Lord Chesterfield Analysis

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In the excerpt from the letter written by Lord Chesterfield to his son, he implies that he would like to advise his son and also reveal his own values. The author uses several rhetorical strategies throughout the text, such as anaphoras, rhetorical questions, and metaphors, which indicate his own values. Lord Chesterfield uses long sentences, separated by colons or semicolons, which may suggest he wants to advise his son in a quick, but friendly manner. Lord Chesterfield uses irony by when he first addresses his son, he does not “mean to dictate as a parent; only to advise as a friend.” As the letter continues though, he hints to his son that he is his father, and indeed he wants him to listen and follow to what he is informing his son of. The author also continues to explain to his son that he is “absolutely dependent upon him” and that “he neither had, nor can have a…show more content…
He says that he is there to help and he wants his son to take his experiences and learn from them. Through rhetorical questions, he informs about the education he wants his son to have. Carefully, he develops the assertion that it is important to know about a whole topic, not just a little piece of it. This reveals Chesterfield’s value that when his son reaches beyond his peers, he will gain pleasure for being the best educated so far, but what Chesterfield really wants his son to learn is that you really accomplish nothing until you master what your learning. Therefore, Lord Chesterfield strongly develops his ideal values through rhetorical strategies. This emphasizes and makes his values seem much more important. In making his values more important, Lord Chesterfield’s son may be persuaded more to take his advice, and eventually get far in
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