Lecture on Ethos
for
English 399: Rhetoric of Religion, Mary Baker Eddy
Instructor: Karen D. Austin kaustin@shepherd.edu
Shepherdstown, WV 25443
Ethos Means Reputation. Ethos is a Greek word meaning personality, self, character--and probably most precisely reputation. In rhetoric, ethos has more to do with public image than with a private, platonic (meaning transcendent, not asexual) self. Ethos emphasizes the public because the private cannot be accessed by a reader / audience unless made public in some way. In other words, a person's ethos is created through language and action rather than pre-existing before time, place, and action. Put yet another way, what a person says and does and how an audience interprets that language and action creates a person's ethos.
Writers Create an Ethos to Fit their Aims. When a rhetorician writes, he or she asks, "How can I create a self through language that will most effectively achieve the aims of my discourse?" To put this a more pedestrian setting, consider how you send different kinds of email to different kinds of people, promoting a different self in the same day, in the same room, at the same computer:
1. You may write your parents and email, highlighting your incredible work ethic and your extreme poverty, hoping that they will send you more money that month.
2. You may write your high school best friend, pointing out all the fun you are having at college: all then great dates you've been on, all the campus activities you've attended, and all the day trips you've made to DC and Baltimore.
3. You may write a love interest who is in active duty in the military, emphasizing how physically fit you are, how chaste you are being, and how eager you are for your next meeting.
4. You may write a professor, asking for advice on a paper, talking only about the homework you have been doing for him or her and never mentioning all the extra-curricular commitments you have.
Even though the ethoi (plural of ethos) you create in various email messages contradict in large or small ways, rhetoricians would say that each is valid because they serve to promote the message of each text: 1) Send me money! 2) Envy me for choosing this party school 3) Don't sleep with anyone else; I'm not! 4) Please give me hints on what will give me an A on this paper. For each message, the ethos is appropriate to the message. Consider how funny it would be if the ethos/reputation and the message didn't match. For example, would your professor give you extra help on a paper if you explained how physically fit, chaste, and full of longing you were. Probably not!
Ethos Depends on Context. Rhetoricians understand how incredibly contexual ethos is. For this reason, clothing and make up serve as good metaphors for the creation of a person's ethos. When people want to make a specific impression to a specific audience, they have to dress the part. When a person goes to a formal event, he should wear a tuxedo. When a person goes to the beach, she should wear a bathing suit. When people go to job interviews, their shoes should match. Of course, breaking convention can also send a message to the audience. If a woman wore a tuxedo to the Oscars, she is making a statement about gender roles. If a man wore a bathing suit to class, he might be criticizing school for being overly formal or telling the teacher that recreation is more important to him than academics. If a person wore mismatched shoes to a job interview, they are creating an ethos of carelessness, unless the job in question is a position as a clown, then breaking convention is part of a clown's job description.
Language is similarly contextual. For example, if a speaker or writer is addressing an academic audience, they usually adopt the specific jargon and schema of that profession -- unless they want to shock, mock or shrug off the experts. A person can develop an ethos that is compliant with the authority figures of their audience members, or they can challenge authority.
Included and Excluded Details Form a Writer's Ethos. A writer (or speaker) will choose details and leave out details regarding their topic, depending on the ethos they wish to form. They can do this subconsciously as well as consciously, indicating their values, their educational level, their desires, etc. For example, consider these sample texts, which are various hypothetical journal entries for one woman for one day in her life. When she sits down to write a journal entry, she has to choose among a million things that happened during that one day. Notice what she includes, what she excludes, and how each journal entry creates a different ethos -- whether she's doing it consciously or subconsciously.
Journal Entry #1. Last night I didn't get much sleep, so I was fatigued as soon as I got out of bed. I did yoga for only 10 minutes of my usual 30 minute routine. I skipped breakfast. I had rapid breathing all morning about my split ends while I sat in a chair looking in the mirror at my emerging crow's feet. I wore an outfit that constricted my breathing all afternoon, and I was on my feet -- except for a couple of limousine rides -- from 2 pm to 11 pm. The only thing I had to eat was cake, and all I had to drink was champagne. This was too much sucrose for me because I usually have a low-sugar, low-fat, high complex carbohydrate, high protein diet. Why didn't I bring a protein bar with me? What was I thinking? Oh, my dress didn't have any pockets, and I wasn't carrying a purse. In the late evening while I was dancing, I was really dizzy, but I forced myself to wear a smile and carry on. I didn't want people to think I was too out of shape to dance all night.
This person defines herself by health and fitness. Everything is about exercise and nutrition of the body.
Journal Entry #2. I got to ride in a really expensive limousine. I went to the most fashionable hair salon in my county, and the owner himself did my hair. My sorority sister gave me a tip on the most elegant Vera Wang gown. I had the chance to eat the most delicious catered food (from Wolfgang Puck's restaurant). However, I had to talk to so many important guests, all I had was cake (five tiers with fresh flowers on it) and champagne (very expensive). I got to talk to a congressman, a vice-president of MicroSoft, and the National Junior League President. Just when I thought things couldn't get better, Brad Pitt and Jennifer Aniston (who know my dad, an investor in Hollywood films) came by at the end of the evening with a little blue Tiffany's box for me and Jeff. This was definitely the best day of my life.
This person defines herself by status--both fame and money.
Journal Entry #3. Jeff wanted me to look my best, so he booked an appointment for me to get my hair done this morning. I had to skip breakfast, but Jeff thinks my thighs are getting a bit too big, anyway. Jeff's fraternity brothers arranged a very nice limousine service for us, and they stocked the mini-bar with Jeff's favorite Scotch. I told Jeff how handsome he looked as we drove from his parents' church to his parents' country club. Jeff introduced me to a number of his high school friends and college roommates. I think I met four of his old girlfriends, but I'm not sure. They all were my same height, weight and hair color, so I was suspicious. Jeff is taking me to Italy tomorrow, which is his favorite country. He said we might go to Ireland (my favorite country) for our fifth anniversary, but it depends on whether he can take time off work then.
This person is defined by her love interest.
Journal Entry #4. I felt as though I was a character in a Fitzgerald novel, I was surrounded by so many beautiful people today. My mother, however, was the perfect portrait of Mrs. Bennett, Jane Austen's annoying busy body. My father's speech was so elliptical, talking to him was like reading James Joyce's Ulysses. My brother played the role of Ernest Hemingway, talking about things he's killed, places he's explored, and women he's conquered. Jeff, who is usually more quiet and occasionally pithy as Alexander Pope would be in this situation, actually acted more like Thurbur's main character in "Catbird Seat." I, however, was the perfect May from The Age of Innocence, ignoring all slights and graciously smiling throughout the day.
This person is judgmental, self-righteous, and very pedantic.
Now that you've read these four journal entry, consider that the same bride on her wedding day had all of these events happen to her, but she creates an ethos through language in the way she includes and excludes these details when she creates one journal entry about the day.
When you read a text, ask yourself questions of ethos. What does the text tell you about the person's values? About their biography? About their formal or informal education? About their environment and how they relate to it? About their peer groups? About their self-image? About their emotions? About their views of their readers? About their passions, goals, desires, aims? About their world view? Look at word choice, sentence structure, what is included, what is excluded, what is emphasized, what is down played, what appeals they make to the reader, etc.