Martyrdom and Rhetoric: A Classical Approach

In trying to prove a cause, one’s rhetoric is arguably more critical than the cause itself. As Aristotle put it, more than 2,000 years ago, “The modes of persuasion are the only true constituents of the art [of rhetoric]: everything else is merely accessory. […] The arousing of prejudice, pity, anger, and similar emotions has nothing to do with the essential facts, but is merely a personal appeal to the man who is judging the case” (Aristotle 1). What this implies is that countless texts, films, and speeches have been used as a tool for spreading awareness about a particular issue, bringing to light the larger implications of certain human activities. Taking a look at one film in particular, we can get a better sense of how rhetoric can be used to move audiences into a more conscious state regarding a cause, and how simple the task of playing upon what Aristotle called the ethos, pathos, and logos—ethics, emotions, and logic, respectively—of humankind can be. Alan Parker, in his 2003 film, “The Life of David Gale” uses rhetoric and an appeal to the ethos, pathos, and logos of his audience to shed light on the social injustice of capital punishment. The film also contains elements of structuralism and feminism, which we will be looking at as well. More striking than the film itself are the underlying issues surrounding the screenplay; characters and plot become agents which shift the way the audience feels about the death penalty, or causes them to look at it through a new lens.

According to Joy Connolly, “[…] We are all individual subjects, isolated bundles of sensation, imagination, memory, and desire. What shapes us a subjects from without, and enables us to reach out to other citizens from within, is language, the spoken word” (Connolly 2). We could juxtapose this statement to one made by David Gale in the film. He states, “No one who looks through that glass sees a person, they see a crime. I’m not David Gale. I’m a murderer and a rapist, four days shy of his execution” (The Life of David Gale). Looking again at the issue at hand, capital punishment, and our emotional ties to the character David Gale, we see a different kind of crime here. Rather than reports of some nameless murder in the news, we now rest on the intimate relationship with the accused, allowing us to view his situation in a different light. This plays not only on Connolly’s aforementioned statement, but also on Aristotle’s idea of Pathos; establishing an emotional footing with David Gale first allows the audience to look beyond the fact that he is being accused of murder later.

Looking at another scene in the movie, we can see rhetoric being used as an appeal to the logos of the viewer: that is, in an argumentative discourse, regarding the death penalty, between David Gale and the Governor of Texas. In his argument, Gale draws on logical appeal, providing stark facts and statistics to justify his opposition to capital punishment. In his address to the governor, he states, “Forty-Three people that you executed were represented by lawyers who were at one time disbarred or sanctioned” (The Life of David Gale). What this statement does is shed light on the inherent weakness of the judicial system, which is essentially the basis of his argument; the possibility of error in proving someone guilty of murder is intensified when we consider the weakness of the lawyers who represent those trials.

Looking now, beyond Aristotle’s tri-part model of rhetoric, we can use the previously mentioned movie clip to shed light on Plato’s Republic. As one of the earliest proponents of media censorship, Plato argues, “If we want our future guardians to believe that hating one another is the worst evil, they must not be told about the battles of giants or have them embroidered on robes, nor must they hear about the various other quarrels of gods and heroes with their kinsmen and friends” (Plato 17). Even now, we see relics of Plato’s political contributions in daily life, we see it here on the silver screen, as the debate between Gale and the Governor continues, and as Governor Hardin deflects Gale’s statement that the judicial system is flawed by making a statement to which he knows Gale cannot respond, “Name one innocent man that Texas has put to death during my tenure. […] Just give me a name, a man that you can prove was innocent, and I’ll call a moratorium” (The Life of David Gale). Not only does Governor Hardin fail to aknowledge the question, but he immediately changes the tone of the converstaion. This exchange between the two characters solidifies and makes modern Plato’s ancient discourse on censorship.

