Reflection Blog: Crucible act 4

"Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God" and "The Crucible" are two completely different stories, but one commonality they have is their religious basis. The Crucible is set in colonial Massachusetts where everyone had to be a Puritan (Miller). It was simply a theocracy, and people were judged by their allegiance to their religion and to God (Miller). "Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God" is somewhat similar because it is basically Jonathan Edwards angrily judging people. He declares that these people are sinners, and that they are almost disgraceful for being the way they are (Edwards). The only thing that is keeping them alive, he says, is the mere pleasure of God (Edwards).
Jonathon Edwards really reminds me of Danforth from The Crucible. Danforth would be the type of person who is always right, and nothing can change it. He has somewhat earned it by becoming some sort of leading judiciary, but that should not mean that he has the final say on everything. Obviously one reason he should not be so highly regarded is that he was entirely wrong about the witch epidemic. He even looked down upon the people who did not comprehend the “danger” that the witches presented. Jonathan Edwards reminds me of Danforth because he seems to act like what he says is automatically right. He appears to act as if he is speaking for God. The way he says things like

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 dreadfully provoked… he looks upon you as worthy of nothing else, but to be cast into the fire; he is of purer eyes than to bear to have you in his sight; you are ten thousand times more abominable in his eyes than the most hateful venomous serpent is in ours. (Edwards 98)

He acts like he is better than everyone else, and that he has some sort of right to judge others for what they do. Edwards could probably learn from Roger Williams who said that God should be the only one to judge people. I think that he could also learn a great deal from The Crucible. He would be a person who believed that there were definitely witches in Salem and nothing could prove otherwise. I think Edwards could learn that judging people so unreasonably is not a good thing. In Salem it brought the death of nineteen people.

Edwards says

But here you are in the land of the living, and in the house of God, and have an opportunity to obtain salvation. What would not those poor damned, helpless souls give for one day’s such opportunity as you now enjoy. (Edwards, 98)

He seems to be saying that because we are alive, and God has let us live, that we are in great luck and salvation. But Proctor, his wife, Rebecca, and many others are being hung for something that they did not do. They are alive, but they are not living in salvation. Proctor has to decide whether to let them hang him, or to lie and live. He faces a conundrum that the others must also face, and they are by no means living in salvation. I think Jonathan Edwards took his sermon too far, and that what he preaches is somewhat far from what people should follow.

Edwards, Jonathan. "From Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God." Comp. Jeffrey D. Wilhelm, Ph.D. and Douglas Fisher, Ph.D. Glencoe Literature. American Literature ed. Columbus: McGraw-Hill Companies, 2009. 97-99. Print.

Miller, Arthur. "The Crucible". New York, NY: Penguin, 1996. Print.