Soliloquies & Rhetorical Analysis

wHaT?
WhAt?
whAt?

“The act of speaking one’s thoughts aloud when alone or, when with others, speaking privately regardless of who may hear.”
It’s the verbalizing on internal thoughts and emotions, but not for the sake of communicating these to others, but as a
“thinking out loud” process.

Solus = alone
Loqui = to speak
Solus
+
Loqui
= Soliloquy:
Alone-Speaking oR
Speaking Alone Or

Monologues are speeches made by one character to an audience.
Greek: Monos (One) +
Legein (To Speak)

Both monologues and soliloquies tend to be high in poetic qualities and rhetorical brilliance. = They are
COOL, Dudes!
Totally.

Lady Macbeth’s “The Raven Himself
Is Hoarse” soliloquy: Act 1, Scene 5.
Let us practice
Rhetorical Analysis
Macbeth’s “If It Were Done..” soliloquy: Act 1, Scene 7.
Macbeth’s “Is This a Dagger” soliloquy: Act 2, Scene 1
(“OMG, that’s my favorite thing in the whole entire solar system, Br. Byrd!”)

Look, thou, at the “How to Write a
Rhetorical Analysis” article
Rhetoric = The art of persuasion.
It’s the use of certain language tricks to create an argument that is so pretty, or so reasonable, or so moving, or so morally compelling that one’s audience has to agree, and probably feels compelled to do something.

Granted, soliloquies can be tricky to analyze, because they can be short, and they are speeches a character makes to himself or herself.
Even so...

Lady Macbeth’s soliloquy.
Then you’ll do one on your own.

S: Lady Macbeth
O: On learning about the witches’ prediction
A: To herself/to Satan
P: To embrace the evil necessary to do a horrible deed. To transform herself from woman to man?
(Shakespeare’s purpose: to reveal Lady Macbeth’s inner character.)
S: A positive description of an evil plan

Ethos: This speech is the antithesis of ethical. (You would then explain that.)
Logos: You would need to borrow from the context to explain Lady Macbeth’s logic in planning to murder the king. (The speech in Scene 5 that comes immediately after the letter.)
Pathos: This speech is full of emotion, but we as the audience are supposed to be 1) thrilled and 2) repelled by these emotions. Their murderous and sinful.

● Symbolism: “The raven himself is hoarse/that croaks the fatal entrance…”
● Repetition of beginning lines with verbs in the imperative: “Come, you spirits…”, “...fill me from crown…”, “Make thick my blood…”, “Stop up the access…”, “Shake my fell purpose”, etc.
● Tone: Maniacal (suggesting madness); Villainous; Depraved
● Diction: hoarse, croaks, fatal, battlements, unsex, direst, cruelty, blood
● Conflict: between self and conscience/morality (nature, remorse, heaven)
● She acknowledges the opposition, but only in that she wants to ignore the arguments against her plan.

● I’m not supposed to agree with Lady Macbeth; I’m supposed to be repulsed by her and her idea. &&& I am!
= Shakespeare succeeds. (I would then outline why I reject her comments.)
● Shakespeare wants to paint Lady Macbeth as embracing evil, and in this scene she calls upon evil powers to possess her, to block her conscience, to help her commit a horrible act. = He succeeds.
● Also, there is high eloquence to Lady Macbeth’s speech, which makes something evil sound beautiful = high rhetorical points.

● Lady Macbeth’s speech is a satanic prayer designed to shock the audience and persuade them that Lady Macbeth is a tool of the three witches and the evil force they serve.

Each of you will follow the five steps, as if preparing to write a full rhetorical analysis.
You will type up what you do and submit it to
Turnitin.com by Friday, 9am.