Sublimity in persuasion

The following is an essay I wrote for my Rhetoric class.

“Genius, it is said, is born and does not come of teaching”.(On the Sublime, Ch.2) It essentially comes from nature, not art. But nature is both improved and checked by art, “for genius needs the curb as often as the spur.” (Ch.2) Genius unchecked strays into superfluous grandeur, and unspurred fails to move us. Sublimity walks hand in hand with subtlety. The audience should not be conscious that they are being influenced, and should feel as if they are thinking along with the orator. “The true sublime naturally elevates us: uplifted with a sense of proud exaltation, we are filled with joy and pride, as if we ourselves had produced the very thing we heard” (Ch.7) What Longinus terms as sublimity is what the orator ultimately aims at. Rhetoric is the art of creating the circumstances conducive to persuasion, clearing the obstructions, literary goo gone, if you will. Persuasion happens most easily when the audience aren’t caught up with personal prejudices, and when it feels that the thoughts of the speaker are their own. “The effect of genius is not to persuade the audience, but to transport them out of themselves”. (Ch.1) The Orator should appeal to the whole man, the intellect, emotions, and soul of the auditor. The audience will truly be transported out of themselves, if they are transported into themselves. The golden rule for composing speeches is “know your audience”, and to be sublime is to make them know their selves also. When presented with themselves they can then think for themselves, and thus persuasion is possible.

A great example of Sublimity is Dostoevsky’s Brothers Karamazov. He creates characters so like us, that we think alongside them, and we feel we think for them. He transports you out of yourself, and only then you can you look back and see yourself, and be transformed.