Introduction
The documentary Shakespeare: The Legacy reveals to viewers the life of William Shakespeare from birth to death. The author talks about his growing up, getting married, moving to London, and his career in theater. The second documentary, The Shakespeare Enigma, is not focused on the poet’s biography but gives voices to different groups who support exploring who could be an actual of the great plays and sonnets. Both documentaries use logos, ethos, and pathos to convince the audience of the authenticity of their beliefs and opinions. Despite classic persuasion techniques, the films have significant logical errors that make the audience doubt.
Ethos
The Legacy, as well as The Enigma, use Ethos to confirm their authority. The narrative is built around the opinions of experts who devote themselves to the study of Shakespeare’s life and work. Another example of ethos is the use of historical documents and manuscripts confirming the validity and authority of the statements. Some documents verify the facts of Shakespeare’s birth, marriage, and death, and they provide additional information about his father, John Shakespeare’s biography.
The Enigma uses a will to show Shakespeare’s “disappointing” style from Stratford-upon-Avon. In addition, the manuscript presents evidence that the name Francis Bacon is related to Shakespeare’s plays (Orme, 2001, 22:04). The opinions of experts and references to reliable sources justify the story.
Pathos
The Legacy repeatedly turns to Pathos to influence the viewers’ opinions through their emotions. For instance, the speaker underlines the “outstanding writing talent” that “inspired generations,” telling about Shakespeare (Saville, 2016, 21:05).
Another example is the description of the bustling life of London. Speakers describe general information about the emerging theater, comparing its significance for contemporaries with cinema and television. They make a hasty generalization that Shakespeare “capitalized” this new movement (Saville, 2016, 21:10). The authors do not know which emotions Shakespeare experienced, but their descriptions create the illusion of realism.
The Enigma uses Pathos less than The Legacy, focusing on different people’s opinions. An example is the phrase “magical work” to strengthen statements about the contribution of Shakespeare’s work to world literature (Orme, 2001, 8:42). In addition, both films use music and excerpts from Shakespeare’s results to create a suitable atmosphere. Both films use varying emotions to influence the audience’s opinion.
Logos
Logos are crucial to any argumentation, as it appeals to the viewer’s logic. For instance, The Legacy proves that John Shakespeare did not attend church because of debts and fines. The speaker turned to logic, talking about Shakespeare’s phenomenal vocabulary and horizons. He explained that the young Shakespeare attended a school where he studied Latin, rhetoric, and other sciences every day for 10-11 hours.
Speakers also use logos to prove the opposite ideas in The Enigma. Francis Carr claims that Shakespeare was poorly educated and was not able to write because his manuscripts and the library were not preserved (Orme, 2001, 23:03). The evidence provides facts from the biography of Shakespeare’s contemporaries, who allegedly could be real authors of plays (Orme, 2001, 34:13). Both films use Logos to interpret the facts and evidence that is not enough to make unambiguous and confident conclusions.
Logical Fallacies
Both films have significant logical errors that follow each other. The Legacy’s critical issue is the fallacy of illegitimate appeal to authority (de Oliveira Fernandes & Oswald, 2022). All three experts in the film are representatives of the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust, and they express only one point of view. Moreover, the documentary does not explicitly state that Shakespeare is the author of the plays, thus avoiding the most sensitive question in his biography.
The Enigma, on the contrary, gives different points of vision on the authorship of Shakespearean plays but does not try to find the truth. Instead, speakers refute the opinions of opponents, often using ad hominem arguments as “conspiracy theorists,” “crackpots,” and “looney” (Orme, 2001, 12:18, 11:57, 34:15). Similar tactics of speakers are found in The Legacy (Saville, 2016, 12:05). This method devalues other views and makes them “wrong” without evidence.
Other gaps in the documentaries are non-sequitur fallacies when the argument’s beginning has nothing to do with its conclusion. The example is a conclusion that Shakespeare was a successful playwright as he bought one of the best houses in Stratford. Another example is when the speaker in The Enigma claims that Shakespeare was not a writer because he did not mention the books in his will. Such logical errors can be invisible to the audience and can mislead them.
Conclusion
Shakespeare’s biography has many blank spots, which give rise to many theories and assumptions about his life and work. Both films pass off some points as facts without evidence, use false logic, and make hasty generalizations (de Oliveira Fernandes & Oswald, 2022). The Legacy selects facts and logical conclusions that confirm his theory and rejects all other theories without evidence. The Enigma presented four theories about the authorship of outstanding works but no assessment of which theory has more evidence and facts. Thus, films do not correspond to the level of documentary cinema, as they do not try to find the truth.
References
de Oliveira Fernandes, D., & Oswald, S. (2022). On the rhetorical effectiveness of implicit meaning — A pragmatic approach. Languages, 8(1), 6. Web.
Orme, S. (2001). The Shakespeare enigma [Documentary]. Films Media Group. Web.
Saville, L. (2016). Shakespeare: The legacy [Documentary]. Films Media Group. Web.