True Mimesis

I find that I have developed a distaste for much of the new, popular shows and movies. Often I find that the media gains a lot of hype for it's special effects and famous actors, then when it premiers it fails to impress me (and others) with underdeveloped writing, plot holes and bad acting. And when it comes to acting, one of my biggest pet peeves is something that I call the sexy cry

A sexy cry is a scene when a female character is put into a grieving situation and cries only mildly as to maintain the beauty or gentleness of the role they are portraying. Nearly all female roles in today's media carry out this unrealistic form of acting. It is perhaps more visually appealing, but the audience gains no empathy with the person facing the trauma. The overall effect is hindered.

But in Hecuba, Euripides knows how to appeal to logic through emotion. Hecuba herself brims with sadness, none of which is honestly unrealistic. You can feel her heart-wrenching pain. And when she cries, it isn't some quiet pathetic sob. No, this is true sadness - the kind that makes you a twinge of guilt and embarrassment for willingly observing someone literally break down. She doesn't hide it because it's not meant to be attractive! You feel her pain. That is more than you ever see in current media. That is Mimesis.

It doesn't even end there. Every character gives off such outspoken yet honest feelings that you can't help but agree with their pleads and causes, even if you disagree. Hecuba may not be able to convince Odysseus to let her daughter live, but she gives off not only reason but emotional appeal as well, until your heart strains with woe as Odysseus denies her any peace from her misery, or in her implore to Agamemnon demanding revenge, where you know that she has been driven to madness and yet you have sympathy for her. That is power and that brings out more rhetoric than just a pretty face ever will.

In the Arms of the Angels

After I saw Hecuba, I started thinking about Sarah McLachlan dog videos (for some strange reason.)  Sarah McLachlan uses rhetoric; Euripides, mimesis (or acting).  Both McLachlan and Euripides attempt to convince the audience of something through emotion.  What is most interesting is the comparison between the use of pathos in mimesis and rhetoric.
            Both mimesis’s and rhetoric’s application of pathos can occasionally be ineffective.  In Hecuba, the audience is moved to feel sadness, loss, and emptiness through Hecuba’s wailing cries and her actions.  Likewise, rhetoric pulls on the heartstrings through jarring stories and experiences.  Occasionally, the logos’ attempts to pull on emotions are overdone.  I sometimes became a tad disconcerted with Hecuba’s cries and was tempted to emit an awkward laugh rather than sympathize with Hecuba’s condition.  This probably was due to the fact that I do not live in ancient Greece and the hyperbole of sadness was a little too much more for me.  The kairos was a little off.  Likewise, in some rhetorical situations, the pathos can become almost too much, like in Sarah McLachlan’s speech about dog cruelty.  I always just turn off the TV.  Sometimes, you just don’t want to empathize.  

Hecuba's sadness creates an usually
effective emotional appeal for the
audience.

However, done correctly and with the right implementation of kairos, both mimesis and rhetoric can effectively persuade your emotions.  Though Hecuba commits a terrible murder of two innocent children, we are emotionally persuaded by her own sorrows that revenge not a bad thing.  We support Hecuba, not condemn her.  Likewise, in McLachlan’s emotional speech about the animals that need us, she convinces us that “just 60 cents a day” can help animals in need even though we know deep down that animal abuse cannot be stopped easily.  Clearly, though mimesis and rhetoric are both logos, they both employ pathos to create effect.