Rhetorical Argumentation and Figures in the Mirror of the Graces
摘要
This final chapter examines how the Lady persuades her readers through rhetorical argumentation and rhetorical figures. A central pattern is advice: consequence-based practical reasoning that recommends a course of action by pointing to its likely effects. The chapter argues that women are encouraged to follow this advice because it is offered by a virtuous, experienced female adviser intent on improving both appearance and disposition. The analysis draws mainly on The New Rhetoric (Perelman and Olbrechts-Tyteca, 1969) and follows its tripartite scheme of figures: choice, presence, and communion. Two complementary frameworks support this account: pragma-dialectics, through the notion of strategic manoeuvring (balancing effectiveness and reasonableness), and Walton’s informal logic, particularly his account of practical reasoning and arguments from consequences. These perspectives help explain how the Lady builds agreement, presents values, and responds to objections. In this chapter, rhetorical argumentation is treated as action-oriented and value-laden. The Lady’s discourse relies on premises her audience is likely to recognise: moral and personal values linked to virtue and the preservation of natural beauty; social values grounded in propriety, respectability, and deference to established standards of taste and conduct; and aesthetic values favouring elegance, harmony, and simplicity over ostentation. Her advice is repeatedly framed as the reasonable middle between neglect and excess, so that recommendations appear grounded in prudence rather than vanity. The discussion then shows how arguments and figures work together. Figures of choice guide judgement by selecting, defining, and comparing, with tropes such as metaphor, simile, and analogy carrying argumentative force. Figures of presence make key habits and consequences vivid through patterned repetition, parallelism, amplification, and vivid description, giving arguments rhythm and weight. Figures of communion build rapport by appealing to shared values, common tradition, and collective memory through maxims, allusion, quotation, and direct address. Taken together, these strategies make the Lady’s advice memorable and persuasive, linking outward appearance with inward virtue and securing adherence to a model of modest, respectable femininity.