What Is Lord Chesterfield's Attitude To His Son

Parents are almost always among the most influential people in a person’s life. They often become the ones who contribute the most to their children’s lives by molding them into individuals who share the same beliefs and attitudes as their guardians. Through his letter of advice written to his faraway son, Lord Chesterfield reveals his own personal values that he attempts to pass on through the use of parallel structure and figurative language in his correspondence.

Chesterfield starts off his letter by establishing a position to give his advice. Recognizing that his young son could easily show indifference to his words, the author employs anaphora in order to sympathize somewhat with his son and at the same time reveal his expectation that
the advice he is about to give will at least be considered. Lord Chesterfield continues to assure that he only aims to advise, and not to dictate to his son through the implementation of simile, urging the younger Chesterfield to view the advice as coming from a friend, rather than from a parent.

Lord Chesterfield emphasizes the value and importance of experience by employing the use of metaphor and compares the obstacles he had faced in his lifetiime to “thorns and briars” that had made marks in his life.
He stresses his wish that passing his experiences to his son would help him in his own path to adulthood.

At this point in the letter, the tone transitions from being sympathetic to becoming more straightforward and cautioning. Lord Chesterfield achieves this through the use of cautioning irony, reminding his son that as his benefactor, he can choose to stop supporting him should his son fail to make the right choice of listening to the advice. Chesterfield shows his values of respect and obedience, trusting that his son would do right “out of affection and gratitude”.

Chesterfield’s second paragraph is where the actual advice appears; he urges his son to have “attention and application” to everything he did in life, indicating that commitment was a prominent value for the author. Using rhetorical questions to emphasize the importance of achieving excellence, Lord Chesterfield then goes on to warn his son of the potential consequences that would result from doing things half-heartedly. He reminds his son that as a person who was born into a position with many opportunities granted to him, failure to work hard and excel others would inevitable bring shame and disgrace to himself and his father. As a final message to his son, Chesterfield concludes his letter with
antithesis, summarizing his belief that achievement does not come to a person until he truly delves into the subject at hand.

In his letter of advice to his son, Lord Chesterfield utilized numerous rhetorical strategies, primarily parallel structure and metaphor, to reveal and teach his own values. As a father and a man of nobility, Chesterfield emphasizes the importance of respect, commitment, and excellence in his letter. This piece demonstrates the lord’s caring and concern for his son; after all, every parent strives for their children to be successful, and raising an heir is certainly no exception.