A Model Character In Benjamin Franklin's Life

Superior Essays
Benjamin Franklin in writing his autobiography showed in his life what he thought was a model character. Franklin was not a very religious man himself. He found value out of religion because it tended to help people become better than they were and gave them virtues to live. Franklin tells readers that he lives his model life by living thirteen virtues that he has picked out himself to be the most important. These virtues if done correctly could lead to a morally perfected person. By going through each of Franklin’s virtues, readers can see how Franklin lived his own life as well as see how Franklin deemed himself to be a model character.
The first of Franklin’s virtues was temperance. Franklin thought it was really a waste of money to buy alcohol. He liked having a plain breakfast every morning from his wife. (45) Having only bread and milk with not even tea was something that he boasts of in his autobiography. Franklin saw speech as an instrument to express how smart you were. Silence was a wise decision if you could not add anything to the conversation that would not enlighten either yourself or others. Silence would also help to avoid mundane conversation. (48) Franklin writes in his biography “Let all your things have their place, let each part of your business have its time.” (48) Order was the hardest for Franklin to master. He ends up never completely mastering order but writes that he is a better person for trying. (52) Resolution was the fourth virtue. It is rather comical that Franklin rates resolution as a high virtue in the list where he was never exceptional at keeping his resolutions. The first and most important resolution was in asking Miss Reed for her hand in marriage. Between him leaving her for England and his pursuit of engaging other women, Franklin would never have married Miss. Reed except that it became convenient for him to do so. Franklin also decided that he would only go into printing because that is the easiest place for him to find a job because of his past experience with his brother as a printer’s apprentice. If it was not convenient for Franklin to do things in his life he wouldn’t have kept them. His virtue book itself, having been something that he resolved to keep and work at, became something that he merely carried around and only following what he wanted. Frugality was something that Franklin took very seriously. He often talks of ways and means that he found of not spending money. He boasts of his pewter spoon and relishes that cleverness of abstaining from alcohol to save him money. He likes his plain table and simple furniture. A good amount of credit should also be given to his wife were he wouldn’t keep servants, meaning a lot more work for his wife. (46)(47) Together the both of them made do with what they had and tried to
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While an average person tends to describe someone chase as someone that only engages in sexual intercourse within the bounds of marriage, Franklin describes it as something to “rarely use venery but for health and or offspring, never to dullness, weakness, or the injury of your own or another’s peace or reputation.” He puts rather big loopholes in his description never once mentioning that it should be within the bounds of marriage and can be used for health. Franklin is not a chaste man when compared to what the majority of people define being chaste is. Using Franklin’s own definition he is not chase person either. He ruined his own reputation with a lot of people, not to mention the reputations he must have smeared in his day and age.
Franklin’s last virtue was humility. Though the virtue was not important enough to make the list the first time, Franklin decided it had its value. Franklin was not a humble man himself. By putting in letters that say your work is more important than several prestigious Roman leaders and by boasting of your influence in public councils (54) it is a good indicator that you are not humble. Writing a book about himself as the model character and way of life reportedly makes him not humble. Franklin does try to appear that he is a humble man and puts it forth that way but he is not a humble

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