William Hazlitt On The Want Of Money Essay

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In an excerpt from the essay “On the Want of Money” (1827), author William Hazlitt depicts the burden of the necessity of money to have any form of pleasure in life. While developing an extended sentence, Hazlitt employs negative word choice and parallelism to juxtapose life in need of money alongside being wealthy. He adopts these tactics to evoke anger and pity for those who are thrust into life lacking money to promote societal change. Hazlitt addresses the wealthy in a direct manner to humanize and describe what life is like without money. What is life like without money? Hazlitt develops a descriptive explanation of this life through the parallelism of each consecutive phrase beginning with “it is.” Life is “plagued,” “deprived,” and much like “exile” (45, 24, 12). Hazlitt’s negative diction depicts the horrific life those without money are forced to live – one comparable to that of a secluded, diseased individual. Poverty-stricken individuals don’t get “asked out to dinner or noticed” in society (5-6). They are …show more content…

Those forced into such life would find it ironic and humorous to have “to marry [their] landlady” in order to acquire wealth (18). Hazlitt sarcastically develops that the need for money can lead individuals to act ridiculously in order to lighten the mood of the subject to encourage societal change. Nevertheless, Hazlitt’s humor transitions back to a serious tone as the point of view switches to second person. Instead of addressing “one,” Hazlitt appeals to the audience directly. Now you struggle with the need for money and are “a burden to your relations” and “dissatisfied…with yourself” (39-40,44-45). This point of view represents personal experience. Pity and anger are aroused for those who need money. Hazlitt does so to promote societal change for those suffering without

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