Samuel Johnson's Letter To Hope

Hope is a belief in something that can bring sorrow or joy to one’s life. In this case, a woman’s hope is crushed as Samuel Johnson, author of the letter, uses redirection of the topic and logic to explain his unwanted denial to a request that could change a life forever. In Johnson’s response to a hopeful woman, he immediately denies her request before redirecting his letter to hope as it causes grief or happiness in a situation. In his words, Johnson believes that hope is “a species of happiness” (4) but it is often misused. He expresses that hope “is dictated not by reason, but by desire” (11) and that often times hope will lead to sorrow due to the expectations and longings it brings forth, rather than a logical reasoning that is put behind