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Irony
Definition of Logos
Logos, along with ethos and pathos, is one of the three "modes of persuasion" in rhetoric (the art of effective speaking or writing). Logos is an argument that appeals to... read full definition
Logos, along with ethos and pathos, is one of the three "modes of persuasion" in rhetoric (the art of effective speaking or writing). Logos is... read full definition
Logos, along with ethos and pathos, is one of the three "modes of persuasion" in rhetoric (the art of effective... read full definition
Key Examples in The Winter's Tale
Act 4, Scene 4
Explanation and Analysis—Flowers:
In Act 4, Scene 4, Perdita eschews "streaked gillyvors" because they are "nature's bastards"; that is, they are not naturally occurring and require human intervention to create. Perdita suggests that the production of these flowers entails "an art which in their piedness shares / With great creating nature." In other words, manipulating nature to create unnatural life forms such as the streaked gillyvor is like the sin of playing God. However, Polixenes responds that such artifice is not unnatural:
Yet nature is made better by no mean
But nature makes that mean.
So, over that art
Which you say adds to nature is an art
That nature makes. You see, sweet maid, we marry
A gentler scion to the wildest stock,
And make conceive a bark of baser kind
By bud of nobler race. This is an art
Which does mend nature, change it rather, but
The art itself is nature.
Related Themes:
Explanation and Analysis—Classical Transformations:
In Act 4, Scene 4, Perdita expresses her anxiety about the class difference between her and Florizell. She worries that they are both dressed inappropriately for their status: Florizell is dressed as a shepherd despite being a prince, while Perdita is dressed as a princess despite (supposedly) being a Shepherd's daughter. In response, Florizell alludes to figures from Greek and Roman mythology who disguise themselves to woo beautiful women:
Unlock with LitCharts A+The gods themselves,
Humbling their deities to love, have taken
The shapes of beasts upon them. Jupiter
Became a bull, and bellowed; the green Neptune
A ram, and bleated; and the fire-robed god,
Golden Apollo, a poor humble swain,
As I seem now.
Related Themes:
