This lecture considers the attractiveness of Satan’s character through his language—namely his rhetoric.

Rhetoric is a particular kind of public discourse. The Oxford English Dictionary defines “rhetoric” as:

"1.a.
The art of using language effectively so as to persuade or influence others, esp. the exploitation of figures of speech and other compositional techniques to this end; the study of principles and rules to be followed by a speaker or writer striving for eloquence, esp. as formulated by ancient Greek and Roman writers."

I want to suggest in this lecture that part of what makes Satan so alluring and so persuasive is his use of rhetorical scheme. In classical rhetoric, figures of speech are divided into two kinds: tropes and schemes. A trope plays with meaning. A pun, which involves is a double meaning, is a trope. Metaphor, similes, allegories are all tropes. They involve a change in signification.

Schemes play with the order and arrangement of words. We'll explore how Satan's rhetorical balancing act of language, the same act that gives his rhetoric the semblance of perfection and argumentative weight. We'll highlight some of Satan's antithetical imagery and antithesis, epanadiplosis, chiasmus, and antimetabole to find out how he uses his rhetoric to seduce.