In the “Encomium of Helen” Rosamond kent Sprague explains how one of the characters; Gorgius strongly defended Helen’s wicked deeds. Kent arranged his ideas in a systematic way in his attempt to save Helen from the accusations of her community, as everyone was blaming her to have caused war and suffering to her community. He uses a highly persuasive language to convince his audience that she was not 100% guilty although, he accepts that she was not ignorant. His language is rich in the use of metaphors and similes which as he speaks with much finality to convince the audience.
Gorgius had a well structured flow of ideas; he began by winning the audience of his speech to his opinion by writing off Helen’s detractors. He started his speech in such a manner so as to create for the audience a picture of her detractors as unethical, ignorant and unreasonable and in this way he wins the audience to his side right from the beginning. As Kent states:
“For my part, by introducing some reasoning into my speech, I wish to free the accused of blame and, having reproved her detractors as prevaricators and proved the truth, to free her from their ignorance”.(Sprague 50).
He also begun his speech in such a way to make the audience believe in his words by stating the facts that a city brings manpower, body brings beauty, soul brings wisdom, actions brings virtues and speech brings truth: therefore, he tries to convince the audience to believe in his speech without doubting it. In his defense strategy. Gorgius begins by acknowledging all the possible reasons that might have lured Helen to her deeds, as he explains,
“for either by will of fate and decision of the gods and vote of necessity did she do what she did, or by force reduced or by w...
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...ch he never referred to what Helen said as sin or disgrace, but instead he keeps of terming her sins as “what she deed”. He also introduced his argument by stating that she was taken away, but never accompanied the foreign voyage. Whenever referring to her accusers, he called them detractors to create a negative picture in his listener’s minds.
In conclusion, Sprague passed his message to the reader with a remarkably orderly organized structure of ideas. In order to convince the readers, the author applies a persuasive language with metaphors, similes and repetitions. He also took a firm stand throughout the entire article thus managed to win the audience to a considerable extend.
Works cited
Rosamond K.S. The older sophists: a complete translation by several hands of the fragments”. South Carolina: University of South Carolina Press. 1972. Print.
An example of the persuasive technique is Ethos that is used in the article is, "The problem '...
He draws attention to his argument by using statistical evidence and methods of persuasion. The methods that the author uses to better explain his argument for this book include that of researched evidence, rhetoric, ethos, and logos. Examples of each can be found throughout the book. For the researched evidence, an example is all the quotes the author uses to better each argument of almost every paragraph of this book.
...an is capable of persuading his audience into accepting his simplistic views of the world. He makes it easier to rationalize with his stance by his strategic use of sentence structure and word choice. When analyzing a past speech or interpreting a speech as it is given, upmost priority should be given to analytical tools for analyzing persuasive symbols and language. Whether the topic at hand is motivated by great emotions as it is here or not, the audience can easily be swayed in one direction surprisingly based only on universal comprehension.
The hard, logical proof used to persuade is called logos. Authors use this technique to support their propositional statements in an argument. By supporting an opinion with a sufficient amount of data, an audience is able to find the argument believable. Logos, however, goes beyond the abundance of information geared toward swaying an opinion into agreement. Presenting facts also includes decisions such as which ...
Two classical themes in literature are concealed guilt and confessed guilt and in many instances the reader sees the affects of these on individuals. In the examination and exploration of The Scarlet Letter and Macbeth the necessary comparison for both is provided. The guilt in The Scarlet Letter is seen in the minds and outward appearance of each main character, Hester Prynne and Arthur Dimmesdale. In Macbeth the readers sees an obvious guilt in the main character, Macbeth.
...ontradicting herself, and pointing the finger. Although she most likely has experienced these acts of unjust treatment, she seems to put the reader in the position to doubt the credibility of what she has to say time and again.
...r to Menelaus now. Thee tapestry is too intricately woven, so as the central blame is Helen, most of the individuals involved are in the war for widely different motives.
“One by one the priest summoned us to the hearth, marking our wrists with blood and ash, binding as chains. I chanted the words of the oath back to him, my arm lifted for all to see” (pg.14). Here Miller is using information drawn from other sources to modify the original. In The Iliad, we are never told why these kings answered the call the rescue Helen. Miller explains that the original suitors for Helen’s hand; Odysseus, Ajax, Patroclus and many others swore an oath to come to Helen’s aid if anything were to happen to her. This value is one that both audiences would understand, you’re only as good as your word and people who break their promises are
of a mother-son marriage. Greek law considers the act, not the motive. meaning that even though she nor Oedipus knew they were related, they committed. the crime of the.. & nbsp; Finally, Oedipus's guilt. In some ways, Oedipus was the most guilty of them all. Consider his 'hubris'. He regarded himself as almost a god, assuming. that since he alone had solved the sphinx's riddle, he was the one of the gods. favorites. He was very quick to judge, and judged on the most flimsy of evidence. He calls on Tiresias to tell him what he should do, and when he. doesn't like what he hears, Oedipus says, "Your words are nothing - futile".
... call to be His servant. Embedded in Mary’s decision was the full awareness that she would suffer ridicule, contempt, and loneliness.
To cry, 'Hold, hold!' " line 41-57, Pg. 41. Here we see her summon evil spirits to thicken her blood and to turn her milk into bitter gall and then calls on them to prevent her from feeling remorse and to remove her feminity. This is very intriguing, and very interesting. We didn't even expect that an apparently strong, practical, and determined woman would act in such contradiction to her womanliness.
...st impact, since the ultimate way to persuade is to allow them to persuade themselves. In fact, the very core of this story is that: think for yourself.
In Oedipus the King, Sophocles suggests that the impact of seeing the truth is harmful rather than enlightening. Whenever Oedipus strives to discover more to strengthen Thebes’ perspective of him, it leads him closer to his fate as determined by prophesy. Tiresias stands as a model in the play for the individual who is able to see the meaning beyond plot of events although his is blind, and Oedipus represents the oblivious arrogant individual who is never content because they need to be the unsurpassed individual. In the play, Sophocles illustrates the downside of a personality like Oedipus who desires to see the truth by ending the play with the brutality of gouging out his own eyes. Ultimately, the play reinforces that seeing the truth is harmful and being content with what you have, without greedily striving for more, can help avoid fate and a related deposition.
It is said that the truth will set you free, but in the case of Sophocles’ Oedipus, the truth drives a man to imprison himself in a world of darkness by gouging out his eyes. As he scours the city for truth, Oedipus’ ruin is ironically mentioned and foreshadowed in the narrative. With these and other devices Sophocles illuminates the king’s tragic realization and creates a firm emotional bond with the audience.
“the duty of the same man both to declare what he should rightly and to refute what has been spoken falsely” (Higgins, n.d., p. 1).