Shifting now to Aristotle’s Poetics, we can illuminate this film in another light. Looking at Aristotle’s description of tragedy, we find that the plight of David Gale engenders the fear, which Aristotle maintains is a chief constituent of a tragedy. He writes, “ […] the structure of a tragedy should be complex, not simple, and that it should represent actions capable of awakening fear and pity […]” (Aristotle 72). To understand what he means by fear, we must look at his discourse on rhetoric when he defines the conditions in which humans feel fear by saying, “If fear is associated with the expectation that something destructive will happen to us, plainly nobody will be afraid who believes nothing can happen to him; we shall not fear things that we believe cannot happen to us, nor people who we believe cannot inflict them upon us; nor shall we be afraid at times when we think ourselves safe from them. It follows therefore that fear is felt by those who believe something to be likely to happen to them, at the hands of particular persons, in a particular form, and at a particular time” (Aristotle 2). Taking both of these statements, we can make better sense of this film in terms of its tragic nature by looking at the similarities between what Aristotle deems “tragic” and what arouses fear in the viewer. Looking David Gale in terms of the American citizen, the college professor, the father, the husband, the colleague, and the friend, the audience finds a common ground with Gale upon which they can rest. This common ground makes it easy to identify with him, and as his life decays it instills in us the notion that everything he is going through could quite possibly happen to us, solidifying Aristotle’s claim that fear is felt by those who see it happening to them. But Aristotle also maintains that, “[…] change in fortune will be, not from misery to prosperity, but the reverse, from prosperity to misery, and it will be due, not to depravity, but to some great error of man [with a grand reputation]” (Aristotle 73). The demise of David Gale begins with his wife having an affair, continues with his being accused of rape, his loss of a job, his loss of a family, and his best friend being diagnosed with cancer. In every respect this film resembles Aristotle’s model of a tragedy until the very end. Upon the execution of David Gale, the story unravels further and we learn that upon having lost everything, Gale through the aid of a few other death penalty abolitionists, in fact, framed himself for the murder of a woman who actually committed suicide. His own execution was exactly what Gale was seeking; he wanted to preserve the last thing he had left, which was the cause for which he was fighting. One of the final lines from the film comes from a reporter who states, “The ultimate irony is that David Gale, a man who became an unwitting martyr, may achieve in death what he worked for, but could not accomplish in life” (The Life of David Gale). Earlier in the film, Gale stated, “You’re not here to save me, you’re here to save my son’s memory of me” (The Life of David Gale). This is exactly what happened; Gale did not want to be saved, he wanted the truth to come out after he was put to death. Not only does the ending of this film stand in contrast to Aristotle’s description of a tragedy, it seems to follow another model, in which the needs of every character are realized and reconciled.

To make for a more comprehensive assessment, we can try looking at this film beyond the filter of classical literary criticism. Taking the concept of structuralism into account, we see the deeper implications of “The Life of David Gale” and how they can apply to Ferdinand de Saussure’s model of semiology. In his “Course in General Linguistics,” he writes, “The linguistic sign unites, not a thing and a name, but a concept and a sound-image. The latter is not the material sound, a purely physical thing, but the psychological imprint of the sound, the impression that it makes on our senses” (Saussure 61). This idea is illustrated perfectly by the previously mentioned statement by Gale when he speaks of his son’s memory of him. Since we know, through Saussure’s work, that the sign is psychological we can understand the concept toward which David Gale is hinting. Gale wants to be proven innocent not just to support his cause, but also to make his son connect the word “father” to what he actually is, which is a loveing role model and caretaker. Otherwise, the only thing his son will see when he pictures the word father will be the psychological imprint of a rapist and a murderer.

Another example of this binary relationship between concept and sound-image can be found in two separate, but connected clips from the film. Early in the film, there is a scene in which Gale is putting his young son in bed. Here, his son requests pancakes, strawberries, maple syrup, whipped cream, and chocolate shavings for breakfast in the morning. Toward the end of the film, reporters who are covering his execution mention that as his final meal, Gale requested those exact things, which could be considered an allusion to Saussure’s notion that words are negative entities, unless they occur in the binary model; If Gale’s son had never requested that same breakfast earlier in the film, the request for that final meal would appear to be a request for just another meal. Saussure states, “The idea or phonic substance that a sign contains is of less importance than the other signs that surround it” (Saussure 70). He continues by saying, “[…] the pairing of a certain number of acoustical signs with as many cuts made from the mass of through that engenders a system of values; and this system serves as the effective link between the phonic and psychological elements within each sign” (Saussure 70). These ideas drive home the notion that is being illuminated by these parts from the film; audible are the phonemes that make up the words that are listed. However, what is more important is their psychological impact, which, for Gale, is homage; the last meal equals loyalty to his son.

