Thucydides Rhetorical Analysis

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

What is the significance of Alcibiades and his speech in the Symposium as a whole? Make sure to support your interpretation with evidence from the text. Alcibiades´s speech is an important part of the Symposium, because it serves as a companion to Socrates´s speech that precedes it, which is the Ladder of Love. The Ladder of Love is a highly complex, abstract treatise about beauty, which bring up the idea that love is about pursuing philosophy and the beautiful things, not sexual intercourse. But Plato must have known the Ladder of Love alone is not enough to deliver this idea.

Aristotle founded the idea that all the best arguments have three key parts: ethos, pathos and logos. Translated from latin, this means ethical, emotional and logical. In the play Antigone by Sophocles, the characters frequently make use of these tools when attempting to persuade another character to conform to their beliefs and thoughts. Antigone tries to get her sister, Ismene, to help her in a crime that she believes is just. Haimon attempts to lessen Antigone’s sentence by lecturing his father about what it means to be a good leader, and the Chorus is just trying to help out anyone they can with wise words from a third party opinion.

Plato’s dialogues Gorgias and Phaedrus both consider the idea of rhetoric. Rhetoric being the art or skill of getting something from the masses or individuals, and often used in getting away with a crime. The type of rhetoric being argued about in the Gorgias dialogue is public rhetoric, what exactly rhetoric is, whether it is an art or not, and how it is best used so as to promote the highest good. In the Phaedrus dialogue private rhetoric is being discussed over the issue of love. This paper will examine how eros is central to both the Gorgias and Phaedrus dialogues.

In Cassius’s eloquent speech against Caesar, he primarily utilizes persuasion through tools such as pathos, rhetorical questions, and compare and contrast. Cassius uses pathos to begin his monologue when he claims, “I know that virtue be in you, Brutus, / As well as I do know your outward favor” (Shakespeare 1.2.95-96). By expressing that Brutus has “virtue” and “outward favor”, Cassius appeals to Brutus’s emotions, but not to an exaggerated extent. This emotional appeal is a persuasion technique because it is used in moderation and in pertinent locations. The context is appropriate since rather than using it as a tool to feed on Brutus’s emotions, Cassius only uses it to get Brutus’s attention as an appropriate hook.

During his journey home, Odysseus shows the reader superior judgement through sacrifice. He pushes forward

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

When making an argument to sway someone, one must first recognize when speaking that it is not so much what one says so much as how they say it. This can be seen in none other than Shakespeare’s renowned Tragedy of Julius Caesar when Calpurnia attempts to tell Caesar to stay home while Decius Brutus attempts the opposite. In Act II, scene ii, both make their arguments to convince Caesar to attend, or not attend, the senate meeting on the Ides of March in which the conspirators plan to assassinate the leader. While Calpurnia approaches Caesar using an emotional appeal, Decius decides to use a more logical appeal to persuade the general to fall into his trap. Ultimately Decius proves to be more successful in his attempt than Calpurnia, due to

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.

This was effective because he planted bad images of the conspirators in their heads. As a result of appealing to pathos, Antony has made the crowd realize the conspirators have done

These statements mixed with examples counteractive to Brutus’ argument create an antithesis that results in the plebeians not only doubting the argument of Brutus but beginning to believe that Caesar’s death was unjust. By restating the statements over and over again by to the point that the true intention of the conspirators is a rhetorical question for the plebeians. Antony’s use of this device not only affects the logos of the people by giving them a rhetorical question as to what is happening, but also affects their ethos by causing them to doubt the credibility of Brutus’ argument. Lastly, Antony begins to finish his speech and win the plebeians over by orating “.O masters, if I were disposed to stir your hearts and minds to mutiny and rage, I should do Brutus wrong, and Cassius wrong— who, you all know, are honorable men” (Shakespeare 3.2.120-123). Antony by turning Brutus and Cassius into villains.

Comparing Aeschylus and Aristotle Rhetoric 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.

Brutus has already spoke and the people are waiting for Antony to speak. The people of Rome are persuaded that Caesar was ambitious and Brutus, Cassius and the other conspirators have saved Rome. Antony uses rhetorical questions, repetition, and parallelism to develop his message that Brutus and the conspirators are murderers.

Julius Caesar Essay Words are more powerful than weapons. Throughout the play of Julius Caesar the idea of powerful words is a key theme. Through speeches lies and cunning plans the characters in this play are able to convince people to join conspiracies and move people to action. This play reflects on the need for excellent speaking skills and its importance in ancient Rome, Elizabethan, and modern times.

Antony successfully manipulates the citizens into joining him against the conspirators. He does this while giving his speech in the funeral oration. There are many different ways he did this but through all of these he used spin. Spin is not telling the truth, but you are also not lying, it is used most of the time in manipulation and in politics. Antony manages to persuade and manipulate the citizens that Caesar was killed wrongfully with the use and power of spin.