4 REASONS TO LOVE FRANCIS BACON WRITING STYLE
GENERAL INTRODUCTION
Francis Bacon also known as Lord Verulam was a writer, an English Philosopher, an essayist, and was statesman. He served as Lord Chancellor and Attorney General for England. He was born in January 1561 and died in April 1626. His Father name was Sir Nicolas Bacon.
He was one of the leading figures and was mainly focused on Natural Philosophy(the advancement of learning, the Idols, the system of science, struggle with tradition are some of his famous philosophies in his works) and scientific methods (the project of Instuaratio Magna, the theory of induction).
Francis Bacon is the writer of the Elizabethan era. He is generally known for his prose writing where he got fame. Francis Bacon is known as the Father of English Essays because there are some characteristics in his writings that differentiate his writings from others which are as follows. Some of his major works are Of Studies, Of Truth, Of Marriage, and Single Life. His famous topics of discussion were Friendship, Family, Followers, and how to relate with others.
Some of the famous characteristics of Bacon’s essay writing are as follows:
FRANCIS BACON APHORISM
It is one of the characteristics of Bacon’s writing. It is one of the noble features of his writings. Aphorism means straightforward statements stating the truth. It means making a general statement which is understandable by a common person as well.
The aphoristic style makes the readers to do their own interpretation and allows them to make the meaning and add the meaning to the statements. Aphoristic style is opposite to magisterial style where the whole information is provided to the reader making them bounded and not interpreting their own views about the statements.
IMPERSONALITY
This is the 2nd most famous and noble of his writings. He was impersonal in his writings. He was objective in his writing defining only the truths and was not subjective like Charles Lamb who was subjective in his writings.
His own experiences and thoughts were not reflected in his writings. He was presenting the truth with proof detaching his own views about the topic making it more authentic. For example in one of his essays, Of Friendship, he gives the example of Julies Ceasar and Brutus where no personal opinion of hum was needed.
His writing also had difficulty in categorizing his essays because sometimes his essays were so small that they did not come under the definition of essay. They were lacking coherence and sometimes they were also not divided into paragraphs. So the readers were finding difficulty in understanding and directly changing their attention from one idea to another.
USE OF RHETORICAL DEVICES
Bacon uses parts of speech in his writings making his writings unique. The use of paradox is there in his writings which means a contradiction between two ideas or sentences for example in his essay, Of Marriage and Single Life.
The two opposing arguments discuss in this essay where Bacon describes the merits and Demerits of both single and married life. Similarly, the use of Similie, Imagery, analogy, and metaphor which were common at that time to be used, he also used that in his writings.
For example in his essay Of Studies, he uses simile when he writes the sentence “ For natural abilities are like natural plants that need proyning by study.”
USE OF VOCABULARY, QUOTATIONS, AND SENTENCES
Bacon’s vocabulary stands next to the vocabulary of Shakespeare. His writing was first limited to Latin but later on, he introduced his philosophy to English and contributed different words to the English language. Similarly, he used the appropriate quotation in his writings.
For example in his essay Of adversity, he quoted the lines “Good things which belong to prosperity are to be wished, but the good things which belong to adversity are to be admired”. And the style of sentences is balanced and pointed. The other writers of the Elizabethan era preferred the old fashion rather than Bacon used the modern way of sentence structure.
