Rhetorical Appeals In Macbeth

When trying to convince someone of something, “the mind is no match with the heart in persuasion; constitutionality is no match with compassion” (Everett Dirksen). Persuading someone into another opinion is difficult, and that difficulty reaches its maximum when trying to persuade someone into something like crime. Shakespeare’s play Macbeth, takes place in early modern Scotland, in which the main character Macbeth is told his future of being future king. However, in order to be future king, Macbeth must murder King Duncan and get away with it. Within the book, the characters use many rhetorical appeals that serve to deceive and persuade others in order to get what they want. These appeals can be found in the scene where Lady Macbeth, tries to restore Macbeth’s confidence

The movie adaptation by Rupert Goold instead takes place in a World War II esque era, and it expands upon the rhetorical appeals in the book, by adding visuals that assist the viewer in fully comprehending the original text. Through the uses of different visual techniques, such as panning, facial expressions, and editing, allow for the director to emphasize the meaning of a text by making the message into a visual medium. Lady Macbeth uses rhetorical appeals by evoking emotions into Macbeth by questioning his masculinity, and exhibiting Macbeth feel guilt in changing his mind about murdering Duncan for the title of king. In turn, this scene is enhanced by the Goold adaptation of Macbeth by using visual rhetoric techniques, such as camera zoom, facial expressions, and body language, in order to stress the rhetorical appeals used by Lady Macbeth.

Questioning his manhood, Lady Macbeth is able to use rhetorical appeals in order to persuade Macbeth into executing King Duncan. Macbeth is hesitant in committing the murder