to sugar coat any of his message. He is telling the people what he believes to be true and he is telling it in the most direct, way possible. Sinners In the Hands Of An Angry God shows off the stricter side of religion. It is saying that you must live as a Christian in every aspect of your life. It is saying that if you do not be careful about what you say or do outside of church, that God will not hesitate to punish you and you could spend an eternity in Hell. This sermon was meant to scare people in to being better Christians and I think that it probably worked. If I had an angry preacher screaming this sermon at me, I think that I would be extremely cautious of how I lived my life after that. The tone of The Crucible is a lot calmer than Sinners In the Hands Of An Angry God. It is telling a story and not trying to make people do anything or change anything about their life.
Bibliography

Edwards, Jonathan. Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God. Phillipsburg, NJ: P&R Pub., 1992. Print.
Miller, Arthur. The Crucible. New York, NY: Penguin, 1996. Print.