Pathos, in rhetorical terms, is an appeal to our audiences’ emotions and imagination. It is about creating the right emotional environment for our listeners to receive our message the way we intend them to do so. But it is far more than a simple appeal to their emotions; it helps them to identify with the message, and also helps us to communicate our credibility. It is not enough to have the audience emotional respond to our message; we need to help them identify with it, and it is through this identification process that persuasion can take place.
This emotional appeal can be achieved through stories and the use of such rhetorical devices as metaphors where our values and beliefs are implicit and conveyed imaginatively to our audiences.
Another vehicle of pathos is the use of non-verbal language as a means of communication. Such non-verbal dimensions as tonality of voice, suitable body language and using the right physical setting can also help our audience identify with our message.
Pathos, non-verbal communication, and your audience
There is a story told about the second debate that Bill Clinton had with President George Bush Sr. in the presidential campaign back in 1992. A woman in the audience asked both candidates a question, “How has the national debt affected your lives? And if it hasn’t, how can you honestly find a cure for the economic problems of common people if you have no experience in what’s ailing them?”
President Bush was in the unenviable position of having to answer first. “I’m sure it has,” he said, sitting on his stool in the middle of the stage. “I love my grandchildren. I am not sure I get the question …well, listen, you oughta be in the White House for a day and hear what I hear …” He struggled but never answered.
Finally it was Clinton’s turn. He got down from his stool, walked towards the woman, and said, “Tell me – how it has affected you again?” she talked, and for every problem she raised, he responded with a question for himself to answer. He answered his own questions. He phrased his answers, not in big global terms, but in the language and experience of the woman, and of the millions of ordinary Americans who were watching. He supported these answers with different aspects of his own economic plan. It was his great success. Why?
- He made it personal
- He involved the woman who asked the question and the greater audience
- He asked the questions himself from what she told him and the audience and he answered them in her context.
- He talked with her and not at her.
- He engaged her as a partner (two way communication process)
Examples of ‘Pathos’ type speeches
Speech 1
Gettysburg Address
Our first speech is Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address. This speech took about three and half to four minutes only and consisted of 276 words. This, one of the great speeches of all time, took place at the national cemetery at Gettysburg, Pennsylvania on November 19, 1863. When Lincoln rose to make the speech commemorating the three-day Battle of Gettysburg, he was very conscious of the special circumstances of the event. Lincoln was speaking after the chief speaker, Edward Everett, a former President of Harvard and Governor of Massachusetts, Senator and Secretary of State. This man was renowned for his long speeches, so Lincoln had to be brief and to the point. There could be no stories from the past, no promises, no explanations.
- Lincoln briefly introduced his audience to his theme by laying down the principle behind the war.
Fourscore-and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.
- Lincoln wasn’t ready to turn Gettysburg into a national monument until the war was over.
But, in a larger sense, we can not dedicate – we can not consecrate – we can not hallow – this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who have struggled here, have consecrated it, far above our poor power to add or detract.
- There could be no stories from the past, no promises, no explanations, as the war had to be continued.
The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here. It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us – that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion – that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain – that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom – and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.
- Both sides had suffered from deaths alongside casualties; about 7,000 deaths and over 51,000 casualties. These were sizeable numbers, and people were tired and wanted the war to be brought to a close. Although General Lee’s army (Confederates) had suffered a significant defeat, the war was not over. This meant that his speech had to persuade those present (estimated at 18,000 people) that the war had to continue to its final conclusion. The principal focus, therefore, was not on dedicating a portion of the battlefield as a National Soldiers’ Cemetery, but to show the audience that it was worth continuing the war. In doing this, they were honouring the dead.
Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation, or any nation so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure. We are met on a great battle-field of that war. We have come to dedicate a portion of that field, as a final resting place for those who here gave their lives that that nation might live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this.
- The style in both of these speeches in many ways follows Pericles’ style. For example, look at the following few sentences taken from another part of the Funeral Oration.
“Our city is thrown open to the world; we never expel a foreigner… We are free to live exactly as we please, and yet, we are always ready to face any danger … We love beauty without indulging in fancies, and although we try to improve our intellect, this does not weaken our will…”
Speech 2
Dipesh Patel (LBS Exchange Student) : Pathos Speech
Situation:
I am giving a speech to honour the life of a special person who I admired greatly but who sadly passed away on September 5, 1997.
Today we are gathered to pay tribute to one of the greatest saints of our time…She was by blood an Albanian, by citizenship an Indian and by faith a Catholic nun…However, she belonged to the whole world…Small of stature but rocklike in faith, Mother Teresa of Calcutta was entrusted with the mission of proclaiming God’s love for humanity… especially for the poorest of the poor.
First and foremost, Mother Teresa was a missionary of humanity…In 1948, she came across a half-dead woman lying in front of a Calcutta hospital…She stayed with the woman until she died…From that point on, she dedicated the majority of her life to helping the poorest of the poor in India, thus gaining her the name “Saint of the Gutters.”
Mother Teresa was also a missionary of peace…She was a missionary with a universal language…the language of love that knows no bounds or exclusion and has no preferences other than for the most forsaken in society…Mother Teresa proclaimed the Gospel to the entire world, not just by preaching but by her daily acts of love towards the poorest of the poor…That devotion won her respect throughout the world and in 1979 she was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.
Mother Teresa was also a missionary of life…She always spoke out in defense of human life, even when her message was unwelcome…Mother Teresa’s whole existence was a hymn to life…Her daily encounters with death, leprosy, AIDS and every kind of human suffering made her a forceful witness to the Gospel of life… She didn’t just feed the poor, shelter them nor cleaned their wounds, but what is more important she made them feel good, loved and wanted…She gave them back their dignity…the dignity that poverty had taken away from them…and even if they died they died with a smile on their face knowing that…. somebody cared for them somebody loved them.
A missionary of humanity, a missionary of peace, a missionary of life… Mother Teresa was all of these…Today more than ever, Mother Teresa’s message of humanity, peace and life is an invitation addressed to us all…I would like to end with her words, the words of a truly compassionate missionary…“It is not how much we do, but how much love we put in the doing….It is not how much we give, but how much love we put in the giving.”
Thank you.