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After this, no more gladiators. Promise. (Source)
We're going to take a short break from Thank You For Arguing during this lesson to deepen (and possibly complicate just a bit) your understanding of ethos, logos, and pathos.
Turns out that over time, the meaning of these terms has morphed a little. Our contemporary understanding is similar to what Aristotle meant, but it's not the whole story.
We'll also spend some time on what we'll, for now, just refer to as "The Speech of Speeches." Are you enticed? Frustrated? Both?
Good. That's the idea. We're employing a little rhetoric of our own here.
If you simply cannot continue with the lesson until you know exactly what speech we're talking about then, here's a hint—it contains the immortal words, "If we stay together…we survive."
Whoops—sorry. That's Russell Crowe in Gladiator again.
THERE'S MORE TO IT THAN THAT
The definitions of ethos, logos, and pathos you've read so far align pretty well with the popular, contemporary understanding of the terms. But they're a bit more complicated, because they didn't mean exactly the same thing way back in the perpetual toga party of Ancient Greece.
Purdue's Online Writing Lab will give you a slightly different take on the three concepts. Read the first four paragraphs of the page titled "Aristotle's Rhetorical Situation" to get a fuller understanding of these terms.
Let's update the lovely table we used in the last lesson to include what you just read:
Just because the meanings of the words have gotten a little garbled over the centuries doesn't mean we're going to throw any of these definitions out.
Instead, understanding their original meaning adds another dimension to our modern definitions. And, in the next reading, we'll apply all facets of the three terms to one speech.
AND NOW FOR THE SPEECH OF SPEECHES
Time to analyze another well-known speech in the context of ethos, logos, and pathos. Actually, this one might be the most well-known speech. Think a second: when someone says "famous speech," what comes into your head?
Is it "I Have a Dream?"
Good. Because that's exactly the one we're talking about: Martin Luther King, Jr.'s "I Have a Dream" speech. (You didn't really think we were going to get through a whole unit on rhetoric without turning to MLK, did you?)
First, watch a video to the entire speech—which is just under eighteen minutes long—here.
(And, if you like, you can read the full text of the speech right here on Shmoop.)
King made heavy use of pathos—argument by emotion—to make this speech. To get a better idea of how and why, read our rhetoric analysis of the speech here.
To get a better sense of how text, author, and audience play into the speech, read the paragraphs under the Text, Author and Audience headings here. (What aptly-named section headings, huh?)
So now you've read speeches that relied heavily on pathos and logos. What about ethos? What is it—chopped liver?
Definitely not. In the next lesson, we'll return to Thank You For Arguing and hear a lot more on the subject of ethos from our old friend, Jay Heinrichs.
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