18th Century Literary Works

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18th Century Literary Works

Some wrote for the entertainment value, some for the instructional value, some combined the

two motives to portray their pieces of work. This was during the 18th century and how various

writers did most of their literary work. To exemplify we are going to look at a few pieces of

literary works that were done during this period and analyze the motives of the writers whether it

was to bring humor and entertain the readers or to lecture and instruct the readers. To start off we

are going to look at The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin.

From his first autobiography which Franklin did in 1771, he dedicated this autobiography to his

son William Franklin. He did write this work because he believed his son didn't know the life of

his own father especially Franklin’s past. In the autobiography, Benjamin showed how he had

had fun and lived his life and how he wished to recycle it again, however, he wished to correct

his past small mistakes if he ever relived again. But Franklin knew it was impossible to repeat his

life maybe recollect it and pass it to his son William. He believed that it was the right time for his

son to set his life to literature work since William had already had enough time with pleasure.

Benjamin did word about the part of his life where he went from being an esoteric tradesman to a

renowned statesman, which was something unheard of and uncommon. So apart from serving

William, his son as entertainment his past was much of imitating. From the first example of the

father to son bond, it can be incurred that Franklin motive was more of instruction motive, he

learned to advise his son and yearned William to learn from him (Franklin).

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Franklin admitted that one of the motives why he wrote the autobiography was to give in his

vanity. Recollecting his past in the literature writings to him was like recycling his life again. His

admission for vanity which mainly involves excessive loving of oneself more than others and

having the excessive pride was enough to think of others will gain pleasure and learn from

reading about it. Probably, because of the allegations which were made against him in his life of

being atheist Franklin was quick to thank God and said that everything good that had ever

happened to him he owned to God’s providence. This clearly shows Franklin’s motive of writing

was advising his readers and not entertain.

In his autobiography Franklin continues to describe his lineage, he mentioned one of his uncles

who he didn’t name on how he learned from him about his family and the past. From his uncle’s

notes, Franklin discovered that he was the youngest son going back five generations, hinting that

he was lucky for him being born of all. This was an evidence of what Franklin had said about

William being more than just the stated audience in his first section of his work. He continues to

talk about his family by introducing a key male member of his father’s family. Thomas the

senior who had 4 sons that is John, Benjamin, Josiah and Thomas junior. Thomas junior was an

innate scribe who later became esteemed by the community, Franklin relates how his son and he

perceived Thomas’ life and character trait as something similar to that of Benjamin. Benjamin

association with members of his father’s family is an indication of the strong character trait of

borough achievements that continue in the family.

In addition, Franklin shows that not only then the civic character trait that ran in the family also

the literacy character was portrayed in the family. He mentioned another son of his great-

grandfather Thomas the senior, John who had developed his unique technique of writing in

shorthand in which he piled and assembled various sermons something which was political.

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Franklin was proud to show off some of the achievements and works of his lineage, mostly that

flattered his own vanity. In his autobiography, we also see Benjamin’s sense of humor,

especially when he mentioned that since he was the tenth son of his father, Josiah tried to set him

as the tithe.

Franklin on a light note suggested that his father wanted to do the same practice of giving thanks

to the church by using his children instead of money. In his autobiography, Franklin used this

kind humor repeatedly in which he expressed in subtle fashion form of style. Another example is

seen when Franklin joked that was becoming very humble that he ended up being proud of

humility. However, such expressions as those were not be taken seriously as Franklin had a

lightly sarcastic humor character in his work.

The second part we will look another example of the interesting life of Olaudah Equiano. How

he is represented his work either in entertainment or instruction motive. Equiano narrates his tale

by first mentioning the district he was born Eboe, in his narrative he enlightens the readers about

the legal system that was in his homeland, the importance of marriage, the roles and duties of

both gender, the composition of the kingdom which mostly comprised of various dancers,

singers and poets and lastly the religious practices. Equiano’s use of various example about his

community for instance when he talked about the economic activity that was practiced in the

kingdom that is agriculture, which was mainly an occupation of both the men and women show a

motive of being informative. He is using the many examples especially in the first chapter to let

the readers know about his origins he is simply motivated to instruct the readers to grasp much of

his past which sounds very important to him and he is proud of it. He even further mentions the

specific crops that his people grew such as fruits and vegetables.

