Oedipus The King Rhetorical Analysis

In life a very good skill to have is to be able to persuade people because it can help out someone in the future of their life situations. This skill is also important when going into war, and persuading people to fight or agree on something someone believes is true. In the Iliad, Homer’s characters’ use persuasion against each other multiple times in the story. The characters in the Iliad mostly use ethos, pathos, and logos when persuading each other to understand what they believe is true.

Antony uses many rhetorical devices in his speech from logos to pathos and many more but, the most effective rhetorical device in Antony's speech is logos because, in Antony's speech he pulls from the people's strings and emotions to get the people of Rome to get on his side and not Brutus’s side. Antony uses logos in many ways and uses it in the best possible way he can. Anthony's goal by using the rhetorical device logos, is that he is trying to make everyone one not on Brutus’s side about the reason why he killed caesar.

Plato (c.428 – 348 B.C.) is a well-known Greek philosopher and mathematician from the Socratic period that had an immense impact on modern democratic theory. Plato’s political implications contained the pathologies of the democratic public sphere. Through Plato’s encounters and views on politics, he provided foundational ideas and insights on deliberative theory. According to Chambers (2009) his belief was that the strongest objection to rhetoric is not that appeals to passion over reason, but that it is nomological rather than dialogical (p.324). To further simplify, Plato was not opposed to people expressing themselves passionately but opposed one to illustrate the deliberation process through passion as a form of misguiding or redirected

The readings of Aeschylus and Aristotle are called “The Eumenides” and “Rhetoric” respectively. “The Eumenides” is about Athena trying to save Athens from the Furies using rhetoric. While “Rhetoric” is about how rhetoric is useful, dialectic, which is trying to find the truth is very important too. These readings talk how rhetoric is critical for persuasion and “The Eumenides” shows persuasion in an example while “Rhetoric” just talks about persuasion. Both of the stories talk how being the best persuader can lead you be successful, however Aristotle points out if one’s argument is true and just, then he will win the argument if the contest is equal, because things that are right tend to top the things

Throughout the entirety of William Shakespeare’s play, The Tragedy of Julius Caesar, one can find many examples of rhetoric; however it is especially seen in the speeches given by the characters Brutus and Antony in Act III Scene II. Ethos, a rhetorical device that establishes credibility and principles, can be found at the beginning of the speech Brutus delivers to the plebians; Brutus states, “Be patient till the last. Romans, Countrymen, and lovers, hear me for my cause, and be silent, that you may hear. Believe me for mine honor, and have respect to mine honor, that you may believe. Censure me in your wisdom, and awake your senses” (III.ii. 13-18). Through these words, Brutus is using ethos in order to establish his credibility to the average

I do agree with Socrates that rhetoric is mostly misused and dangerous for both the speaker and the listener. I believe rhetoric is dangerous for the speaker because that person maybe don’t understand how much power they hold over someone. It can be dangerous for the listener for the simply fact is the information they’ve been give may or may not be correct. I think past experience motivated Socrates feel this way about the usage of rhetoric.

Rhetoric is an incredibly powerful tool capable of seducing even the most obdurate of people. As one of the most illustrious playwrights ever, Shakespeare was no stranger to the power of rhetoric. Rhetoric served as the fountainhead of Shakespearian allure. We watch the dramatic works of Shakespeare because we enjoy having our emotions manipulated; we enjoy the catharsis and self-reflection that accompanies a trip to the theater. Shakespeare truly was a master manipulator, but his manipulation was generally beneficial. While Shakespeare uses rhetoric to create art, Iago uses it to cause destruction and pain. Shakespeare’s Othello can be used as a means of exploring the dangerous power of rhetoric and gaining insight into the ethical role it

