letter to lord chesterfield

Letter to Lord Chesterfield

秦永芬 英师0901 3091702002

This letter was written by Samuel Johnson as a reply to Lord Chesterfield’s recommendation of his dictionary which was so late and needless. The full text is filled with irony showing Johnson’s contempt for Chesterfield’s ignorance of his talent, indifference to his plight and intended praise of his dictionary.

In the first place, let’s look at this letter from the broad sense of rhetoric view. Firstly, the act of this letter is to refuse to acknowledge that Lord Chesterfield is his patron. The scene is after the Lord publishing two articles to recommend Johnson’s dictionary in The World. The agent is Johnson himself. The agency is to recall his unkind treatment from Lord Chesterfield, his plight in both compilation and life and satirize the Lord’s work of praising his effort when it is totally beyond the needed time. The purpose is to claim Johnson’s win in dictionary compiling work and despise the Lord or the aristocracy.

Secondly, this letter is neither to teach nor to delight but to move his audience to believe that his great work of compiling the dictionary all depend on his own effort and there is no patron. Also, it’s published through the media of newspaper, so, the level is high. Then, when mentioning media, we can see that language, this media had helped to proclaim truth. Some claim that the letter caused a minor furore in the contemporary literary world when Johnson made it public and it has been the subject of critical comment ever since; it has been described as literature's "declaration of independence".

Thirdly, let’s view it through three means of persuasion. In pathos---or emotional appeal, the effects include moral anger, ambition, excitement, fear, happiness, pity, jealousy as well as other feelings. Samuel Johnson uses skillful and witty handing of language, which we will analyze later, accompanied by exposure and eloquence. For exposure, Johnson reveals some truth about the Lord by telling readers how he was refused by the Lord and how the Lord was indifferent to his difficulties. For eloquence, Johnson use different kinds of narrow sense of rhetorical figures to make his language powerfully and frequently to appeal to people’s sympathy for him and

anger for the Lord.

In ethos---or ethical appeal. Johnson’s seven-year struggling and effort in compiling the dictionary convinces his reader that he is a serious lexicographer and tend to believe what he said and even admire him.

In logos---or rational appeal, we know that effective logical reasoning comes from sound logical thinking which is expressed in relevant material, proper organization, coherent sentences, and words that appropriately convey one’s intended meanings. Two basic approaches people often use are: deduction and induction. In this letter, Johnson mainly uses the latter---he describes a lot of his treatment and experiences and readers can induct that in fact, the Lord not only didn’t subsidize Johnson but also should be criticized for what he did.

Then, let’s analyze the letter from the narrow sense of rhetoric and describe some typical and interesting rhetoric figures of speech.

In this letter, Johnson have different kinds of rhetoric figures at hand, such as irony, parallelism, rhetorical question, long sentences, understatement and so on. These figures make the letter appears very charming and powerful---let off Johnson’s dissatisfaction as well as arouse readers’ sympathy for him and displeasure for Lord Chesterfield.

For example, “To be so distinguished is an honour which, being very little accustomed to favours from the great, I know not well how to receive, or in what terms to acknowledge”. The author use understatement, “little accustomed to” means he had never earned any help from noblemen. “The shepherd in Virgil grew at last acquainted with Love, and found him a native of the rocks”. Here, Johnson uses allusions to satirize that the Lord who had been seen as a nobleman, however, is in fact “a native of the rocks”--- a man who is specious, cool and indifferent towards others’ difficulties. “But it has been delayed till I am indifferent, and cannot enjoy it; till I am solitary, and cannot impart it; till I am known, and do not want it”. And in this sentence, the author use simploce to emphasize the Lord’s act is really late and unnecessary. Also “climax” is used--- it gives us the feeling that Johnson really lived a hard life, struggled to finish his work and was really sad after losing his company.

Then, we, readers, feel the Lord is really a man who looks with unconcern on a man struggling for life in the water, and, when he has reached ground, encumbers him with help.

This letter is really good at mastering language to arouse readers’ emotion and applies different kinds of rhetoric figures of speech to impress readers. After reading this letter, I admire Johnson’s insistent effort in pursing his goal and keep self-esteem in front of the aristocrats.

本文来源：https://www.bwwdw.com/article/jfv4.html