Hypophora can be thought of as an extension of erotema. Erotema does not call for an answer. However, with hypophora, the speaker directly answers the question.
Prolepsis (pronounced as pro-lep-ses) is a device that is similar to hypophora. However, with prolepsis, the speaker predicts objections even before they are asked and proceeds to answer them. In this article, I discuss what hypophora is and I give several examples, including from speeches by the famous character, Shylock from Shakespeare's The Merchant of Venice.
What is hypophora?
Hypophora is a rhetorical device that occurs when the speaker asks a question and proceeds to answer it. It is pronounced as high-poff-uh-ruh. A good example of hypophora is Shylock's speech in The Merchant of Venice. In this dialogue, Shylock is defending his decision to extract a pound of flesh from as the price of Antonio being unable to pay his debt to Shylock:
The Merchant of Venice, Act III, Scene I:
Salarino:
Why, I am sure, if he forfeit, thou wilt not take
his flesh: what's that good for?
Shylock:
To bait fish withal: if it will feed nothing else,
it will feed my revenge. He hath disgraced me, and
hindered me half a million; laughed at my losses,
mocked at my gains, scorned my nation, thwarted my
bargains, cooled my friends, heated mine
enemies; and what's his reason? I am a Jew. Hath
not a Jew eyes? hath not a Jew hands, organs,
dimensions, senses, affections, passions? fed with
the same food, hurt with the same weapons, subject
to the same diseases, healed by the same means,
warmed and cooled by the same winter and summer, as
a Christian is? If you prick us, do we not bleed?
if you tickle us, do we not laugh? if you poison
us, do we not die? and if you wrong us, shall we not
revenge? If we are like you in the rest, we will
resemble you in that. If a Jew wrong a Christian,
what is his humility? Revenge. If a Christian
wrong a Jew, what should his sufferance be by
Christian example? Why, revenge. The villany you
teach me, I will execute, and it shall go hard but I
will better the instruction.
Shylock is answering the question of what would he ever do with the pound of flesh that he demands as payment from Antonio, who has defaulted on his debt. Why is he so harsh? This deserves more background. Shylock's daughter has gone missing just before this scene. She was seduced by and eloped with Lorenzo, a friend or accomplice of Antonio, the man he had lent money to. Shylock is justifiably angry and vengeful.
Shylock, as evidenced in his speech, is also a Jew, who has faced much abuse from Antonio. The passage has a mixture of erotema and hypophora. The phrase “. . . and what's his reason? I am a Jew” is a clear case of hypophora. The questions that follow are mostly erotema. For example:
. . .Hath
not a Jew eyes? hath not a Jew hands, organs,
dimensions, senses, affections, passions?
We can make a case that there is implied prolepsis in Shylock’s speech as well. After all, he is objecting to questions as to why he would take payment in literal flesh. However, the question has already been asked explicitly by Antonio’s friend Salarino. This is the most famous speech of Shylock in the Merchant of Venice. However, in my opinion, the most impressive examples of hypophora occur in Act 1, Scene 3:
You call me misbeliever, cut-throat dog,
And spit upon my Jewish gaberdine,
And all for use of that which is mine own.
Well then, it now appears you need my help:
Go to, then; you come to me, and you say
'Shylock, we would have moneys:' you say so;
You, that did void your rheum upon my beard
And foot me as you spurn a stranger cur
Over your threshold: moneys is your suit
What should I say to you? Should I not say
'Hath a dog money? is it possible
A cur can lend three thousand ducats?' Or
Shall I bend low and in a bondman's key,
With bated breath and whispering humbleness, Say this;
'Fair sir, you spit on me on Wednesday last;
You spurn'd me such a day; another time
You call'd me dog; and for these courtesies
I'll lend you thus much moneys'?
Shylock uses hypophora and erotema to justify what on the surface seems like an irrational and harsh decision. He wants a pound of flesh from Antonio as payment for defaulting on a debt. By any standard, this would seem barbaric and unjust. However, he employs hypophora to bring logic to his emotionally charged argument. Antonio and his friends have been unjust and harsh with him. This ill treatment necessitates that he treat them in kind.
