Jonathan P. Lamb's Courses

Short Rhetorical Analysis #1
Find a Shakespearean Quotation

For this first Short Rhetorical Analysis, you will seek out and briefly analyze a quotation of Shakespeare somewhere in public discourse. Think of this assignment as an intermittent step to Essay 1, in which you will analyze a quotation more extensively. The analysis should be no more than one page, double-spaced, with 12-point, Times New Roman font and one-inch margins all around. Please provide a copy, URL, or brief description of the context in which the quotation occurs (we’ll discuss this in class).

It (the quote itself)
Remember that “public discourse” here means only that one person says or writes something and at least one other person hears or reads it or is intended to hear or read it. The quotation could thus appear in almost any situation: a political speech, a bumper sticker, an advertisement, a conversation, a tattoo, a movie or TV show, a novel, a popular song, someone’s Myspace page, and so on. Your task is to analyze what the quotation is doing rhetorically and how and why it’s doing it.

The speaker of the quotation doesn’t have to know s/he is quoting Shakespeare. (Discerning whether the speaker knows the words are Shakespeare’s or whether s/he is simply repeating cliché may be a major task in your analysis.) Furthermore, the quotation need not be exact. Again, how the speaker has altered the words for his/her rhetorical needs may make up a significant part of your analysis.

Him (Shakespeare)
You should read through famous Shakespearean lines to get a feeling for how often we quote the playwright. Many resources are available: you might simply Google “famous Shakespeare quotations” or visit Rhymezone's list.

Unfortunately, there is no database of quotations of Shakespeare in public discourse, so the most difficult part of this assignment consists of finding a quotation. Use your Internet research skills to search in various media (e.g., “Shakespeare quotations in commercials” is a better Google search than “Shakespeare advertisements”); use specific quotations to aid your search (e.g., “to be or not to be political speech” might be a fruitful search string); and consult with your classmates and instructor.

Why (the analysis)
Once you’ve found a quotation of Shakespeare, write a brief analysis that begins to answer some of the following questions:
- What is the quotation trying to persuade its audience of?
o How does the quotation fit with the other parts of the main text to persuade?
o Does the author/creator/speaker of the quotation know s/he is quoting Shakespeare? How does that matter?
o What is the benefit to the author/creator/speaker of quoting Shakespeare?
- How is the quotation persuading?
o What effect is the quote supposed to have on its audience?
o How is the cultural authority of Shakespeare being tapped (or not)?
o Does the quotation indicate some implicit chain of reasoning?
- Why is the quotation persuading?
o Why did the speaker/author/creator choose this quotation?
o What does s/he assume (or not) about his/her audience?
o What is the status of Shakespeare in the text in question?