Rhetorical Analysis Of Samuel Johnson's Letter To A Bishop

In a letter refusing to recommend a women’s son to a bishop for university, Samuel Johnson crafts a complex argument against doing so and substantiates his position with legitimate reasons and evidence. Johnson’s argument is highlighted by his very successful blend of term definitions, progressions in tone, and rhetorical appeals to logic (logos). When these components were used concurrently, Johnson was able to display his decline of the women’s request while evading any blame on his part. In the very beginning of his letter, Johnson predicts the exact feeling that the mother who sent him a request possesses: “hope.” In his overall goal, he wanted to dismantle this sense. Rather than bluntly criticizing her optimism, Johnson proceeds to define

Firstly, he shifts his tone to prepare the mother for the criticism for her actions and intents. Johnson’s tone expresses his “hope” that the mother forgets about her current “hopes” of a college future of her son. His tone was more accusatory than ever before, emphasizing the many things she “should have considered” before reaching out to him with a ridiculous proposal. Then he uses a different tonal approach which was more emotionally-friendly but more emphatic in logic. For instance, he emphasizes that he feels stranger to his son because he has “no means of knowing [her son’s goodness] to be true.” In saying this, his avoids criticizing the women’s son while still getting across his point that he doesn’t know her son personally to give assistance. Johnson purposely utilizes both approaches out of excellent anticipation for the mother’s reactions as well as to prevent any further discussions with

But before he conveys any blunt truths, he displays a respect (and understanding) for the mother’s fallacies. However, in a logical rebuttal, he explains that “there was no reason” why he should have assisted her and her son to, “whom he had never spoke,” attend college. Furthermore, Johnson emphasizes the very remote possibility of the women’s request by first explaining what “great pleasure” he would have of seeing it through; however, the request was deemed “remote by usual methods.” This thought is an elaboration of an earlier statement where he emphasized the need for “rules to be broken” for the women to get what she desired. Just like his use of definitions in paragraph one, the use of logos in paragraph two forces the mother to recognize the faults in her request for assistance while successfully diverting the blame (for the rejection) off of his