Read "Advice for Ladies" by Fanny Fern to answer the following questions: 1. What evidence in the text leads you to believe this is satirical?

2. What is the main device listed in the lesson that Fern is using here? Quote and explain an example of it.

3. Discuss the underlying serious message Fern has in this piece.

4. In Fern's underlying message, who does she seem to hold at fault or the social 'wrong' she is pointing out? Support your answer.

5. Swift's 18th Century British work refers to "an American." Fern's 19th Century American work refers to "an American gentleman." How do their portrayals of American men differ? Why do you think this is?

Advice to Ladies

When the spirit moves you to amuse yourself with "shopping," be sure to ask the clerk for a thousand-and-one articles you have no intention of buying. Never mind about the trouble you make him; that's part of the trade. Pull the fingers of the gloves you are examining quite out of shape; inquire for some nondescript color, or some scarce number, and, when it is found, "think you won't take any this morning;" then, keep him an hour hunting for your sun-shade, which you, at length, recollect you "left at home;" and depart without having invested a solitary cent.

When you enter a crowded lecture-room, and a gentleman rises politely,--as American gentlemen always do,--and offers to give up his seat,--which he came an hour ago to secure for himself,--take it, as a matter of course; and don't trouble yourself to thank him, even with a nod of your head. As to feeling uneasy about accepting it, that is ridiculous! because, if he don't fancy standing during the service, he is at liberty to go home; it is a free country!

When you enter the cars, and all the eligible places are occupied, select one to your mind; then walk up to the gentleman, who is gazing at the fine scenery through the open window, and ask him for it, with a queenly air, as if he would lose caste instanter, did he hesitate to comply. Should any persons seat themselves near you, not exactly of "your stamp," gather up the folds of your dress cautiously, as if you were afraid of contagion, and apply a "vinaigrette" to your patrician nose!

Understand, thoroughly, the dexterous use of a sun-shade, in enabling you to avoid the infliction of a "bore," or an "unpresentable person," in the street; avoiding, under that shield, the unladylike impropriety of the "cut direct,"--allowable only in cases of undisguised impertinence.

Should you receive an invitation to a concert, manage to accept it,--conditionally;--leaving a door to escape, should a more eligible offer present itself.

When solicited to sing at a party, decline, until you have drawn around you the proper number of entreating swains; then yield gracefully, as if it were a great sacrifice of your timidity.

Flirt with an admirer to the last end of the chapter, and then "be so taken by surprise" when he makes the declaration you were driving at! As "practice makes perfect," every successful attempt of this nature will render you more expert at angling for hearts, besides exerting a very beneficial effect upon your character.

As to cultivating your mind, that is all waste powder; you have better ammunition to attack the enemy; and as to cultivating your heart, there is no use in talking about a thing that is unfashionable! So, always bear in mind that all a pretty woman is sent into the world for, is to display the fashions as they come out; waltz, flirt, dance, sing, and play the mischief generally!