Master Your Mind by Marcel Danesi

Author:Marcel Danesi
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781647396985
Publisher: Sourcebooks
Published: 2020-07-20T00:00:00+00:00

Rhetoric may be defined as the faculty of observing in any given case the available means of persuasion. This is not a function of any other art.

—Aristotle

CASE STUDY: A CLASSIC RHETORICAL QUESTION

One of the more famous lines from Shakespeare is in Julius Caesar, act 3, scene 1: “Et tu, Brute?” The line—Latin for “You too, Brutus?”—is spoken by Julius Caesar to his presumed friend and protégé Marcus Brutus, who’s among the assassins stabbing Caesar. There’s no historical record of Caesar uttering anything before his death; the line was created by Shakespeare to great effect, eliciting pathos for Caesar’s plight. In his inimitable way, Shakespeare brings the event into the sphere of everybody’s understanding, making us feel for Caesar as someone who was betrayed by a close ally.

The one-liner packs more meaning than if Caesar had made a verbose speech about the emotional destruction caused by a friend’s unexpected betrayal. It’s a classic example of a rhetorical question, making the sense of betrayal highly dramatic, allowing Caesar to convey his emotions tersely and pathetically. It is truly fascinating to observe how one single rhetorical question can contain so much meaning.

There is an obvious cautionary subtext to this story: beware of even your closest friends, since they may betray you at any moment. The actual episode in Roman history is a poignant reminder that self-serving passions and personal calculations always play a role in altering the course of human life. As provided by Shakespeare, Caesar’s question is a one-sentence cautionary political tale that continues to have resonance to this day.

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