Parenting, not the easiest job in the world. It is a job not many succeed at without making mistakes; mistakes that may indeed hurt their child in the long run. Lord Chesterfield, father of a boy that is away from him wrote a letter filled with irony and manipulative behavior. Lord Chesterfield, by solely being a Lord, is known to care much about his appearance in society, his appearance including his son’s actions. The beginning of his letter begins by making himself seem as the victim. The victim of having a son that ignores his father’s advice. He shows vulnerability at his child’s hand, especially when he employs so much of his time writing letters to his son. Showing that he is a caring father without a single intention of acting as dictator. This allows his son to have a more forgiving outlook on his father and believing his father’s words. Words that state, “I do not mean to dictate as a parent: I only mean to advice as a friend.” This is later contradicted, “I do not hint these things to you, because I am convinced that you will act …show more content…
By allowing himself to seem as a friend and not an authoritative figure, his son showed compassion. Compassion towards his father when seeking to give his son advice. The organization of his writing was strategized to cause his son guilt. Guilt for having so much in comparison to other children; having the “uncommon care” that not many are granted. Having his father take the time into even bothering to write to him and giving him advice that will not have Chesterfield’s son as “disfigured” as Chesterfield was left. Left “disfigured” because no one taught him the values he wishes to pound into his son. Feigning to be a concerned parent, Chesterfield next reminds his son that without him in his life, his son has nothing. Left with what he came into the world, nothing, if he does not life up to his father’