Of Friendship( Summary/Analysis)

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Of Friendship by Francis Bacon   ''Analysis''

The essay ‘’Of Friendship’’ first published in 1612 was very brief. The present version published in 1625,is practically a new composition much longer than original version. The essay was actually written at the request of Bacon’s intimate friend Toby Matthew.

 Bacon begins his essay with a reference to Aristotle who remarks that a man who loves solitude is either a beast or divine being. Of course, Bacon does not share the view fully.  He affirms that love for isolation may be a symptom of a person’s savagery, but it can seldom be the grace of godliness. In fact, solitude becomes graceful only when this is preferred to have a higher spiritual meditation. Bacon’s main material in the essay Of Friendship focuses the fruits of friendship. He specially mentions the different benefits that friendship offers. His clear observation is that friendship brings relief and ease in human mind and frees it from worries and anxieties. The oppressed and suffocated mind can have no medical remedy like the ailing physical body. It needs a true friend to whom, in the Baconian language,’’ you may impart griefs, joys, fears, hopes, suspicions, counsels and whatsoever lieth upon the heart to oppress it…….’’

The main subject matter is his essay is praise of friendship. He speaks emphatically of the fruits of friendship. In the author’s view, friendship establishes an intimate chord between two persons. Bacon speaks of three fold fruit of friendship.

First, friendship brings out a man’s inner feelings -----his desire and frustration, suppressed within. This releases him from the pressure of worries and tensions.

In the second, friendship has the great effect of clearing a man’s understanding and doing away with the personal errors and mistakes, he is liable to commit.

The thirds fruit is of a friend’s power to represent and do what is needed for his friend’s interest. Thus,a person can get things done through his friend without any action or movement by himself.

In this essay Bacon has rightly emphasized here all the advantages which friendship is capable of offering. A friend is a great asset in life, and that seems to be Bacon’s slogan in the essay ‘Of Friendship’. Friendship brings about better understanding. A man’s talk with his friend serves to clear his ideas, sharpen his viewpoint and remove whatever may be confusing and vague in his thoughts. Again a friendship helps in the improvement of a person’s nature, and conduct. A friendly advice is always frank and unbiased. To him friendship is like a confessional box where we can confess easily. It is like a pomegranate full of many kernels. 

Bacon has already asserted that the mere absence of the crowd or silence from all sounds does not constitute actually solitude. This is not physical loneliness but mental isolation. A true friend is oasis in life. When this is missing, life is all desolate.  When life is deprived of the blessings of sincere friendship, it becomes a wretched dreadful solitude. His existence seems to be in a desolate place with no comfort or relief from anywhere. Here Bacon emphasizes the value of friendship. In his pragmatic view, the want of friends marks a miserable solitude.

The principle fruit of friendship is the mental ease and relief of a person the pressure of worries and tensions.Finally, there is his style. Style is the man. There is no exception in the case of Bacon. His thoughts are expressed in the sentences that are clear, compact, and convincing. Moreover his essay is enriched with the expressions of wisdom & appeal to touch and teach.