Captivity Mary Rowlandson Analysis

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Within three Puritan works, Rowlandson and Edwards displayed their religious beliefs through their thoughts on God and mankind. One of the many Puritan beliefs was that the bible is the basis of all teaching. Such examples of this are evident in Mary Rowlandson’s work “Captivity”. Even though she was a captive, she still took note of “the wonderful mercy of God” for the simple fact that He “[sent her] a bible” (Rowlandson 67). Feeling lost, the bible brought her back to her faith in a time of need, and enlightened her on the hope that “there was mercy promised again”(67). From then on she looked to the Bible for guidance in times of despair. Throughout her imprisonment, she often pondered about “the wonderful goodness of God” when she felt anguish (66). …show more content…

As an impending threat, His hand lay on the floodgate as their guilt built until they got overwhelmed with feelings of remorse. With the Indians terrorizing the Puritans, the image of God standing in Heaven with His bow bent and “the arrow made ready on the string” waiting to deliver “justice … at [their hearts]” terrified them into repenting for the sins they have committed (41). The warning of a “great furnace of wrath”, “full of fire” and darkness scared the Puritans into confession, self-discipline, and compliance with God. Finally, Puritans believed is that mankind is innately bad and has the natural born tendency to sin. The intimidating thought that nothing lay between humans and hell “but the air” frightened the Puritans into believing in their wickedness as human beings (Edwards 41). The iniquity of human nature made them feel “heavy as lead” because their sins weighed them down and taxed their strength and faith (41). The wrath that rest before them petrified all Puritans into believing that if they ceased prayer they got tossed into a “bottomless pit” of darkness

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