Othello Rhetorical Devices

In "Othello" act I, scene 3, Othello persuades the Venetians that he is not a threat. He tells them of his wife and how they fell in love with each other. Othello uses several rhetorical devices to persuade the Venetians, these being appeal to emotion, appeal to ethics, and appeal to logic. In the piece, Othello did everything he could to convince the Venetians he was a good man.

Using pathos, Othello told the Venetians that Desdemona's father, Brabantio, was very fond of him and would invite Othello over often so that he may hear about Othello's life from the time he was a boy until the present day. Desdemona would listen to Othello's stories and if she had chores to do, she would do them quickly so that she could hear the rest of his story. She fell in love with Othello, listening to his stories because of how sad, but strangely beautiful they were. In these lines, Othello is using pathos to get the Venetians to take anything he says to heart, such as the way Desdemona found his stories sorrowful.

She chooses to stay loyal to him rather than to her father, Brabantio. If the Venetians thought that Othello was a threat to them, or even to Desdemona, they could not think that way now. Desdemona is here, taking Othello's side and defending him. She could have taken her father's side, but her loyalty to Othello was too