Knitting Symbol Analysis

The action of knitting is another one of Winthrop’s preferred symbols for the bonds of social life. Throughout his sermon, Winthrop uses the image of fabric—a strong material composed of disparate weak elements, or threads—to illustrate the interdependence of humanity. For a double rhetorical effect, he often couples his knitting language with the image of the human body: “There is noe body but consistes of partes and that which knitts these partes together gives the body its perfection […].” As with the body imagery, Winthrop’s central message is that the invisible power of love is essential to communal life. In this crafty play on words, Winthrop suggests not only that every “body” of people (i.e., every society) consists of its individual members, but also that every human “body” (i.e., every singular human being) is never entirely alone—everyone “consistes of partes” and is dependent on others. He ties together this body analogy with the crucial verb “to knit.” This mixed metaphor suggests a strong, organic fabric of many different living fibers—one durable piece and yet disparately composed. This is a perfect image for the society he envisions in the intimidating and geographically isolated Massachusetts Bay Colony which his audience was about to inhabit.