Day of Doom by Michael Wigglesworth - Book Report/Review Example

 The Day of Doom In his poem Day of Doom, Michael Wigglesworth, a Puritan church minister in New England describes the judgment day. Through the narration of the second coming of Christ and conversations between Him and different groups of sinners, Wigglesworth attempts to awaken his readers’ resolve to live in accordance with the biblical teachings. The poem uses different rhetorical devices and fallacies such as the appeal to fear and emotion to achieve this objective. Furthermore, Wigglesworth’s description of the day of reckoning borrows to a considerably significant extent from the biblical account of the judgment day, sometimes using artistic license and other devices to paint a clearer picture but ensuring the facts remains unchanged. This essay discusses the rhetoric featured in the poem while comparing its description to that of the scriptures for the determination of Wigglesworth’s use of artistic license, imagery, and his own interpretation of the Bible. Literature Review Critics have in the past questioned the ethics behind the applicability of rhetoric, such as the appeal to fear, to literature in communicating the general ideas in any work and persuading its audience to accept and adopt its arguments and recommendations. Others confirm the applicability of such rhetoric to literature arguing that appeals such as fear appeals are undesirable. Pfau, in his submission to the Journal of Philosophy and Rhetoric, advances one such argument providing that the use of an appeal to fear is oppressive (216). While such critics question the appeals’ ethics, they agree on their effectiveness and applicability across different situations and disciplines, literature in this case. For instance, in the fourth paragraph of his submission to the Journal of Chiropractic and Manual therapies, Simpson discredits such fears by confirming the effectiveness of such appeals in motivating the targeted individuals into changing their behavior. While his work shows no relation to literature, the concept is universal making it applicable to literature, poetry, in this case, to influence the readers or audience to be perceptive of its ideas and arguments, in successful cases managing to get them to accept and adopt them. While giving adding credibility to Simpson’s work, Averill confirms the applicability of rhetoric to literature in a study into the rhetoric of emotion published in the Empirical Studies of the Arts. He argues that emotions are social and individual constructs rather than biological responses and are therefore subject to change (22). Using the rhetoric of emotion is, therefore, a possible means to influence the readers or audience in literature to subscribe to the writer's school of thought and adopt their arguments or philosophies, an appeal Michael employs as seen in the next section. Rhetoric The Appeal to Fear The poem effectively uses language to successfully persuade its readers to understand and accept Wigglesworth’s argument. First, Michael employs rhetoric through the use of an appeal to fear, an effective means in the modification and adoption of the recommended behavior, righteousness in this context, according to Simpson (Par. 4). In the poem’s 28th stanza, for instance, the description of the sinners’ fate is a tool aimed at inspiring the fear of judgment in the reader's mind to persuade them into the adoption of righteousness. Its fifth and sixth lines “Sinners in grain, reserv’d to pain / and torments most severe:” (14), in their allusion to the fate of sinners inspire fear which encourages the readers to deviate from sin. Michael further employs the rhetoric later in the poem in his reference to their anguish and fear which he depicts as “self-tormenting” (15) and in the revelation of the scalding flames and endless pain awaiting them after their damnation (16). Finally, the description given of the fate befalling sinners after the sentencing, judgment, and condemnation is made deliberately vivid and ghastly to further inspire fear and acceptance of Wigglesworth’s arguments. The poem describes terror experienced by those condemned as they burn and gnash their teeth with their feet and arms bound in iron bands. The allusion into the despair and pain instills fear into the poem’s audience making them more receptive to the idea of living sin free lives to end up on the other side whose description paints the picture of happiness and contentment (30). The poem, therefore, successfully uses the appeal to fear to persuade its audience to conform to Michael’s ideal of a sinless existence. Appeal to Emotion Additionally, the poem uses a rhetorical appeal to emotion in its efforts to pass on to its readers its author’s argument and persuade them into accepting it. First, through the appeal to fear, a powerful and fundamental emotion which heightens an individual’s cognitive processing and perception, the poem moves the reader is persuaded to conform to Wigglesworth’s call to righteousness to escape the fate awaiting sinners after judgment. Furthermore, the description of the consequences of sin, such as the repeated mention of the resulting anguish and torment evokes apprehension at the impending doom. Finally, towards the end of the poem, the Judge proclaims the judgment which condemns all sinners to burn “where fire and Brimstone flameth” (30) further adding to the readers’ fear, apprehension from not knowing whether the eternal fire is their fate, and anxiety. Together, these strong emotions serve to convince the poem’s audience of the consequences awaiting those who fail to heed to Michael’s position. They, therefore, persuade