Assignment 2 - The Renaissance spirit in Bacon’s Essays

Name: Nayyab Abid

Class: MA English III
Subject: Prose
Sap id: 19798
Question:
The Renaissance spirit of learning is a characteristic feature in Francis Bacon’s essays. Discuss
in detail by highlighting Bacon’s frequent use of classical allusions, analogies and his profound
love for knowledge and learning. Substantiate your answer by providing textual references from
Bacon’s essays.

Renaissance means the revival of learning and a complete change in all work. In its wide sense
describe the understanding of humankind after darkness of middle ages. He has loved the old
education and natural beauty which are hallmarks of the Renaissance. We see Bacon advising the
reader how to get rich, how to raise his position, and his power. In Bacon’s essays we find the
Machiavellian philosophy address to life, to get gain success in life and this is a very important
characteristics of Renaissance age.

In Bacon’s essays allusion are often indirect or briefly explained to well-known character or
events. Bacon’s allusion drawn from classical fables, Bible history , the ancient Greek and the
Roman .Bacon explains his point these allusions are having a very great effect to enrich his
essays.

In the essay, Of Truth, he gave us a quotation from the Bible in this essay and make it more
interesting the Jews accused Jesus Christ before the Roman Governor of Judea, for twist the
nation and give tribute to Caesar, saying that he himself is Christ, a king. The charge was false as
Jesus.
My kingdom is not of this world, to this end was I born and for this cause came I unto the
world, that I should bear witness unto the truth. Everyone that is of the truth hearth my voice

Using this allusion Bacon wants to tell us the reality that some people do not bother to find the
truth and they sometimes hide it.

The Next essay, Of Marriage and Single Life, we have a reference to Ulysses, an ancient Greek
philosopher. Bacons elaborates in the essay, Of Marriage and Single Life, that loving husband
should be loyal. So he uses Ulysses as a reference to the great impact of this idea to support his
argument. Bacon relates to Penelope she is the wife of Ulysses, the king of Ithaca and the Greek
hero in the Trojan War, this allusion tell us that men of a serious twisted of mind usually follow
normal and are stable in their love for their wives.
In Bacon’s essay Of Revenge .Bacon is giving another reference, he says that duke says God
order us to forgive our enemies, but never order us to forgive our friends. If your friend hurts you
then you should definitely take revenge .Bacon highlight on the importance of taking revenge.

Imagery the word is related with mental pictures, but sometimes it turns out to be complex than
just an images created by using figures of speech like metaphor, simile.

In Of Studies there is mainly similes and metaphors used to simplify his ideas, into more Bacon
makes use of a simile, which very aptly emphasizes his point: “………. For natural abilities are
like natural plants that need pruning by study.”

In Of Studies Bacon uses another fixing metaphor where learned men are balanced to Marshal
because, like a Marshal’s management of his army in the list, learned men plan and proceed the
general problems of life: … and to the plots and marshaling of affairs come best from those that
are learned.

The Renaissance aroused the curiosity of the people, especially the ancient Greek and Latin
studies of the middle Ages. Bacon says he has taken all the information into his own province. A
love of expanding one's knowledge is what motivates Bacon in his recommendation of travel for
young and old. The list he makes of things to see is common in the Christian spirit,
Travel, in the younger sort, is a part of education in the elder, a part of experience.

We can conclude that the various aspects of Bacon's essays make it difficult to place his writings
under the essay type. However, these features also do not suggest otherwise. Bacon jobs are
therefore categorized as an article. Francis Bacon has different characteristics which worked in
his works over the years. Bacons deals with in his essay ‘’Of Studies’’ he talks about practical
knowledge and advises his readers to reads with plays important role in humans life which
increased his learning experience. He uses similes, metaphor and allusions to make his argument
clear. Mostly he discussed the social issues in his essays