When the play begins, the reader discovers that Othello and Desdemona have eloped. Desdemona’s father, Brabantio, does not approve of her marriage to Othello. Learning about the secret and unapproved marriage, he angrily declares that Desdemona “is abused, stol’n from me, and corrupted by spells…” In this outburst of passion, Shakespeare uses diction to subtly comment on the sorcerous power of love. Brabantio’s claim evokes negative connotations associated with witchcraft and black magic. Indeed it is commonplace to describe lovers as under one another’s spell. Under the influence of a spell, a lover loses all control over his or her behavior. Shakespeare observes that this characteristic of love exposes the lover to “corruption,” foreshadowing

The world of literature offers many different works; some may offer similarities while there are differences between others. There are more similarities than differences between Odysseus and Oedipus. Two great examples of literature is the tragic play “Oedipus the King”, written by Sophocles and “The Odyssey”, an epic poem written by Homer who were both Greek poets. Both poets’ work shows similar examples of life altering changes that were ultimately controlled by the Greek gods.

In the play King Oedipus, Sophocles depicts Oedipus’ inevitable downfall, which represents man’s struggle between free will and fate. In an attempt to use the audience’s knowledge to his advantage, Sophocles opens the play seventeen years after Oedipus murders his father, Laius and marries his mother, Jocasta. The sequence in which the story unravels reveals the strong psychological focus towards Oedipus’ character. In search of his identity, Oedipus’ enigmatic quality and moral ambiguity compels readers to question whether his ignorance renders him morally blameless. The vagueness about Oedipus’ intellectual state can be interpreted as unconscious knowledge, which may make him morally culpable. Guilty

The use of rhetorical appeal in Oedipus the Colonus is prominent, as it paves the way for the plot of the story. In this portion of the play Oedipus tries to appeal to the audience’s emotions by forcing them to empathize with his past horrors and misfortunes. Oedipus states” I have suffered terribly, Theseus, wrongs on wrongs, no end”(ll. 670-671). Thus, evoking sadness and extreme grief those reading or watching the play. Sophocles uses pathos to excite and arouse the audience’s interests forcing them to wonder: what will happen to Oedipus. However, from what is being written, the audience might conclude that Oedipus is manipulative, which could prompt anger in a select few that are watching the play. In fact, when Oedipus says, “ I come

Critic Northrop Frye claims that tragic heroes “seem the inevitable conductors of the power about them…Conductors may of course be instruments as well as victims of the divisive lightning.” A perfect example of this assertion would be King Oedipus in the classical tragic play “Oedipus Rex,” written by Sophocles, where Oedipus, himself, becomes the victim of his doomed fate. As someone who was born and raised of royal blood, he becomes too proud and ignorant, believing that he was too powerful for his fate. Using the metaphor “great trees [are] more likely to be struck by lightning than a clump of grass,” Frye compares the heroic but unfortunate Oedipus to the great trees as they both are apt to experience victimization of tragic situations

Oedipus’s selfishness and temper eventually lead to his downfall. Oedipus selfishness made everyone else mad at him for him not believing them. He kept digging and digging himself into a deeper hole. This eventually made his punishment at the end worse for him. He also could not handle the truth so this made him disrespect the gods. He told Tiresias that he was lying and was just trying to help Ceron become ruler. Oedipus also had too much pride this also contributed to his downfall. He was telling the people that they would find the murderer and have him exiled. He was too blind to see that he killed the king.

Appearance can be misleading, the obvious things we see are not always how things are in real.

Oedipus the King is one of the most ironic plays ever written. Sophocles, the author, is a famous philosopher of the ancient times The Play is about Oedipus, the king of Thebes, who kills his father and marries his mother. An oracle warned Laius, the king of Thebes prior to Oedipus, that his son would murder him. Accordingly, when his wife, Jocasta, had a son, he exposed the baby by first pinning his ankles together. The infant, who was adopted by King Polybus of Corinth and his wife was then brought up as their very own. In the earlier years Oedipus visits Delphi and learns that he was fated to kill his father and marry his mother. He then planned to never return to Corinth.