them to accept his arguments. Rhetorical Devices In addition to the two appeals, the poem employs other rhetorical devices to advance its arguments and persuade its readers and audience to accept and adopt them. For instance, after the declaration of the sentence of condemnation, Wigglesworth describes the weight of the statement as sharper than a sword in the line: “Oh, Piercing words more sharp than swords” (30). The use of hyperbole in the line is evident in the obvious exaggeration of the effects of the words f condemnation seen in their consideration as piercing. Hyperbole in this situation successfully plants in the reader’s mind the gravity of receiving eternal condemnation and the consequent descent to hell which serves to persuade them into the acceptance of repentance and aversion to sin to avoid such a fate. The poem’s depiction of the judgment day to a significant extent relates to the description of the same in the scriptures, though sometimes Wigglesworth employs artistic license and incorporates his own imagery and interpretation. A comparison of the poem and the scriptural notations, particularly those from revelations reveals that Wigglesworth’s depiction of the judgment day is significantly closely related to that described in the Bible. Revelations 6: 16-17 describes distraught people pleading with the rocks and mountains to hide them from the wrath of God. Similarly the poem captures the hopelessness and pleas for leniency by God in its one hundred and eighty-second stanza in the lines “Thus all mens Pleas the Judge with ease” and “Vain hopes are cropt, all mouths are stopt.” In addition, the depiction of events in the tenth chapter of revelations mirrors that featured in the poem. Specifically, the fourteenth verse of the chapter describes the indignation and torment to be expected of sinners, further adding that they will have no rest as they suffer torment from the fire and brimstone. The poem describes a similar event in its two hundred and tenth stanza capturing the unending anguish and the smoke of torment covering them. Artistic License While the poem’s depiction of the judgment day is similar to the scripture’s, Wigglesworth distorts some of the words from the denoted scriptural notations in a display of artistic license. His version of Revelations 6: 16 in the tenth stanza, for instance, contains a similar message, but its wording and effects are different. The actual scripture features people calling out to rocks to hide them as protection against the wrath of God. The poem, on the other hand, in its tenth stanza describes the verse by alluding to the fear and terror felt by the people about to face judgment. The following stanza further proves Wigglesworth’s use of artistic license based on his allusion to Matthew 24:30. In the scriptures, the verse describes the appearance of the Son of Man in heaven on the Day of Judgment. The poem makes a mention of this fact, albeit indirectly by alluding instead to the day’s mood by appearing as an extension of the previous stanza describing the dread and fear as even the powerful fall on the judgment day. Based on the two examples, the poem’s depiction of the judgment day is majorly a product of artistic license giving the same idea but worded differently. Besides artistic license, Wigglesworth sometimes uses imagery and makes his own interpretation of the scriptures. At the beginning of the poem, for instance, the poem’s description of the world before the second coming of Christ is an interpretation of Luke12: 19 which simply implies an easy life. Michael interprets this as a secure and serene world whose inhabitants have all they need in the line “much good thou hast in store” (7). He uses imagery in the form of foreboding in the third and fourth lines “Calm was the season and carnal the reason / thought so ‘twould last for ay” (7) which gives the reader the indication that the calm and serenity is bound to change. Further, towards the end of the poem in its 201st stanza, Michael adds his own interpretation to Matthew 25: 41. The poem borrows the Judge’s sentence f condemnation from this verse. While the verse simply sees the King sending the sinners into the eternal fire, the poem interprets the fire as both figurative and literal, the literal part being the actual “fire and brimstone” (30) with the endless lake of misery expected to consume them as the deeper meaning of the fire. Day of Doom is a poetical description of the day of reckoning according to its writer Michael Wigglesworth. The poem borrows from the scriptures in the description of the judgment, sometimes describing the day’s events as featured in the book but deviating from the same in others. The poem uses different forms of rhetoric such as appealing to its audience’s fear and emotions to pass its message of avoidance of sin across. Together with other rhetorical devices such as hyperbole and imagery, Day of Doom successfully communicates the fate awaiting sinners on the Day of Judgment encouraging them to adopt righteousness to avoid facing similar consequences. Work Cited Averill, James R. "The rhetoric of emotion, with a note on what makes great literature great." Empirical Studies of the Arts19.1 (2001): 5-26. Pfau, Michael William. "Who's afraid of fear appeals? Contingency, courage, and deliberation in rhetorical theory and practice." Philosophy & Rhetoric 40.2 (2007): 216-237. Simpson, J. Keith. "Appeal to fear in health care: appropriate or inappropriate?." Chiropractic & manual therapies 25.1 (2017): 27. Wigglesworth, Michael. The day of doom: Or, A poetical description of the great and last judgment: With other poems. Green & Spooner, 1777. Read More