Delanie Wampler

Ms. Burgoon
AP Lang. & Comp 1996 Essay #1
4/17/14

In a letter to her daughter, Lady Mary Wortley Montagu gives her daughter advice and
guidance on the matter of educating her grandaughter. During the time that the letter was written
in, the 18th century, women often were not educated like men were. It was a rare thing for a
woman to be educated in language and writing, and Lady Mary tried to stress the importance of
such an education. She Implored her daughter to take great care in the situation of educating her
child. In order to convey this importance of certain education, Lady Mary employs rhetorical
modes, stylistic elements, and rhetorical devices in her letter.
Lady Mary writes a letter to her daughter about how she should educate her daughter, and in
this persuasion she includes the rhetorical modes of ethos pathos and logos. The ethos or ethical
point of view of the letter is that education is important no matter what, especially for women in
the 18th century. The pathos or emotional standpoint is being able to understand poetry will
bring joy to women. She supports such an emotional claim saying, the use of knowledge in our
sex, besides the amusement of solitude, is to moderate the passions and learn to be contented
with a small expanse,. The logos of or logical argument is that women should be able to enjoy
poetry and literature like men do. They should have the right to knowledge and happiness.
Stylistic elements can be found in this letter to give structure and emphasis to the message.
The tone of the letter is trivial and persuasive, because Lady Mary sees her grandaughters
education as extremely important. She weaves advice into her words to persuade her daughter
when she says, tow hours application every morning will bring this about muchsooner than you
can imagine, and she will have the leisure enough besides to run over the English poetry, which
is a more important part of a womans education than it is generally supposed.. The audience of
the letter is not only Lady Marys daughter but can also be intended for all women of the time
era. The purpose of the letter is to educate Lady Marys grandaughter in a way that will benefit
not only her brain but also her life in every aspect. The purpose is clear in the opening line of the
letter, True knowledge consists in knowing things, not words..
Along with stylistic elements and specific rhetorical modes, Lady Mary also employs other
rhetorical strategies in her writing. The Diction of the letter is made up of grand and intelligent
words, to show that education effects everything about you, especially writing. If her daughter
wants Lady Marys grandaughter to sound smart and knowledgeble like Lady Mary, she should
take Lady Marys advice. To back her argument up with personal examples, Lady Mary offers an
anecdote about her and her friend recalling, I remember when I was a girl, I saved one of my
companions from destruction, who communicated to me an epistle she was quite charmed with..
She demonstrates her knowledge of poetry using a comparison of poets Prior and Pope. The
syntax of her letter involves lengthy and descriptive sentences, which also adds to the proof of a
womens capability of being intelligent.
In conclusion the letter Lady Mary Wortley writes to her daughter about educating her
grandaughter, the letter itself acts as proof to the Ladys claim. With all of its rhetorical and
stylistic devices, it shows the intellgence and wisdom that Lady Mary holds as so important for
her grandaughter to obtain in the future. In the 18th century it was uncommon for a women to be
knowledgable, let alone be able to put that knowledge to good use. Lady Mary stresses to her
daughter the cruciality of both factors of knowledge, especially for women at the time. In her
effort to convey to her daughter that her grandaughter needs to be educated with such points of
knowledge and wisdom in mind, Lady Mary writes her letter using rhetorical modes, stylistic
elements, and additional rhetorical strategies.