Erotema — more commonly known as a rhetorical question — is a rhetorical device that uses questions that do not call for a reply. The word is pronounced as e-ro-tem-a. The other term for it is erotesis. There are famous examples of erotema throughout history and literature, such as Mark Antony’s famous speech at Caesar’s funeral (which we will expound upon soon).
However, Federick Douglass’ use of erotema is what we will examine at the moment. Here is a speech delivered on July 5, 1852:
Douglass, What to The Slave Is the Fourth of July Speech (1852):
Fellow citizens, pardon me, allow me to ask, why am I called upon to speak here today? What have I, or those I represent, to do with your national independence? Are the great principles of political freedom and of natural justice, embodied in that Declaration of Independence, extended to us? and am I, therefore, called upon to bring our humble offering to the national altar, and to confess the benefits and express devout gratitude for the blessings resulting from your independence to us?
Federick Douglass here is taking full advantage of the effects of erotema. He was giving a speech commemorating America’s independence. The rhetorical questions would have two main effects. First, they would have allowed his audience to fully engage with his direct appeal.
Second, Douglass’ rhetorical questions would have conveyed his high sense of incredulity or passion at the painful irony and hypocrisy of a country celebrating independence and the values of freedom celebrated in its famous Declaration of Independence while still owning slaves.
Why erotema or rhetorical questions are used
Erotema is used in writing and literature for a variety of reasons. Here, we will point out two of them:
1. It makes a direct appeal. By asking a question even without the intention of hearing the answer, the speaker will establish a kind of emotional connection with the listener. In short, the listeners will be engaged after the direct appeal.
2. Expresses high emotion or incredulity. Rhetorical questions help make the argument being opposed seem absurd, while expressing the passion or high emotion of the speaker, as is the case with Federick Douglass’ speech.
3. To express genuine uncertainty. While erotema is typically used to express questions for which the answers are obvious, sometimes it can be used to pose questions for which there are no answers.
Examples of erotema
1. Walcott, “A Far Cry From Africa” (1952):
. . . how choose
Between this Africa and the English tongue I love?
Betray them both, or give back what they give?
Here the author is expressing the impossibility of choosing between his British and African heritage. This is an example of rhetorical questions being used to pose questions for which there are no answers.
2. Paine, The American Crisis (1783):
Alas! are those people who call themselves Englishmen, of so little internal consequence, that when America is gone, or shuts her eyes upon them, their sun is set, they can shine no more, but grope about in obscurity, and contract into insignificant animals? Was America, then, the giant of the empire, and England only her dwarf in waiting! Is the case so strangely altered, that those who once thought we could not live without them, are now brought to declare that they cannot exist without us?
Paine here is feigning to be astonished by the idea of England fighting to keep America a colony when it is a much stronger and powerful country than the US. The rhetorical questions her would have been a direct emotional appeal to an American audience with republican sympathies.
3. Merchant of Venice, Scene I, Act I:
He hath disgraced me, and
hindered me half a million; laughed at my losses,
mocked at my gains, scorned my nation, thwarted my
bargains, cooled my friends, heated mine
enemies; and what's his reason? I am a Jew. Hath
not a Jew eyes? hath not a Jew hands, organs,
dimensions, senses, affections, passions? fed with
the same food, hurt with the same weapons, subject
to the same diseases, healed by the same means,
warmed and cooled by the same winter and summer, as
a Christian is? If you prick us, do we not bleed?
if you tickle us, do we not laugh? if you poison
us, do we not die? and if you wrong us, shall we not
revenge? If we are like you in the rest, we will
resemble you in that.
In The Merchant of Venice, Shylock is an absolute villain clamoring for a pound of flesh from Antonio who owes him money. However, this speech loaded with erotema makes him seem quite human and almost justified, if not in his exact method of vengeance, then at least in his anger and hatred.
4. Chesterton, Science and Religion (1915):
And I am sorry to say that this pamphlet of progressive religious views is full of baffling observations of that kind. What can people mean when they say that science has disturbed their view of sin? What sort of view of sin can they have had before science disturbed it? Did they think that it was something to eat? When people say that science has shaken their faith in immortality, what do they mean? Did they think that immortality was a gas?
Chesterton mocks the idea that there is a dilemma in choosing between religious faith and a belief in science. His questions comparing religious concepts such as immortality with scientific elements like gas strive to show how incredulous and absurd the idea is.
Mark Antony’s use of erotema
We come back to Mark Antony’s speech at Caesar’s funeral in the play Julius Caesar — again. In that speech, Antony uses rhetorical questions or erotema to expose the dishonorable behavior of Brutus in conspiring to murder Caesar.
The speech begins with subtle irony:
I come to bury Caesar, not to praise him.
The evil that men do lives after them;
The good is oft interred with their bones;
The Roman crowd may have slightly lifted their eyebrows at the weird idea that a man’s good deeds should be ignored at his own funeral. However, Brutus’ villainous conduct toward Caesar probably became more obvious to the crowd with the first rhetorical question:
He hath brought many captives home to Rome
Whose ransoms did the general coffers fill:
Did this in Caesar seem ambitious?
By the second rhetorical question, Brutus directly challenges the assertion of Brutus that Caesar had ambitions to be king or dictator.
You all did see that on the Lupercal
I thrice presented him a kingly crown,
Which he did thrice refuse: was this ambition?
Finally, Antony throws away all pretense with his last rhetorical question:
You all did love him once, not without cause:
What cause withholds you then, to mourn for him?
O judgment! thou art fled to brutish beasts,
And men have lost their reason.
The rhetorical question is further reinforced by Brutus implying that the crowd are as stupid as “brutish beasts” if they don’t realize how much in the wrong Brutus was and how evil the crime committed against Caesar was.
References
Farnsworth, W. (2010). Farnsworth's Classical English Rhetoric. David R. Godine.
Cite this EminentEdit article |
Antoine, M. (2024, October 18). Erotema. https://www.eminentediting.com/post/erotema |
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