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He later changes the tone of his narrative to explain how his life he was proud was cut off short

by his kidnapping and enslavement that followed. His account of what happened to him in West

Indies is moving and touching as it evocates a great grief of violence, dismay, horror, and fear.

Equiano utterance on terror and emotionally moving as he tries to show how rest of many

African who were slaved felt when they were taken from their homes to foreign places. Equiano

tries to give a distinction between the cruelty and inhumanity of civilized of the white and their

counterparts Africans. This difference starts even he was first enslaved by his fellow African

who then sold him. Equiano had a different experience while he was in the continent as he was

moved from one master to another, his experience was nowhere close to the sense of

dehumanization he experienced as he was put on the ship for shipment to Europe countries.

What mostly marked the white slave traders was what he observed while at sea. He was

surprised the deliberate in the context of many starving people who were on the deck. Their way

of behaving to their captives was violent and depraved. Equiano even pointed out that his fellow

Africans at the sea were the most immoral and corrupt due to their close relationships with the

Europeans. He pictured such Africans such as the unclean with women who disrespected their

own bodies since they had made alterations on their bodies. In this context on how Equiano was

enslaved, he is using the element of being instructive to show the readers what really happened

from the time he was taken from his homeland to time he was taken to Europe.

In the next event, we see that Equiano was taken to Europe where he was purchased by Henry

Pascal. During this period Equiano narrates how witnessed various dramatic sea battles, a

significant force during the hostilities. He was able to receive a new name (Gustavus Vassa)

which he would later be known for the rest of his life, during this period Equiano was able to

develop a habit of reading and unfortunately his legs were almost amputated from sickness he

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had, however he grew more used to his enslavement to extend he began longing for violence. In

this event we see a transformative Equiano thirsty for literacy knowledge, he then continues to

show his adaptation with the slavery life that he was living in, he has simply been informative

and instruction motivated of the changes he was undergoing through.

Equiano continues to explore the effect of slavery, he explained how he was severed from his

home district and sold to Barbados, an island known for brutality for blacks in Africa. At

Barbados, the life expectancy of slaves declined significantly as the slaves were subject

underwent cruel treatment from the white slave traders. For example, he mentions that the female

slaves who included small children were often raped, their bodies mutilated and brutalized most

of the time. In addition, Equiano sums up that most slaves experienced a death of respect for

their own belonging, all their possessions were taken from them by the whites and if they

attempted to buy out it was of no use as they had no legal rights (Equiano,58). This kind of

treatment was the same on all the islands. From the above incidences of Equiano uses the same

technique in his writing to educate and inform the readers about his own personal experience on

slavery there are almost no cases where he intended to bring in any humor in this topic of

discussion unlike the case of Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin.

The third example will be based on the novel The Coquette by Hannah Webster Foster. A tale

which was based on the death of a character called Elizabeth Whitman who had left her home

after a drama scandal of an affair with a married man died in wayside after giving birth to a

stillborn son. Foster accounts some events in his friction tale by use of epistles or epistolary

which were mostly used in the 18th Century this clearly is a good example of Foster’s motive of

writing his novel to be informative or instructive of what was used in that period time. The writer

continues in the novel to educate the readers on various issues for instance. Foster shows that

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both friendship and marriage were equally important (Foster, 24). She portrays this through Eliza

who despite lacked the affectionate relationship with her parents, still had relied on her friends

for advice, consolation and even for entertainment. Eliza is portrayed to be aware of how

friendship did evolve and the growth as some of the friends in their circle was once young, single

and at some point, get an engagement and get married. Foster also continues to show us on the

complexity of friendship she uses some of Eliza’s friends who were mostly judgmental and

irrational than understanding friends.

