The Varieties of Religious Experience Literary Elements

The Varieties of Religious Experience Literary Elements

Genre

Philosophical book

Setting and Context

Written in the context of natural theology and philosophy of pragmatism

Narrator and Point of View

Third-person narrative

Tone and Mood

Enlightening, inspiring and optimistic

Protagonist and Antagonist

The central character is Professor Fraser.

Major Conflict

There is a conflict between modern religion and traditional beliefs.

Climax

The climax comes when people adapt the philosophies of religion positively, unlike at the beginning when religion was viewed as manipulative.

Foreshadowing

True beliefs in the real world foreshadow people’s mystical feelings.

Understatement

The manipulative nature of religion is understated in the text. For instance, the reader acknowledges that the introduction of Christianity undermined traditional beliefs.

Allusions

The story alludes to the acceptance of religious philosophies in society.

Imagery

The author uses sight imagery to explain modern philosophy. The author writes, “Let us ourselves look at the matter in the largest possible way. Modern psychology, finding definite psycho-physical connections to hold good, assumes as a convenient hypothesis that the dependence of mental states upon bodily conditions must be thoroughgoing and complete.”

Paradox

The assertion that Jesus Christ is a fantasy proxy introduced by the missionaries is paradoxical.

Parallelism

There is parallelism between religion and manipulation.

Metonymy and Synecdoche

Religious faith is used as a metonymy for mystical feelings.

Personification

N/A

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