Rhetoric Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words - 3

Rhetoric - Essay Example For example, in the speech’s original Greek version, a deliberate effect called as proparoxytone that Pericles used at his speech’s climax to enhance the level of engagement of the audience is the rapid ending syllables succession all of whose words start with the letter e. One of the most significant statement of the speech is â€Å"Our form of government does not enter into rivalry with the institutions of others† (Pericles cited in Hooker). By making this statement, Pericles tried to impress about other nations that Athens’s government neither interferes with nor challenges other governmental forms and rules. â€Å"Rivalry† is the key work Pericles used her to undermine any sense of competition among the governments of nations. He justified his claim by saying, â€Å"Our government does not copy our neighbors’, but is an example to them† (Pericles cited in Hooker). These words were meant to please the audience for they lose their relatives in a winning cause and also because Athens leads other nations by being an example, rather than following other nations. It is the opinion of certain critics that Pericles’ speech is just a typical politician’s empty rhetoric on the basis of the description of democracy in Athens. Pericles states, â€Å"It is true that we are called a democracy, for the administration is in the hands of the many and not of the few† (Pericles cited in Hooker). Here, the strategy used by Pericles is this assumption that the democratic form of government is known to everybody because it is controlled by a majority rather than a minority. Rather than empty rhetoric, Pericles’ speech is a model of epideictic oratory which is used to blame or praise in ceremonies. Epideictic rhetoric is a rhetoric of commemoration, demonstration, declamation, and ceremony on one hand, and on other hand, is the rhetoric of display,