Bacon’s Classical Refinement And Rhetorical Techniques In The Essays

Francis Bacon was a great writer during the period of the English Renaissance,whose contributions were made in the fields of science, philosophy, law, and literatureect.. His most important work "The Essay" is known as the beginning of Britishessays, which has great impact on English literature."The Essay" plays a chief role in the history of English literature. It is mainlybecause its contents embody the humanism of the Renaissance and it has uniquerhetorical techniques and essay styles, which symbolized the highest achievement ofBritish essays at that time. In order to indicate the features of ideas and art, this thesistried to analyze the classical humanism refinement and see his unique rhetoricaltechniques and essay styles according to the sense of the distinguished humanism.The introduction discussed Bacon’s life experience and his writing process ofThe Essay and outlined its research in our country. On this basis, to ensure the majorproblems and research ideas which will be discussed in this thesis.Chapter1distinguished the concepts of humanism, humanist and humanities andexplained what they are. The development of humanism has been advanced by thehumanities study which was inherited by humanists. This thesis has been adaptedfrom the result of western scholars. They thought the humanists used the classical andliterary humanism to embody their value and idealism. The so-called "classical" is tomove the renaissance of the human civilization by studying the ancient literature. Andthe so-called "literature" is to spread the humanism by the literary style.Bacon’s exposition styles and ancient cultivation is discussed in Chapter2,especially analyzing Bacon’s classical human refinement by using the detailedcalculation of ancient Greek and Roman documents quoted in "The Essay". This reveals that these ancient documents were the source of Bacon’s ideas and also madehis expositions more fruitful and powerful. A great deal of quoted ancient literatureadded "The Essay" to have rich humanism and brilliant features during the period ofthe English Renaissance.In Chapter3, Bacon’s rhetorical techniques and his essay styles were explored.Bacon put more figurative speeches in "The Essay", which shone his great talent andwisdom. This point is not occasional. Rhetoric was paid close attention in humanitiesat that time. This thesis analyzed Bacon’s rhetorical means in detail and tracked backto the relationship between humanism and rhetoric in the period of the EnglishRenaissance, and searched the influence Roman rhetorician Cicero and Senec madeon English essay styles. Bacon mixed the advantages of Cicero and Senec to form hisown styles. And he reformed and developed his characteristics according to his owntalent. Bacon established his new trail in essays and created his unique styles.The conclusion emphasized that the spirit of the times during Renaissancepromoted the prosperity of essays, especially French essayist Montaigne and Britishphilosopher Bacon are the prominent representatives. The discovery and research ofancient documents provided Bacon with the source of ideas and the rich research ofrhetoric supplied multi rhetorical techniques to Bacon. It is helpful for Bacon to formhis own essay styles.