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Advice to a Friend on Choosing a Mistress

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Advice to a Friend on Choosing a Mistress
English 1302
30/11/2013
Rhetorical Analysis of Advice to a Friend on Choosing Mistress Advice to a Friend on Choosing Mistress is a letter written by Benjamin Franklin in June 25th 1745 to his friend. The speech of this letter is essentially communicated to single men. The author gave advices particularly to his friend on which type of woman he should date if he is not ready to get married. Franklin preceded his lustful consulting by an apology for the marriage, recalling his friend how much carnal pleasures are favourable in a legal and recognized union. In his message, Franklin advises his friend that marriage is the best solution not for only sexual desires but also the undisputable source of solid happiness. Having suspicions that his friend would not follow his guidance, Franklin recommends him to choose older mistresses instead of younger ones and lists eight valuables reasons to better support his argument. Franklin commences his essay by presenting advantages of the marriage. He says ‘’ I know of no medicine fit to diminish the violent inclinations you mention…Marriage is the proper remedy. It is most natural state of man and therefore the state in which you can are most likely to find solid happiness’’. Through those sentences, Franklin seems to estimate that from a masculine’ view, one of the main advantages of the marriage is to bring pacification toward requirements of the flesh. The recipient of the letter who was the friend of the author seemed to be looking for a situation in which he could find sexual partner and happiness without commitment. Based on the previous quotes, the author claims that the best situation in which he could find what he was looking for was a marriage. In his letter, Franklin advices his friend to settle because ‘ It is the man and woman together that make the complete human being’’. If Franklin thinks that the marriage is so positive, this is relied to both psychological and socio-economical reasons.



Cited: Benjamin Franklin Advice to a Friend on Choosing Mistress June 25th 1745 Anamikas. S .’’Gender and Relationship’’ http://anamikas.hubpages.com/ Cardona Carolina ,’’Mode de vie’’ http://www.linternaute.com/

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