Why writers use hypophora
There are several reasons why hypophora and prolepsis should be used. Let’s look at a few of them below.
1. Suspense. Hypophora and prolepsis can create suspense. With hypophora, asking a question may pique the interest of the listener who gets a little excited about hearing the answer.
2. Emotional investment. Asking a question gives the signal that you are involving your listers, which may result in a closer emotional connection to what you’re saying.
3. Disarming your opponent. Answering an opponent’s question even before they state means that you can predict their argument and take the sting out of it.
Examples of Hypophora
1. Virginia Woolf, A Room of One's Own (1929):
But, you may say, we asked you to speak about women and fiction—what, has that got to do with a room of one's own? I will try to explain. When you asked me to speak about women and fiction I sat down on the banks of a river and began to wonder what the words meant. They might mean simply a few remarks about Fanny Burney; a few more about Jane Austen; a tribute to the Brontës and a sketch of Haworth Parsonage under snow; some witticisms if possible about Miss Mitford; a respectful allusion to George Eliot; a reference to Mrs Gaskell and one would have done. But at second sight the words seemed not so simple.
A Room of One’s Own is a book written by Virginia Wolf based on lectures that she gave on October 1928 at Newnham College and Girton College — two women's colleges at the University of Cambridge. She began the lecture by explaining why she chose to give her speech such a title.
Albeit somewhat playful, she was anticipating any objections or confusion that anyone in the audience would have about the title of her speech. On that basis alone, we may describe the book as one of the longest examples of hypophora!
2. Julius Caesar, Act III, Scene II:
. . . If there be any in
this assembly, any dear friend of Caesar's, to him I say
that Brutus' love to Caesar was no less than his. If then
that friend demand why Brutus rose against Caesar, this
is my answer: not that I loved Caesar less, but that I loved
Rome more.
This is Brutus justifying his conspiracy to murder Caesar to the Roman mob at Caesar’s funeral. He is predicting obvious questions as to why he Brutus, such a dear friend of Caesar, would conspire to murder him.
This is a necessary step that needs to be taken. Julius Caesar was beloved by the Roman masses. As proven by Antonio later, this love for Caesar could be wielded against the conspirators who murdered him. Brutus does a good job of using reason to justify an extreme act.
Romans may have loved Caesar, but the hatred of tyranny had been ingrained into them as part of their national character. By putting his love for Rome and hatred of tyranny above his love for Caesar "the tyrant," Brutus makes a compelling argument. Antonio, who gave his speech after Brutus, would have to first dismantle the argument that Caesar was a tyrant to successfully undo the charm of Brutus' speech.
3. Churchill, speech in the House of Commons (1940):
You ask, what is our policy? I will say: It is to wage war, by sea, land and air, with all our might and with all the strength that God can give us: to wage war against a monstrous tyranny, never surpassed in the dark, lamentable catalogue of human crime. . . . You ask, what is our aim? I can answer that in one word: It is Victory, victory at all costs, victory in spite of all terror, victory, however long and hard the road may be; for without victory, there is no survival.
Churchill here is anticipating the hard questions the public would inevitably have regarding his war policy and goals regarding NAZI Germany.
4. Shaw, The Apple Cart (1929):
If you ask me “Why should not the people make their own laws?” I need only ask you “Why should not the people write their own plays?” They cannot.
Shaw is using hypophora to make seemingly an argument against direct democracy.
5. Lincoln, speech at Springfield (1859):
You charge that we stir up insurrections among your slaves. We deny it; and what is your proof? Harper’s Ferry! John Brown! John Brown was no Republican; and you have failed to implicate a single Republican in his Harper’s Ferry enterprise.
In this speech, Lincoln is predicting and refuting evidence to support his party’s support for insurrections in the South by naming and denying the most obvious charges that can be made to support such a claim.
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References
Farnsworth, W. (2010). Farnsworth's Classical English Rhetoric. David R. Godine.
Cite this EminentEdit article |
Antoine, M. (2024, October 19). What Is Hypophora? EminentEdit. https://www.eminentediting.com/post/hypophora |
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