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Josh McLean

English 102 H

Mrs. Cox

27 March 2020

Lewes Timed Write

Rhetorical strategies are often used in writing for many different purposes. Author’s will

often use them to give their words great meaning or to help get their point across to the viewer or

reader. This remains true for the letter from Marian Evans Lewis to the American woman,

Melusina Fay Peirce. Lewis sends this letter to Peirce to talk to her and give her advice about

being a writer and becoming one. Lewis uses a variety of different rhetorical strategies

throughout her letter. She relies on things like similes and metaphors, rhetorical questions, and

allusions in her letter to give her words deeper meaning.

Similes and metaphors are one of the most used rhetorical strategies. They allow the

author to compare two different things. It is used to give the reader a better understanding of

what they are reading or viewing. In line ten to eleven, Lewis states that, “What comes after, is

rather the sense that the work has been produced in one, like offspring…” The author uses the

simile to compare her feelings of what comes after to that of offspring. She does this to give a

comparison that is easier to understand. By using this simile her words will have a deeper and

easier understanding to Peirce. Lewis also uses a metaphor in line twenty-seven and twenty-eight

when she states that, “There is nothing more dreary than the life of a writer who has early

exhausted himself.” The author compares the life of an exhausted writer to being dreary. Lewis

is trying to tell Peirce that it is not a bad thing that she did not begin writing at a very young age.

There are downsides that come with beginning writing when writers are young.
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Lewis relied on another main rhetorical strategy throughout her letter. She used rhetorical

questions while talking to Peirce. Rhetorical questions can be a very strong rhetorical strategy

because it gives information that makes the reader think. By asking a rhetorical question the

author is getting the viewer to slow down and focus on the writing. They are forced to think

about what the question is asking and if there is an answer to it. Lewis uses a rhetorical question

on line 19 when she asks, “Does this seem melancholy?” The author is saying this because the

things that she says in the lines above seem very sad and upset. The author goes to answer her

own rhetorical question and say that she does not think that it is melancholy but rather self

flattery.

The final rhetorical device that Lewis used in her letter to Peirce is allusions. The author

actually alludes to characters from her own writing. The author knows that Peirce is a fan and

likely has read her writing. By alluding to characters from her own writing, it allows Peirce to

have a deeper connection to what she is saying. Alluding to the characters makes what Lewis is

saying easier for Peirce to understand. One of the allusions is in line fifty-five and fifty-six when

she states that, “I will say no more about myself except that you must not imagine my position to

be like Romola’s.” This character in the story has a very bad husband who doesn't love her. By

using this allusion, Lewis is showing that her situation is very different. She has a husband who

loves her very much and cares for her, unlike her character from the story.

Through the use of rhetorical strategies authors and writers have the ability to give much

deeper meaning to their words. These strategies do things like make comparisons and help the

reader get a better understanding of what they are reading. Lewis uses many different strategies

throughout her letter to Peirce. She uses things like similes and metaphors to help compare. She
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uses allusions to compare herself to the character from her story. Also she uses things like

rhetorical questions to get Peirce to focus and think deeper about what she is saying.