Advice to married couples alternative layout

I. Intro paragraph
II. Body paragraph #1—Young presents good advice to men
III. Counterclaim—Jennings’s advice to women
IV. Main claim—Young’s advice to women
V. Conclusion

Intro paragraph
How are women any different from men? Aside from gender, there is not really much
that differentiates men from women. As seen in “Advice to the ‘Newly Married Lady’” by
Samuel Jennings, he describes what women are expected to do and how they are expected to
act with regards to a man’s ideas in mind. In 1808, when this document was written, Jennings’s
suggestions were the status quo. However, eighty years later, a monumental shift occurred. In
“Our Deportment, or the Manners, Conduct, and Dress of Refined Society,” John H. Young
presents a different view of men and women in a marriage: Young suggests that a man be as
sensitive to his wife’s needs and learning as a woman is to her husband’s habits and needs.
Both authors wrote their articles to guide married couples to proper decorum, yet the time
difference sheds light to how times change. Through their use of rhetoric and reflection of their
intended audience, Jennings may have had sound advice to women and their submission, but
Young presents the better advice for both husband and wife.
Body Paragraph #1
In a marriage, men are responsible for many tasks, aside from earning a good income,
according to Young. Based on his presentation of his advice for men, Young’s first priority was
to address the home. The husband has taken his wife from a safe environment and is tasked
with guaranteeing her the same environment or a better one than she had (Young). He is also
responsible for educating her in social, moral and intellectual matters in order to make her his
equal (Young)—without his duty to her education, he will not take pleasure being home.
Likewise, men should be faithful and attentive to their wives and mindful of the events they
attend without their wives, for it is men’s duty to uphold the same values he teaches her
(Young). By using ethos in reference to the home, Young stresses the moral obligations must
be fulfilled before addressing other concerns. Using logos, Young impresses upon men to seek
their wives’ advice because they can shed light to a different perspective. Also, men should
defer to their wives’ discipline within the home because it is their sphere and men are merely
there for support. Disciplining the wife must also be done in a reasonable time and place,
according to Young. He stresses that there are inopportune times to scold wives because it
causes embarrassment for both parties and also stresses the marriage. From these examples,
Young’s use of logos reveals how men can influence their wives and homes without having an
overbearing or heavy hand. Because Jennings does not address the husbands’ role in the
marriage, Young presents the best advice to men because his uplifting diction emphasizes that
it takes both partners to make a household run.
Counterclaim
Jennings may not have addressed men, but he did use a variety of rhetorical devices to
ensure that women understood his purpose—subjugation and duty. In his letter to women, he
says they chose to leave their parental homes and marry the men who provide for them.
Though this is negative in tone, he sees it as their choice for being in the position they are in,
and therefore, they must conform to the men’s expectations as they did for their fathers. In his
next paragraph, Jennings incorporates pathos to reaffirm men’s dominance in the house. To be
more specific, women are trapped within their homes and have no real social life; the husband,
on the other hand, has different engagements that he can seek solace and pleasure in if his wife
is a scold or a nag. Therefore, a woman is at her husband’s mercy and must make everything
pleasing to him (Jennings). By scaring the woman into submission, Jennings guarantees that
the husband will have an easier, more comfortable life. Over the course of the final
paragraphs, Jennings alternates between logos and ethos; his purpose to enforce the logical
and ethical duties women had in the house and to reinforce these alternatively. For example, in
one paragraph, nature, Jennings states, deems that the man is stronger physically than the
woman, and thus, should have dominance over her. Using scientific appeal, the woman could
see how this naturally occurs and is accurate in his advice. Next, Jennings incorporates the
following quote into his religious appeal: “Wives submit yourselves unto your own husbands, as
unto the Lord.” If science did not appeal to women, Jennings knew that Christian duties, which
most women followed, would force them to fall in line. To address financial concerns, Jennings
first begins with ethos. Men should not be seen as weak and incapable of making business
deals, and women should not be seen making the business deals for their husbands. Through
moral appeal, Jennings suggests that women need to do what is morally right and protect their
husbands’ delicate ego so that they maintain the illusion of control. In his final address to
financial concerns, Jennings uses card stacking to explain to women that their choices affect the
family’s financial health. Logically, if the woman is responsible for household expenditures,
then she directly impacts the future of the home. Likewise, if she spends more than her
husband earns or encourages him to do so, she is responsible for the aftermath of her
decisions. Thus, the woman logically is tasked with being frugal even though her husband may
have the right to go and spend money as he wishes. Throughout Jennings’s article, he suggests
that women really have to no voice and should learn her place as an inferior.
Main Claim
Even though Jennings had sound advice for financial stability and peace at home,
Young’s address to women creates a more positive avenue to achieve what Jennings set out to
do. When speaking to the wife, Young uses logos in the form of card stacking to show the
causes and effects of her choices. With regards to money, Young advises women to be frugal
with their money and, in turn, show the men the benefits of frugality so that their own business
practices will follow the same pattern. Thus, the woman’s financial balancing act will help the
family and secure their well-being far into the future. Young’s word choice in this case is more
positive because he depicts the woman as helping her husband to be successful. Young also
appeals to women in the form of logos as he directs her attention to the home environment.
Instead of Jennings’s meek wife who is worried her husband must like being home or be left
alone, Young encourages the wife to know her husband and also to promote conversation that
makes thoughtfulness and intellectual discussion the center of their home. The wife is there,
according to Young, to take his mind off from work and also encourage out-of-the-box thinking.
By speaking logically to women and avoiding pathos and ethos, Young, unlike Jennings, sees his
advice as a way to promote deeper thinking in women.
Conclusion
Who is to say what works for one person does for another? One must consider that
Jennings’s article was written in the early 1800s. The rhetoric he spews is relative to his culture
and the culture of his audience. However, because he only addresses women, he falters in his
persuasiveness and advice: by dictating to only women, it insinuates that only women care for
advice and men are too proud to seek it. Young, a writer in the 1880s, had more opportunity to
address men and women because the women’s suffrage movement was in full swing. Based on
his rhetorical devices and appeal to both men and women, it can be safely assumed that he
wished to change the home as much as women were changing their chances to vote. Rhetoric
is a powerful tool that can reshape a country and culture. Based on these articles, Young
utilizes an opportunity to address a married couple as a unit, unlike Jennings, who sought
subjugation. Change can happen if one uses the right words and devices.