PART VI. ARGUMENTATION, PERSUASION, NARRATION, DESCRIPTION, AND EXPOSITION COMBINED CHAPTER XVI. THE DEBATE, THE ORATION, THE DRAMA 265. Argumentation. The following discussion of Argumentation and Persuasion is not so complete as that of the three kinds of discourse previously considered. The treatment is mainly intended to enable the student to recognize these types of composition when he meets them in literature, and is especially designed to aid in the analysis of The Merchant of Venice, for which an outline is given in sections 291-297. 266. The Colloquial Origin of Argumentation. Argumentation, like all the other forms of writing, arises out of social life and social needs. Just as narration and description take their origin out of the need of conveying our experiences to others, so argumentation begins when we express our opinions and try to induce others to accept them. But the probabilities are that the persons to whom we are talking have opinions also, and it often ( 365 ) happens that these opinions are different from ours, and so in conversation we often argue. Hence arises Argumentation which has two aspects: first, direct proof, that in which a speaker presents his own views; and, secondly, refutation, that in which he answers the objections or undermines the position of his opponent. The literary form of argument which is nearest the conversational form is debate, the only difference being that in the debate each speaker presents his whole case in an orderly manner, without being interrupted by the other, whereas in a dialogue he must meet his opponent's objections at every step. The following is an example of Argumentation in dialogue: Urbs: "You must find it very annoying to be tied to exact hours of trains and boats," says Urbs to Rus, "and it is not the pleasantest thing in the world to be obliged to pick your way through the river streets to the ferry, or wait at stations. However, you probably calculated the waste of time and the trouble before you decided to live in Frogtown." Rus: "Every choice has its conveniences, undoubtedly, but I concluded that I preferred fresh air for my children to the atmosphere of sewers and gas factories, and I have a prejudice for breakfasting by sunlight rather than by gas. Then my wife enjoys the singing of birds in the morning more than the cry of the milkman, and the silence at night secures a sweeter sleep than the rattle of the horse-cars. It is true that we have no brick block opposite, and no windows of houses behind commanding our But to set off such deprivations there are pleasant hills and wooded slopes and gardens. They are not sidewalks, to be sure, but they satisfy us." Urbs: "Yes, yes; I see," says Urbs. "We are more to be pitied than I thought. If we must go out in the evening, we don't have the advantage of stumbling over hummocks, and sinking in the mud or dust in the dark; we can only go dry-shod upon clean flagging abundantly lighted. Then we have nothing but Thomas's orchestra and the opera and the bright little theater to console us for the loss of the frog and tree-toad concert and the tent-circus. Instead of plodding everywhere upon our own feet, which is so pleasant after running round upon them all day in town, we have nothing but cars and stages at hand to carry us to our own doors. I see clearly there are great disadvantages in city life. If a friend and his wife drop in suddenly in the evening or to dine, it is monstrously inconvenient to have an oyster shop round the corner whence to improvise a supper or a dinner. It would be much better to have nothing but the village grocery a mile or two away. The advantages are conspicuous. I wonder the entire population of the city doesn't go out to live in Frogtown." – George WilliaM CURTIS, Essays from the Easy Chair. SUGGESTIONS. For what kind of life is each speaker arguing? How does each answer objections to the other's position? Tennyson's The Two Voices and Plato's Dialogues contain examples of argumentation in dialogue. 267. Formal Argumentation. Formal argumentation grows very naturally out of that used in conversation, as the following example will show. This example may be turned into a dialogue between Macaulay and his opponents on the question whether or not the regicides were justified in putting Charles I. to death. The advocates of Charles, like the advocates of other malefactors against whom overwhelming evidence is produced, generally decline all controversy about the facts, and content themselves with calling testimony to character. We charge him with having broken. his coronation oath; and we are told that he kept his marriage vow! We accuse him of having given up his people to the merciless inflictions of the most hotheaded and hard-hearted of prelates; and the defense is, that he took his little son on his knee and kissed him! We censure him for having violated the articles of the Petition of Right, after having, for good and valuable consideration, promised to observe them; and we are informed that he was accustomed to hear prayers at six o'clock in the morning! It is to such considerations as these, together with his Vandyke dress, his handsome face, and his peaked beard, that he owes, we verily believe, most of his popularity with the present generation. - THOMAS BABINGTON MACAULAY, Essay on Milton. This example resembles conversation in the order in which the arguments are presented. In conversation we have direct proof, refutation; direct proof, refutation; and so on. In this quotation, too, the opposing views are presented in sentences, and not in definitely organized paragraphs or series of paragraphs. 268. Direct Proof and Refutation. The next step which we may take in the development of an argumentative theme is to gather all our opponent has to say into one paragraph, and all we have to say in disproof of his position into another paragraph. The following is an example of this method: The enemies of the Parliament, indeed, rarely choose to take issue on the great points of the question. They content themselves with exposing some of the crimes and follies to which public commotions necessarily give birth. They bewail the unmerited fate of Strafford. They execrate the lawless violence of the army. They laugh at the scriptural names of the preachers. Majorgenerals fleecing their districts; soldiers reveling on the spoils of a ruined peasantry; upstarts, enriched by the public plunder, taking possession of the hospitable firesides and hereditary trees of the old gentry; boys smashing the beautiful windows of cathedrals; Quakers riding naked through the market-place; fifth-monarchymen shouting for King Jesus; agitators lecturing from the tops of tubs on the fate of Agag; all these, they tell us, were the offspring of the Great Rebellion. Be it so. We are not careful to answer in this matter. These charges, were they infinitely more important, would not alter our opinion of an event which alone has made us to differ from the slaves who crouch beneath despotic scepters. Many evils, no doubt, were produced by the civil war. They were the price of our liberty. Has the acquisition been worth the sacrifice? It is the nature of the Devil of tyranny to tear and rend the body which he leaves. Are the miseries of continued possession less horrible than the struggles of the tremendous exorcism? - THOMAS BABINGTON MACAULAY, Essay on Milton. SUGGESTIONS.-Prove that the first paragraph deals with direct proof; the second with refutation. Is the refutation made by denial or explanation? Can you find an example of the use of analogy in the refutation? 269. Types of the Argumentative Paragraph. Argumentative paragraphs are of the same types as the expository; that is, the coördinate, the subordinate, the mixed, and the one-sentence types. The only difference in organization between the expository and the argumentative paragraph is that in the latter there is a cementing word expressed or implied which unites the proofs to the proposition which they establish. This is the word for or some of its synonyms - because, as, since. 270. Argumentative Paragraph-type I. The following outline of a portion of Burke's speech on Conciliation with America illustrates the paragraph in which the various proofs are in coördinate relation to one another: |