Venus And Adonis Rhetorical Analysis Essay

The poem Venus and Adonis, was written by William Shakespeare to attract wealthy noblemen, specifically Henry Wriothesley, so that he may provide monetary backing. Shakespeare tried to appeal directly to a situation in Mr. Wriothesley’s past where a marriage was to form between him and Elizabeth de Vere (Levine). Being only sixteen at the time, Wriothesley ended up refusing to marry de Vere (Levine). In order to reason to the situation, Shakespeare wrote Venus and Adonis. In this poem the main character, Venus, uses many rhetorical strategies that try and persuade the young man, Adonis, into being with her. In the poem, Venus has two main arguments; trying to get Adonis to have sex with her and also be with her. Even though she has minor successes throughout the poem, ultimately her argument fails in the end because Adonis loses his life in a hunting accident. Throughout the beginning of this poem, Venus’s main goal is trying to get Adonis to kiss her. This …show more content…
This event made Adonis do everything he could think of to try to revive her. Ultimately, the only thing that would revive the “lifeless” Venus was a kiss from the sweet lips of Adonis. Therefore, Venus decided to faint to see if she could get the kind hearted Adonis to fall prey to her scheme. The reason Venus decided to faint was because none of her other attempts of seduction were working. Which was shown previously in the poem when Venus tries to woo Adonis by telling him that she is irresistible, in that she was able to get the god of war into her bed when no one else could do so. By establishing her ethos she is letting Adonis know that she has credibility and is quite experienced when it comes to sex, making it known that she can entice even the god of war. However, Adonis’s conscience is uninterested in this tale because he still won’t give in to the goddess’s lustful game. Venus’s next failed argument comes from stanza