Friday, December 11, 2009

A Rhetorical Analysis of the last scene in Casablanca

>>>>Casablanca. What are the rhetorical underpinnings of Rick’s appeals to Ilsa? Scene: A foggy airport, where Rick is trying to convince Ilsa to board the plane and leave.Ilsa: “You are saying this because you want me to go!”Rick: “I am saying this because it is the truth.”Here we can see appeals to ethos, pathos, and logos (although the latter is in the form of enthymeme). Appeals to ethos: Rick uses his manly voice, tone, character, and position of authority as someone how knows everything and is aware of the good of everyone, including Ilsa’s.Appeal to pathos: Rick uses the emotional background between him and Ilsa, and also the background of the war and the common cause of the resistance which supersedes their individual concerns. Appeal to logos in the form of an enthymeme: Rick’s argument can be put in the form of a syllogism as follows:(A) What I say (that you should leave) is the truth (not based on my or your emotions) (B) If something is the truth, then it must be follows. Therefore, (C) You must leave. In fact, both (B) and (C) are implicit, and (A) is vague, for Eric is not clear as to what part of what he says is the truth. Nevertheless, in the urgency of the moment, and given the atmosphere of the time, this argument seems to be effective.

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