Foster wanted his readers especially the future generation to sympathize with Eliza’s desire to

get married later with somebody she desired, the novel creates a situation which is relatable

when reading, this scenario is at the start of the novel when Eliza was to choose either reason or

emotion. Eliza did not want to get married and if she did, she had to aviate her status and

searched someone who would have engaged her fully. Eliza was caught between two men one

was Mr. Boyer who is portrayed to be have been the best choice since is a simple clergyman

open on his devotion, however, she cannot decline wealthy and charming Sanford since both

Eliza and Sanford share a lot in common. On the same note, Foster tries to show that during 18th

century young women were supposed to be satisfied with social class and instead pursue an

appropriate lifestyle. She uses the element of being informative by showing how Eliza spent

most of her time to discuss the benefits and detractions of her two suitors. Though she was so

focused on Sanford’s wit and charm she rarely aired her feelings about Sanford’s money.

However, the cash was one of the reasons she was attracted to him she desired to climb her

social class, she desired to join the ranks of the summers.

Foster also brings the theme of virtue in the 18 century she explains to readers the importance it

had during this time where young women were expected to protect their virtue stopping the

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libertines who tried to seduce them instead of they were to pursue gentlemen of sense and

discretion. However, women were often excessively observed since the focus on the virtue was

very punishing. Eliza experienced this intense fixation in her own community on her virtue. As

they labeled her a coquette and subjected her constant critics and they couldn’t hide they hostility

towards her. In the same vein, Foster wanted to inform the future generation about the gender

issue in the 18th century. This is shown as Eliza inhabited full of very tough gender norms, for

instance, women were supposed to be beautiful, bright and of virtue, however, they were not

allowed to cross any boundaries by appearing to enjoy the company of men. Women were

supposed to see their duties and roles as mothers and wives. Though men were judged for the

bad behavior like Sanford the Major was deemed a rake and received hostility from the society,

however, men still had many options available for them in the society compared to women. Men

had much of freedom to act, it took an extreme loss to be exile man from the community as with

the case of Sanford at end of the book.

The last example is based on The Algerine Captive by Royall Tyler. Who represented his work

both in humor as well as serious theme. In the book, he used Updike Underhill as the protagonist.

Updike was an American doctor whose freedom was taken from him when was prisoned by

pirates from Algeria Africa and sold into slavery. In the novel, Underhill is portrayed to

encounter and experience various cultures, where the writer wrote about the character life in

America and his life after the captive and the journey to return home.

Royall tried to be informative to the readers, however, he wrote his work in a satire form.

Because the main character Updike underwent the various multicultural exploits readers should

study how an American can be similar to an Algerian. He wrote about the challenges the doctor

faced with the freedom that America had (Tyler).

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A good example of satire is shown when the doctor was under conflict due to his nation’s

freedom was shown in an issue when the doctor encountered with one of his students earlier in

the book. When he had requested the student to bequeath his chair that was near a fireplace the

student replied that he could remove the chair after he was done warming, this was a clear

example of a young youth who did not respect the teacher, just like the government was usurped

by the mob, the student represented the mob, the chair represented the government and the

position by the fire represented the economic gain, the doctor was just a victim of the abundance

America’s freedom.

Finally, Tyler, through Underhill, warned against those literature books which are into vague

among the Americans, just because they are of English manufacture they tend to teach a reader

to admire levity. Tyler’s incipient nationalism was evident in the argument that most English

novels present an erroneous idea of the world in which the reader is to live, the author used more

of element of instructing the leaders than elect of entertainment

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Works Cited

Franklin, Benjamin. "Benjamin Franklin's Autobiography, ed. JA Leo Lemay and PM Zall."

(1986): 36-37.

Tyler, Royall. The Algerine Captive: or, The Life and Adventures of Doctor Updike Underhill.

Modern Library, 2007.

Foster, Hannah Webster, and Jane Ermina Locke. The Coquette: Or, The History of Eliza

Wharton. A Novel: Founded on Fact. WP Fetridge, 1855.

Equiano, Olaudah. The interesting narrative of the life of Olaudah Equiano. Broadview Press,

2001.

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