Macbeth
Test Prep
Rhetorical Appeals
Logos--an appeal to Reason
● Logos
● Pathos
● Ethos
--You know it’s logos when the speaker tries to present the
argument as a clear, rational idea.
--Has main idea, defended by supporting details, examples,
facts, stats, and/or testimony.
--Causality, cause/effect
--If you’re being convinced by the reasonableness, even if
emotion is a component, you’re dealing with logos.
You need to know what they are.
You need to figure out when they are being
used.
Examples of Logos
●
"The data is perfectly clear: this investment has consistently turned a profit year-over-year,
even in spite of market declines in other areas."
●
"Ladies and gentlemen of the jury: we have not only the fingerprints, the lack of an alibi, a
clear motive, and an expressed desire to commit the robbery… We also have video of the
suspect breaking in. The case could not be more open and shut."
●
"It’s a matter of common sense that people deserve to be treated equally. The Constitution
calls it ‘self-evident.’ Why, then, should I have been denied a seat because of my disability?
●
Examples from “Your Dictionary”
Others
Pathos--an appeal to Emotion
...hopes or fears...desires and hatreds…
--Speaker often uses personal anecdotes,
paints a vivid picture, and uses words that play
to audience members’ feelings about topics
(either their likes or dislikes)
Examples of Pathos
●
"Don’t be the last person on the block to have their lawn treated – you don’t want to be the
laughing stock of your community!"
●
"You should consider another route. I heard that that street is far more dangerous and
ominous at night than during the daytime."
●
"You’ll make the right decision because you have something that not many people do: you
have heart."
●
"After years of this type of disrespect from your boss, countless hours wasted, birthdays
missed… it’s time that you took a stand."
Others
Ethos--an appeal to Character
...the credibility and trustworthiness of the
speaker.
--emphasizes shared values of speaker and
audience
--Sometimes the office held by the speaker
grants ethos to what the speaker says
automatically.
Examples of Ethos
●
"Based on the dozens of archaeological expeditions I’ve made all over the world, I am
confident that those potsherds are Mesopotamian in origin."
●
"If my age doesn’t convince you that my opinion matters, at least consider that I am your
grandfather and I love you dearly."
●
"Doctors all over the world recommend this type of treatment."
Others
Now...to Macbeth
“...But ‘tis strange;
And oftentimes, to win us to our harm,
The instruments of darkness tell us truths,
Win us with honest trifles, to betray’s
In deepest consequence” (I.iii).
Is Banquo appealing to Logos, Pathos, or
Ethos? Why?
More...
One last one...
Reading Comprehension
“They met me in the day of success, and I have learned by the perfectest report
they have more in them than mortal knowledge. When I burned in desire to
question them further, they made themselves air, into which they vanished.
Whiles I stood rapt in the wonder of it came missives from the king, who allhailed me 'Thane of Cawdor,' by which title, before, these weird sisters saluted
me, and referred me to the coming on of time with 'Hail, king that shalt be!'” (I.
v).
“Yet do I fear thy nature;
The bulk of the test questions are dedicated to
testing your ability to understand lines from the
text and to connect them back to their original
context.
Which appeal is Macbeth using to convince Lady Macbeth of the truth of the
three Weird Sisters’ prediction? How do you know? If more than one, which is
more prominent and why?
Lady Macbeth responds to her husband’s letter as though he were there with
her. Which rhetorical appeal is she using “on her husband”? How do you know?
If more than one, which is more prominent?
It is too full o' th' milk of human kindness
To catch the nearest way: thou wouldst be great,
Art not without ambition, but without
The illness should attend it. What thou wouldst highly,
That wouldst thou holily; wouldst not play false,
And yet wouldst wrongly win” (I.v).
Let’s practice!
Interpretation One
Interpretation Two
Dramatic Irony
“Your face, my thane, is as a book where men
May read strange matters. To beguile the time,
Look like the time” (I.v).
Who says this?
What does it mean?
“All our service,
In every point twice done and then done double,
Were poor and single business to contend
Against those honors deep and broad wherewith
Your majesty loads our house” (I.v).
To whom is this said?
What does it mean?
Several questions require you to understand
dramatic irony. What is it?
Dramatic Irony example
Dramatic Irony example
Tragic Hero
“All our service,
In every point twice done and then done double,
Were poor and single business to contend
Against those honors deep and broad wherewith
Your majesty loads our house” (I.v).
“This castle hath a pleasant seat. The air
Nimbly and sweetly recommends itself
Unto our gentle senses” (I.v).
Who says this?
Why is this ironic?
What makes a hero tragic?
Why could this speech count as dramatic irony?
“But let the frame of things disjoint, both the worlds suffer,
Motifs
Motif
Ere we will eat our meal in fear, and sleep
Motif 2
In the affliction of these terrible dreams
What is a motif?
Recurring
subject,
theme, idea,
or image.
That shake us nightly. Better be with the dead,
“Come, seeling night,
Whom we, to gain our peace, have sent to peace,
Scarf up the tender eye of pitiful day
Than on the torture of the mind to lie
And with thy bloody and invisible hand
In restless ecstasy. Duncan is in his grave.
Cancel and tear to pieces that great bond
After life’s fitful fever he sleeps well” (III.ii).
Which keeps me pale. Light thickens, and the crow
Makes wing to th' rooky wood.
Good things of day begin to droop and drowse;
What’s the motif here?
Whiles night’s black agents to their preys do rouse” (III.ii.47--54).
What’s the motif?
Finally...blank verse, etc.
Blank verse...when characters’ speeches have meter
(iambic pentameter), but do NOT rhyme.
Prose...when characters’ speeches sound like ordinary
speech--no definite meter or rhyme.
Rhymed Verse....when characters’ speeches have both
meter and rhyme.
Macbeth has all three, but is mostly blank verse