William Hazlitt, in his 1827 essay “On the Want of Money”, criticizes the treatment of poor people by those who are not so unfortunate and highlights the diminished quality of life resulting from such cruelties. His strongest method of delivering his message was through his powerful word choice; his curious syntax follows after, laden with images and connotative language. These strategies aid Hazlitt in his effort to compel the privileged to amend their attitudes toward and to acknowledge the humanity of the impoverished.
Hazlitt’s diction plays an immense role in his argument on the unnecessary necessity of money, making its first appearance in his very first sentence. “Literally and truly, one cannot get on well in the world without money.” …show more content…
The most relevant of these three is the one that is over 45 lines long, one in which Hazlitt depicts the painful, angst-filled life of the impoverished and the nearly insurmountable obstacles it contains. In combination with his word choice, Hazlitt employs asyndeton in many parts of his inlaid list in order to further his argument. In one part of his work, he describes poverty as “to be compelled to stand behind a counter, or to sit at a desk in some public office, or to marry your landlady, or not the person you would wish; or to go out to the East or West Indies, or to get a situation as judge abroad…” (16-20), making the ails of the impoverished seem endless as he continues to go on with many more lists and very few conjunctions. This sort of speech pulls the audience further and further into Hazlitt’s words, which act as a looking glass to the lives of people who lack money, a very strange sight for his affluent audience. By dividing parts of his essay mainly with semicolons, Hazlitt accentuates and amplifies the ongoing struggle that comes with poverty, driving his point forward without the pause provided by a conjunction, period, or indentation. This lack of pause prevents the audience from stopping to think long enough to rebuke, rebuff, or rebut his statements, keeping them entranced by the foreign images of his looking
Hazlitt’s diction plays an immense role in his argument on the unnecessary necessity of money, making its first appearance in his very first sentence. “Literally and truly, one cannot get on well in the world without money.” …show more content…
The most relevant of these three is the one that is over 45 lines long, one in which Hazlitt depicts the painful, angst-filled life of the impoverished and the nearly insurmountable obstacles it contains. In combination with his word choice, Hazlitt employs asyndeton in many parts of his inlaid list in order to further his argument. In one part of his work, he describes poverty as “to be compelled to stand behind a counter, or to sit at a desk in some public office, or to marry your landlady, or not the person you would wish; or to go out to the East or West Indies, or to get a situation as judge abroad…” (16-20), making the ails of the impoverished seem endless as he continues to go on with many more lists and very few conjunctions. This sort of speech pulls the audience further and further into Hazlitt’s words, which act as a looking glass to the lives of people who lack money, a very strange sight for his affluent audience. By dividing parts of his essay mainly with semicolons, Hazlitt accentuates and amplifies the ongoing struggle that comes with poverty, driving his point forward without the pause provided by a conjunction, period, or indentation. This lack of pause prevents the audience from stopping to think long enough to rebuke, rebuff, or rebut his statements, keeping them entranced by the foreign images of his looking