Discuss the way in which, Montesquieu encourages his readers to Essay

Discuss the way in which, Montesquieu encourages his readers to identify with or distance themselves from the characters in the - Essay Example This literary style and the socio-political content of the novel as told by two foreign figures enabled its readers to identify with the characters at the same time feel separated from their stories and experiences. It also allowed Montesquieu to achieve his objective in writing the novel. Detachment The first prominent variable that affects the way readers perceive and interpret The Persian Letters is its form. As a collection of letters, which contain discourses and essays on diverse issues, it made the novel disconnected to the readers because the emotional involvement is stunted by the interrupted presentation. This is best explained by Theodore Braun who commented that the novel "moves along in an apparently unpredictable manner from letter to letter, from theme to theme, from interior plot to the exterior plot" making the readers fumble particularly in making sense or identifying the coherence of all the parts provided (Runyon 2005, 13). Readers can also feel the detachment whe n Montesquieu used Persian characters in his narrative. Their characterizations were depicted as alien for the original intended reading public. They are Persians and that their way of life and their perspectives on the French lifestyle represent a glaring difference that is easily identified and sympathized with by the readers. Montesquieu, wrote Hulliung (1976), substituted Persian travelers with psyches that are long written full by Eastern culture and that the interaction between the East and the West could lead to the threat on the Eastern language of despotism (117). By transplanting the two Oriental characters in Paris, there was a depiction of a striking polarity in culture and ideas. Say, when Montesquieu portrayed the Persians as exotic, with sufficient allusions to their cultural norms and their harem and so forth, the reader naturally sided with the West and/or the French society and that the two protagonists - including all that they stood for - came to constitute other ness, the unknown and the unidentifiable. There was an imposed detachment that came with the double plot of the novel. At one point, there was the criticism of the Parisian way of life. On the other hand, there was the Oriental storyline (e.g. the disorder in the protagonist's seraglio back home). This approach enabled Montesquieu to highlight his themes more effectively, more specifically the kind of skepticism and relativism that he obviously wanted to express about the important questions that characterized his time. Furthermore, the differences and the detachment that the author encouraged were necessary in order to explain his ideal social theory. This is when Montesquieu was able to successfully reject the European social theory and advocate the actual expression of human nature as the ultimate solution to the issues and problems that confronted his day (Rossides 1998, 72). Connection It is, however, important to underscore that even though The Persian Letters assumed a degree of disconnect from its readers, there are times when its characters - or the themes and issues they discussed and were involved in - came close to the readers’ hearts and own concerns. As a political allegory, the novel explored, examined and commented on themes and issues that are relevant to the times. For example, there is the issue about love, social institutions, gender equality, religion,