Address & Argument
Rhetorical Question
A question asked for effect, with the answer assumed rather than sought. The reader supplies the answer — and, having supplied it, half believes it.
"Hath not a Jew eyes?" — The Merchant of Venice
Don't confuse it with Aporia. Hypophora asks and then *answers its own* question; aporia performs genuine (or staged) doubt.
In the Reader — 7 excerpts
O Romeo, Romeo, wherefore art thou Romeo?
Hath not a Jew eyes? Hath not a Jew hands, organs, dimensions, senses, affections, passions? If you prick us, do we not bleed? If you tickle us, do we not …
What immortal hand or eye,
How do I love thee? Let me count the ways.
And so I leave it with all of you: Which came out of the opened door—the lady, or the tiger?
And the time? The time matters, too.
Night falls. Or has fallen. Why is it that night falls, instead of rising, like the dawn? Yet if you look east, at sunset, you can see night rising, not falling; darkness lifting into the sky, up from the horizon.
Travels with
Devices that share a passage with rhetorical question most often — company reveals character.
Anaphora 4 Antithesis 3 Apostrophe 3
The rest of the family
Apostrophe Invocation Aphorism Enthymeme Correctio / Epanorthosis Parrhesia Metabasis Amplificatio Aporia Enargeia / Vivid Specificity