Shakespeare and rhetoric

The rules of rhetoric were second nature to the great phrase-makers. Shakespeare knew them well. 

Author Mark Forsyth says:

“If you think genius is some kind of magical thing, lightning that hits you from heaven, it’s not that. Shakespeare was a guy who learned all the skills, the rules, the formulas and the figures of rhetoric and then he deployed them better than anyone else has ever deployed them."

Listen from 7:40 to 9:07

Shakespeare and rhetoric

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For more on rhetoric in modern day politics:

Listen from 9:07 to 12:00

Chiasmus
Threes


Some terms to describe rhetorical formulas:

Alliteration: repetition of the same sound beginning several words in sequence.

*Let us go forth to lead the land we love. J. F. Kennedy, Inaugural

Anaphora: the repetition of a word or phrase at the beginning of successive phrases, clauses or lines.

*We shall not flag or fail. We shall go on to the end. We shall fight in France, we shall fight on the seas and oceans, we shall fight with growing confidence and growing strength in the air, we shall defend our island, whatever the cost may be, we shall fight on the beaches, we shall fight on the landing grounds, we shall fight in the fields and in the streets, we shall fight in the hills. We shall never surrender. Churchill.

Antithesis: opposition, or contrast of ideas or words in a balanced or parallel construction.

*Brutus: Not that I loved Caesar less, but that I loved Rome more. Shakespeare, Julius Caesar

Assonance: repetition of the same sound in words close to each other.

*Thy kingdom come, thy will be done.

Chiasmus: two corresponding pairs arranged not in parallels (a-b-a-b) but in inverted order (a-b-b-a); from shape of the Greek letter chi (X).

*...ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country. John F. Kennedy

Metaphor: implied comparison achieved through a figurative use of words; the word is used not in its literal sense, but in one analogous to it.

*Life's but a walking shadow; a poor player,

That struts and frets his hour upon the stage. Shakespeare, Macbeth

Metonymy: substitution of one word for another which it suggests.

*He is a man of the cloth.

Oxymoron: apparent paradox achieved by the juxtaposition of words which seem to contradict one another.

*I must be cruel only to be kind. Shakespeare, Hamlet

Paradox: an assertion seemingly opposed to common sense, but that may yet have some truth in it.

*What a pity that youth must be wasted on the young. George Bernard Shaw

Simile: an explicit comparison between two things using 'like' or 'as'.

*Reason is to faith as the eye to the telescope. D. Hume [?]

Tautology: repetition of an idea in a different word, phrase, or sentence.

*With malice toward none, with charity for all. Lincoln, Second Inaugural