Aristotle’s techniques of pathetic appeal
Pathetic appeals have played an integral part since the times of Ancient Greek, where the authors use them in developing various opinions and beliefs. Aristotle is one of the Ancient Greek philosophers. They have developed and defined the rhetoric appeals such that they are techniques that an individual can use in order to refer to a particular audience. They are mainly three rhetoric appeals, which include logos, ethos, and pathos. Logos mainly appeals to logical reasoning, while ethos, on the other hand, appeals to informed credibility of what the speaker already knows. Pathos mainly addresses the emotional states and tries to convince the audience to various activities by inviting the audience into a certain emotional attachment. The emotional basis of pathos has made it to be most common in the recent works that were done by various authors. One of the authors who use pathos is the most famous English playwright William Shakespeare; especially in his comedy Much Ado About Nothing employs pathos as a method of getting information to his audience and to move the play through appeals of pathos between various characters on the stage. The best example is Beatrice and Benedick. Therefore, the major concern of this particular paper is to look how pathos influences the interactions and emotional manipulation between Benedick and Beatrice so as to effectively illustrate how William Shakespeare used Aristotle rhetorical pathos in interactions between characters of Much Ado About Nothing mainly giving the analysis of Act 2 Scene 3 and Act 4 Scene 1.
Before embarking on the analysis of the scene, let’s have a look at what pathos really involve in literature. Pathos seems to be a simple subject, where one may think it only involves emotional appeals, hence assuming that it is not logical and without much form. Aristotle, in his description of pathos in rhetorical appeals, clearly indicates to us that it has greater influence and argumentative mechanics that can be used to pass a particular message to the audience. Therefore, for pathos to be effectively used in a particular work of literature, it must occur in a systematic fashion so that the chances of it being successful increase mainly in inspiring the audience in accordance with the desires that the speaker is having at the particular moment. Aristotle, therefore, points out three major principles when one is considering using emotional appeals through pathos. It, therefore, means that pathos can be applied in a wide context, including the literature work. Looking at these three various steps, they are all manifested in William Shakespeare’s Much Ado About Nothing, mainly in the interactions between the figures Benedick and Beatrice throughout the course of the entire play.
In Act 2, Scene 3 of Much Ado About Nothing, one can be able to point out the fundamental principles that Aristotle has set out in the pathetic appeals. This is presented in the scene’s dialogue between Beatrice and Benedick. Aristotle outlines that the first step in rhetoric is for the speaker to establish a specific state of mind that he or he wishes to invoke in the desired audience for an effective emotional appeal. This particular step is presented in this particular scene where Beatrice goes to Benedick and tells him about the dinner, which was against her will. This can be well interpreted basing on the literature side, where William Shakespeare in this particular ascertainment was for Beatrice to incite an emotional state that would make Benedick to be surprised or rather be shocked. In the scene, there are also complicated romantic circumstances between Beatrice and Benedick, which serves as a motivation for Beatrice to desire to pursue various emotional appeals.
Aristotle gives the second step is for an individual to enforce the desired state of mind through vivid imagery related to the evoked emotions. In the dialogue from the same scene, such is seen where Beatrice is giving Benedict various insults where she goes ahead, telling him that he has no stomach. By giving him such insults tend to make Benedick possess the effect of reinforcing the state of shock. She is using various words, such as a knife, to provoke him. This tends to make him feel disappointed, a fact that will cause him to change his state of mind. When a person’s state of mind is changed, in such a way that it reveals some sort of disappointment or shock, he will try as much as possible to move out of that situation or rather to prove something, which now leads us to the third main principle of Aristotle. The third main step that Aristotle gives out about the rhetoric appeals to effectively use pathos in convincing the audience is through the speaker addressing a target, whether explicitly or implicitly, for the audience to select as the recipient for their newly persuaded emotional state. The response of Benedick in this particular scenario was in a way that revealed the success of the incitement from Beatrice, which is revealed in Act 2 Scene 3. It is revealed that the appeals of Beatrice have successfully executed the incitement of pathos, which will now result in Benedick revealing the new emotional state that he has been put into by Beatrice. Their interaction, therefore, has been incited by Beatrice, which reveals the use of pathos.
The principles of Aristotle are also revealed in Act 4 Scene 1, where there comes another dialogue between Beatrice and Benedick, but this is revealed from a more different perspective. Benedick, in this particular scene, tries to show emotional appeals toward Beatrice. In this particular scene, Benedick tells Beatrice how much he loves her, as he states that he loves nothing in this world than her. In this particular statement, it can be implied that Bendick uses the first principle as set by Aristotle, where he speaks out the state of his mind in which he wishes to create, and that is his love for Beatrice. Developing a feeling towards someone will require that an individual move on to a different level to speak it out, because one may not know about it either. Also, the state of mind does not conclude everything unless one says it. This is the point when he is trying to speak up his minds towards Beatrice. Hence, it is something that is yet too developed, and therefore he must still convince the feelings through emotional appeal. Beatrice does not know about it; therefore, it became the responsibility of Benedick to speak out. The dialogue goes on, and it is revealed out that Benedick will swear out to everyone that he loves Beatrice, anything coming his way won’t discourage him from showing this love. Hence, at this particular point of the dialogue, the love between Benedick and Beatrice had yet to have been explicitly indicated as he still had a task of making her fall into his emotional state.
In this particular state, the imagery emotional appeal brings out the second stage of Aristotle. The response of Beatrice towards such emotional appeal reveals that the efforts of inciting were unsuccessful, and they did not turn her to him. The response of Beatrice towards the emotional appeal was, ‘I cannot be a man with wishing. Therefore I will die a woman with grieving.’ This shows that the efforts were unsuccessful. Beatrice might have Benedick in mind, feeling the pathetic exchange, and it does not move her into making a decision or to any action. The decision that Beatrice has taken after all of the emotional appeals that Benedick has given therefore implies that there was not a successful usage of the rhetoric principles. He fails to persuade her into making an emotional state for him, and therefore she rejects to fall in love with him. In this regard, it can be outlined that William Shakespeare has used pathos to show a different part of the story, in such that the manifestation must not always lead to a successful outcome, which is seen in the rejection. In this particular scene, it is revealed that a statement of mind of an individual must not always manipulate an individual to fall on the same side of the story or must not always be successful.
In conclusion, the interaction between Beatrice and Benedick in the scenes of Much Ado About Nothing presents the various instances of Aristotle’s techniques of pathetic appeal in the context of the interaction between them. From the above analysis, William Shakespeare reveals that in most circumstances, the comedy is intended to be a successful manifestation. On the other hand, the instance of incited pathos in this particular context does not reveal only success but also an unsuccessful moment, especially in the case of Benedick in trying to convince Beatrice to fall in love with him. The scenes follow the three major steps, as revealed from the examples of the emotional appeals that are presented in the case. It, therefore, implies that one must attempt to execute an emotional appeal so that he/she may effectively be in a position to achieve the final results that are though pathos. In short, it means that without having an emotional appeal, one may lack the motivation for doing something. There is one major issue that arises in this particular context, and this involves the motivation that the author or characters within the text without an explicit clarification of how the author intended for an audience to receive the text. The issue of perception is a major concern, bit as for readers; one must have the ability to connect the meaning and the motivation of various kinds of works. William Shakespeare’s Much Ado About Nothing can be analyzed systematically basing on the Aristotle’s Rhetoric principles. This will, therefore, help one to develop a deeper understanding of the emotional appeals and how they are presented in the context of Shakespeare’s writing.