In Encomium of
Helen, translated by Brian R. Donovan, Gorgias utilizes the practice of
rhetoric to defend Helen of Troy from blame for starting the Trojan War. Helen
of Troy and Prince Alexander eloping sparked a war between Greece and Troy, a
war that many blamed on Helen for leaving her husband and throne. In his text,
Gorgias displays the influential power of rhetoric and how, through persuasive
and dishonest discourse, Helen is relinquished of any guilt relating to the ten
year war. Gorgias creates a series of potential reasons why Helen left and the
reasoning behind them. Each reason supports the claim that Helen holds no
blame, from divine intervention to brute physical force. If the Gods wanted her
path to leave Troy, their rule is higher than humans and she must loyally obey
with no fault. If she was violently assaulted and physically removed against
her will, she is obviously released of blame because she had no control over
the situation. Gorgias moves from these obvious points to zero in on just how
powerful rhetoric can be in thought, action, and discourse.
Beginning with (8), Gorgias points out that the influence
of speech and how it can “stop fear and assuage pain and produce joy and make
mercy abound”. Gorgias delves into the power of persuasive speech and how it
can mold anyone to the argument present. Speech alone has the ability to
soothe, excite, forgive, and much more depending on the context and how it is
used. He continues to explain this point in (9) on how influential rhetoric can
be, the emotions and opinions a carefully crafted argument can produce or
unfold. To Gorgias, “the soul experiences a particularly feeling, on account of
the words”. Therefore, persuasive speech has the power to create actions in
ignorant people, who thus cannot be blamed for their actions. If words have the
power to produce emotions, opinions, and actions, then persuasive speech is as
powerful as any other external force that relieves Helen of blame. Gorgias
places the same weight of rhetoric as he does in divine intervention, showing
just how important and powerful persuasion can be.
In (10), Gorgias begins to talk more about the deceptive
side of persuasive speech. Words can “enchant and persuade [the soul’s opinion]
by trickery. The errors of the soul” and “deceptions of opinion” do not put
Helen at fault. Gorgias separates ‘deceptions of opinion’ and ‘errors of the
soul’ to distinguish an individual’s ignorance, a more internal flaw, and an external
deceptive force, which is an outside influence. Errors of the soul allow for an
individual to be more easily persuaded and tricked, whereas deception of
opinion is a carefully pieced together lie that the persuader has created with
an agenda. Helen is therefore not at fault because one is helpless to their
soul being deceived by a swindler with a plan.
According to (11), Gorgias claims that there is a
slippery slope between persuasion and deceit. People who persuade are “shapers
of lying discourse” who rely on dishonest rhetoric to shape opinions and
persuade those who are less aware. If poor Helen was the victim of false
rhetoric, she is not at fault for leaving her home and throne to elope with
Prince Alexander. However, the liar that persuaded her to leave is the one
responsible. The persuader that purposefully deceived and tricked someone into
a series of actions is the puppeteer holding the strings, knowingly tricking
people with perfectly pieced-together arguments. The person that tricked Helen
was not truthful to her and managed to abduct Helen on the basis of lies and
deceit.
In (12), Gorgias compares forcible abduction to the
powers of influential rhetoric. He states, “for discourse was the persuader of
the soul, which it persuaded and compelled to believe the things that were said
and to agree to the things that were done”. The persuader may as well be a
forcible abductor, and the one abducted (in this case, Helen) is wrongly
blamed. Gorgias shifts the blame away from Helen and onto the persuader, for
their tactics of dishonest rhetoric were as strong as physical force. The power
of persuasive rhetoric thus proves to be influential, controlling, and
comparable to divine intervention and kidnapping.
Throughout this text, Gorgias explains and reasons how
Helen of Troy is not at fault for starting the Trojan War. Persuasion is the
sole perpetrator, and therefore the persuader is the one to blame for
influencing Helen’s actions and placing emotions and ideas into her mind that
she would not have thought of without persuasive rhetoric.
2 comments:
Jesi,
Working on this passage a second round clearly has helped you clarify the exoneration as one that works by shifting blame on to perpetrators by comparing persuasion to physical force, magic, or abduction.
Within the context of the work in which this passage is presented, there is also a reflexive element to Gorgias' discussion of persuasion. Your précis would be more complete with just a short comment about how Gorgias' discussion of rhetoric has a reflexive, and therefore perhaps ironic element to the exoneration. Even if the concrete citation that would allow you to make this claim more clearly lies outside the passage, it is still fundamentally operative throughout the text since it itself is composed to rhetorical persuasions. By addressing how these arguments themselves are also rhetoric, you could show us that these passages possess a question of ambivalence around the role of rhetoric as a communicative medium.
When you quote Gorgias on "the soul experiences a particularly feeling, on account of the words", helps understand why words connect to feelings which connect to power. If one is able to say the right words to somebody that holds an opposing view from ours own individual one, and if we are able to connect with his feelings to make he or she see our reason, then we have a very powerful tool. This is due to the fact that we may be able to persuade them to see our perspective, and that alone is such a powerful tool in the world of Rhetoric. Great analysis Jesi!
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