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Brenda Garcia

Mr. Choi

Contemporary Composition

02 October 2018

Winthrop and Edwards’: A Speech Analysis

On a journey from England to the land what is now known as the United States, John

Winthrop delivered a speech to his fellow Puritans about being able to succeed in their new life.

He talks about being able to provide for their prosperity by being united as one, with him using

an emotionally driven tone. 111 years later during the Great Awakening, Jonathan Edwards

wrote a sermon to the congregation making them aware that God will not have mercy for sinners.

Edwards’ diction in his speech portrays God as very pessimistic towards sinners, planting the

feeling of fear in the audience. Although both Winthrop and Edwards’ speeches had different

perspectives towards God, both utilize rhetoric to aid the expression of their ideas and thoughts.

When Winthrop delivered his speech on the Arabella during the journey to the New

World, he gave the Puritans hope by telling​ ​them that they should be united as one to succeed in

life, making references to the Bible. Making him a reputable leader, Winthrop made the

comparison in his speech “ [...] And to shutt upp this discourse with that exhortacion of Moses

that faithful servant of the Lord in his last farewell to Israel [...] ” (Winthrop), juxtaposing

Moses from the Bible and himself. This helped make the Puritans realize they could be more

optimistic about their future and being the religious people that they are. As so with Edwards’
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speech, he uses more of a direct approach with audience. Edwards’ wording creates more of an

emotional impact towards the congregation telling them “It would be dreadful to suffer this

fierceness and wrath of Almighty God one moment; but you must suffer to it all eternity […] ”

(Edwards), with his intention to traumatize those people. Making them feel remorse, causing the

congregation to want to be committed to God and God only. With both Winthrop and Edwards’

speeches, they’re emotionally driven, but could be driven to a point where you can almost

visualize what they’re talking about.

For both speeches, there are some sections where the phrasing of the words could be

envisioned, due to the fact of the strong word choice that Winthrop and Edwards utilized. The

way Winthrop expressed his thought about “ [...] wee shall open the mouthes of enemies to

speake evill of the wayes of god and all professours for God’s sake ; wee shall shame the faces

of many gods worthy servants [..] ” (Winthrop), created a visual for the Puritans to be able to see

what Winthrop had in mind, telling the Puritans to expose people who had been speaking of God

sickeningly. As for Edwards’ wording, he harshly describes “ We find it easy to crush a worm

that we see crawling on the earth; so ‘tis easy for us to cut or singe a slender thread that anything

hangs by: thus easy is it for God when he pleases to cast his enemies down to hell […] ”

(Edwards), making a comparison to humans as insects which can be easily exterminated and so it

will be too when God disposes of sinners. The visual examples that Winthrop and Edwards gave,

mentally affected their audience with the help of the given attitude towards their examples.

Winthrop’s speech motivates the Puritans by making them feel rushed, causing them to

be thrilled for their new start of life. Winthrop created that effect by advising them “ wee must be

knitt together [...] ” (Winthrop), having a tone of urgency, which fed the Puritans some
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excitement for them to be motivated for their New World. However in Edwards’ sermon, he uses

more of a negative attitude with the congregation. Edwards wanted to assure that the

congregation understood that God would never forgive sinners, so he told them, “ God’s hand

has held you up; there is no other reason to be given what you han’t not gone to hell since you

have sat here in the house of God, provoking his pure eyes by your sinful wicked manner of

attending his solemn worship: yea, there is nothing else that is to be given as a reason why you

do not this very moment drop down to hell.”(Edwards). As a result, both speeches had the

illusion to cause both positive and negative outcomes with the diction of Winthrop and Edwards.

With the help of rhetorical appeals and devices, Winthrop and Edwards were both able to

create speeches that allowed their audience to view situations through their point of view. Both

Winthrop and Edwards were dominant figures during their time period and took advantage of

that to lead their people. The reason behind Winthrop’s voyage with the Puritans could be define

what is now known as the American Dream. We could use dominant figures today to motivate

our society by telling us that we could maintain for future generations by being successful in life,

in our defintion of the American Dream.