Taking a step back, we look again at the classical model to shed light on one more concept, which is addressed in this screenplay. The film itself is shot as a series of flash backs, in which David Gale is retelling his story to journalist Bitsey Bloom, in a series of interviews. Before the first interview, Bitsey Bloom defends her position that she thinks David Gale is guilty by arguing, “Three different courts found him guilty” (The Life of David Gale). Later in the film, after speaking with Gale on three different occasions, that same reporter argues, “He didn’t do it” (The Life of David Gale). This shift in attitude from a person who, at first, was grounded in her belief illuminates another consequence of rhetoric, as Joy Connolly outlined in her discourse on the state of speech. She maintains, “Concerned as they are with interlocution, rhetorical texts shed light on the process by which language connects human beings within the community and effects change in the world. Eloquence is power: the power to convey ideas and information, to persuade, and to bring pleasure […]” (Connolly 2). Taking this statement, and juxtaposing it with the breakdown of Bitsey’s belief system, regarding Gale, allows us to see just how true the power of rhetoric actually is.

In addition to the rhetoric that addresses the issue of capital punishment, there is also an element in the film that illuminates the concept of feminism; if we look briefly, we can see how the film helps to break down the feminist paradigm, through Kate Winslet’s character, Bitsey Bloom. Sandra Gilbert and Susan Gubar, in their essay “Madwoman in the Attic” revisit this notion of the archetypal female character, and in speaking about one version of common female character, the woman in the shape of a monster, they contend, “[…] they incarnate male dread of women and, specifically, male scorn of female creativity, such characters have drastically affected the self-images of women writers, negatively reinforcing those messages of submissiveness […]” (Gilbert 820). Looking again at the character, Bitsey Bloom, we find no traces of the aforementioned female archetype. And although there is a male intern at Bitsey’s side throughout the film, Bitsey’s character can be considered strong enough to stand on its own.

Looking again at our model, we see that in general, the cause itself is not nearly as effective as the discourse used to promote it. Borrowing from Aristotle, we could say that, “Rhetoric is the counterpart of dialect” (Aristotle 1). What we argue sometimes needs to be combined with what we practice, and there are times when we must practice it indefinitely. In the end, when all other discourse has failed in arguing a case, it is true martyrdom that prevails. Sometimes the tool of rhetoric includes dying for a cause, as it was in the case of David Gale. To quote two different characters from the film, “Almost martyrs don’t count” (The Life of David Gale).



Works Cited
Aristotle. “Poetics.” Classical Literary Criticism. Trans. T.S. Dorsch and Penelope Murray. London: Penguin Books, 2004. 57-97.
Aristotle. “The Art of Rhetoric.” Trans. Hugh Lawson-Tancred. London: Penguin Books, 1992.
Connolly, Joy. “The State of Speech: Rhetoric and Political Thought in Ancient Rome.” Princeton University Press. Princeton, NJ, 2007.
Crewell, Dustin, Melissa Draper, and Colin Mitchell. "The Art of Rhetoric: Ethos, Logos, and Pathos." Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI) :: Architecture, Business, Engineering, IT, Humanities, Science. Web. 18 Aug. 2009. http://www.rpi.edu/dept/llc/webclass/web/project1/group4/index.html.
Gilbert, Sandra and Gubar, Susan. “Literary Theory: An Anthology.” Eds. Julie Rivkin and Michael Ryan. Blackwell Publishing. Maldon, Ma, 2004. (812-824).
Plato. “Republic.” Classical Literary Criticism. Trans. T.S. Dorsch and Penelope Murray. London: Penguin Books, 2004. (15-56).
Saussure, Ferdinand de. "Literary Theory: An Anthology." Eds. Julie Rivkin and Michael Ryan. Blackwell Publishing. Maldon, Ma, 2004. (59-71).
The Life of David Gale. Dir. Alan Parker. Perf. Kevin Spacey and Kate Winslet. Universal, 2003. DVD.