Johnson’s letter is a response to a woman who asked him to obtain support to have her son sent to the university. The prompt crafts his denial of the woman’s request using rhetorical strategies to deliver his message to the women. He uses a number of methods of getting his point across using things such as juxtaposition, setting her up by giving her hope then letting her down with the disappointment. In the letter, Johnson says, “Hope is itself a species of happiness, and, like all other pleasures immoderately enjoyed, the excesses of hope must be expiated by pain; and expectations improperly indulged, must end in disappointment.” In the quote said by him, he talks about hope being itself a “species of happiness” and like all happiness, it
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You ask me to solicit a great man, to whom I never spoke, for a young person whom I had never seen upon a supposition which I had no means of knowing to be true.” He explains how he couldn’t bring up such a thing due to the fact that he doesn’t know her or her son nor does he know much of the archbishop of Canterbury. By bringing it up if he did, it wouldn’t be of much help because he does not know the woman’s son. In the last paragraph of his letter, after using logic and reasoning, he lets her down easily by telling her that there is hope for her son either way. “I have seen your son this morning; he seems a pretty youth, and will, perhaps, find some better friend than I can procure him; but though he should at last miss the University, he may still be wise, useful, and happy.” Though Johnson explained hope as something to be ended in sadness, he still tells her to have hope for her son, due to him meeting him and believing he is a good person. In all, Johnson uses craft in an appropriate manner, building up his stance and not letting down his audience, or the mother, entirely. He had the ability to let her hold onto hope though he believes that all hope ends in failure. His use of logic and reasoning as well as his straightfowardness left the reader with a well-written letter that
You ask me to solicit a great man, to whom I never spoke, for a young person whom I had never seen upon a supposition which I had no means of knowing to be true.” He explains how he couldn’t bring up such a thing due to the fact that he doesn’t know her or her son nor does he know much of the archbishop of Canterbury. By bringing it up if he did, it wouldn’t be of much help because he does not know the woman’s son. In the last paragraph of his letter, after using logic and reasoning, he lets her down easily by telling her that there is hope for her son either way. “I have seen your son this morning; he seems a pretty youth, and will, perhaps, find some better friend than I can procure him; but though he should at last miss the University, he may still be wise, useful, and happy.” Though Johnson explained hope as something to be ended in sadness, he still tells her to have hope for her son, due to him meeting him and believing he is a good person. In all, Johnson uses craft in an appropriate manner, building up his stance and not letting down his audience, or the mother, entirely. He had the ability to let her hold onto hope though he believes that all hope ends in failure. His use of logic and reasoning as well as his straightfowardness left the reader with a well-written letter that