Mini Analysis 1

"Survival of the Un-fittest": Aristotlean Logos, Ethos, and Pathos in Michael Douglas' speech arguing that "Greed Is Good"

In the clip above, Michael Douglas' deceptively brilliant character, Gordon Gekko, rebuttals his own defamation as a harmful influence on the Teldar Company. We can see the power of his speech in the way he incorporates Aristotle's three rhetorical appeals; Ethos (appeal to credibility), Logos (appeal to logic), and, perhaps most importantly, Pathos (appeal to emotion). In his speech, Gekko first establishes his ethos when he says that he is "the single largest shareholder" of Teldar, and later appeals to his audience with his credibility again when he boasts of the economic prowess Teldar has enjoyed "Since [he has] been" the largest shareholder of the company. After he establishes why the audience should trust him, let alone continue to listen to him, Gekko establishes a Logos approach; he spits out a plethora of numerical figures to boost his Ethos, while simultaneously erecting a sound Logos; he does this explicitly when he says, "Teldar paper has 33 Vice Presidents--each earning over 200 thousand dollars a year. Now I have spent the last few months analyzing what these guys do and I still can't figure it out". To hammer his point home and elevate his audience's interest and conviction in his case, Gekko offers his way of doing things while shaming the board that has attempted to defame his credibility; he offers, "In my book, you either do it right or you get eliminated" before he tactfully and plainly incorporates his Pathos. Gekko's appeal to the audience's emotion is couched in his Ethos first, and is supported by his intermittent and factual evidence, examples of Logos. He does this with subtlety and affirmation when he uses Democracy to strengthen his Pathos: he says to the audience, "you own the company. That's right, you, the stockholder". In addition, Gekko addresses his own criticisms and flips them on his head in braiding Pathos, and Logos together after he has skillfully incorporated an effective Ethos--"I am not a destroyer of companies; I am a liberator of them!" When Gekko finally has the audience where he wants them, hanging on to his every word and becoming more convinced as he speaks more, he uses Logos and Pathos to realistically address the larger problem of the United States in likening the country to a corporation in itself--he finishes with the line, "Greed will not only save Teldar Paper but that other malfunctioning corporation called the U.S.A." The power and poignancy of Gekko's argument lies in how he weaves Ethos, Logos and Pathos together.

Works Cited

Classical Literary Criticism. Trans. T.S. Dorsch and Penelope Murray. London: Penguin Books, 2004. 

 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5JZp215Bgyk