Religious Fanaticism in The Private Memoirs and Confessions of a Justified Sinner Kenadi Taylor Freeman College

Scottish novelist James Hogg’s The Private Memoirs and Confessions of a Justified Sinner opens with a narrative by an unknown editor describing the Colwan family and the feud between the Colwan brothers, Robert, later known as Robert Wringhim, and George. The editor’s narrative is followed by the manuscript told in Robert’s point of view. This manuscript reveals Robert’s emotions and feelings of self-righteousness, and it allows readers to closely follow the events that led to his lost sense of reality. Religious fanaticism through its deep portrait of the Calvinist concept of predestination in The Private Memoirs and Confessions of a Justified Sinner is a prevalent theme as reflected in the justification of sin, Robert’s self-righteousness and mental state of mind, and Gil-Martin’s evil demeanor.

The primary example of the prevalent theme of religious fanaticism through its deep portrait of the Calvinist concept of predestination in The Private Memoirs and Confessions of a Justified Sinner is the justification of sin, especially when Robert kills his own brother George. On his eighteenth birthday, Robert’s father figure and minister, Reverend Robert Wringhim instills in him the belief that he is one of the elect, meaning that...