Mortality and Honesty

Benjamin Franklin was only fifteen years old when his first published work appeared in The New England Courant. He would go on to write for the next sixty-nine years of his life until he died in 1790 at the age of eighty-four. The evolution of Franklin’s writing is evident when comparing hi tongue-in-cheek, sarcastic humor found in many of his earlier works to the sincere and revealing tone of “As to Jesus of Nazareth.” Franklin began his life as a deist who rejected institutional religion. His sarcastic attitude toward formal ideologies gradually evolved to one of respect for religion, shown a month before his death in “As Jesus to Nazareth.” Franklin’s honest manner in which he affirms the existence of God and the potential value of institutional religion for didactic purposes reaches a much more personal level than his days as Silence Dogood. Franklin comes to understand the value of faith for people who consider themselves religious and he explicitly acknowledges the moral validity of the church. Franklin’s last statement regarding his religion is believed to be his most straight forward, seen in “As Jesus to Nazareth” when he writes,

“As to Jesus of Nazareth, my Opinion of whom you particularly desire, I think the System of Morals and his Religion, as he left them to us, the best the world ever saw or is likely to see; but I apprehend it has received various corrupt changes, and I have, with most of the present Dissenters in England, some Doubts as to his divinity; tho' it is a question I do not dogmatize upon, having never studied it, and I think it needless to busy myself with it now, when I expect soon an Opportunity of knowing the Truth with less Trouble...."

It is interesting timing that Franklin chooses to confirm his respect of institutional religion when his death is a month away. When people are young there is never need felt for consideration of the after life and how one’s life on Earth could play a role when they are gone. Franklin is almost sensing his last days area upon him and wants to cover all his bases before he passes away. The writing style can be recognized as Franklin, but the attitude is one of honesty produced by the threat of an uncertain death. I guess it takes that kind of strange reality for Franklin to allow the audience to dive deeper into his religious perspective.

Growth of Feminine Influence

Rousseau’s Duties of Women explores a very traditional view on the basic difference between the roles of men and women in the development of the family, within society, and in relation to one another. While the immediate impression of women as “weak and passive” and entirely dependant upon their masculine counterparts for sustenance and reasoning appears to be rather archaic for the Enlightenment era that challenged such dated views, their abilities are not. Rousseau clearly illustrates their subtle control, stating “the stronger party seems to be master, but is as a matter of fact dependent on the weaker”. It is this hidden side of the gender power struggle that really interested me.

As women have gained the ability to sustain themselves independently within society, gender roles have unquestionably converged drastically. But has it been the empowerment of women that has granted them more influence, or has the path to power within society been altered to better suit women? When I think of the prototypical that made an individual rose to a position of authority in the 18^th century, I picture the aristocratic elite that determined societal affairs. Today’s culture, whether it be in economically, politically or socially driven more by results and performance than ever before, presenting women with the ever growing opportunity to demonstrate their ability. As women have generally become more assertive, Rousseau’s proposition that “The more women are like men, the less influence they will have over men” seems to be both true and false. Essentially women have transitioned from the objects of passion into additional competition, and “when women become strong, men become still stronger” in a natural reaction to the increasing competition.

At the same time, from my experience, women still have a apparent innate ability to leverage their femininity to maneuver male counterparts to their will. Therefore, I believe the notion that a portion of a woman’s “strength is in her charms” still holds. This ability to affect men’s actions, using the desire of men to act ‘chivalrous’ and please the object of their desire - the ‘delicate’ female – has appreciated in value. The ability to feign a subservience or modesty to behoove a woman’s all-important reputation was crucial in Rousseau’s era. Rousseau wrote that the attitude of ““What will people think” is the grave of a man’s virtue and the throne of a woman’s”. The fact that males can certainly no longer be described as caring “very little what people think” confirms the advantage women have come to possess in their ability to maintain a favorable disposition within society. As Rousseau said, “Cunning is a natural gift of women” that has become ever more valuable in conjunction with their expanded opportunities.