Against The Step Grandmother Analysis

Superior Essays
This essay compares the speech Against the Stepmother and an episode of Law and Order: Special Victims unit, with the aim to compare and contrast the way these two are similar and different. Against the Stepmother consists of a young man accusing his stepmother for killing his father and was written in Athens between 420 to 411 BC. The Law and Order: Special Victims Unit episode "Legitimate Rape" was aired on March 27, 2013, and deals with a woman named Avery accusing her co-worker, Purcell, of rape and the court case that follows the accusation. Despite the temporal and cultural differences, there are significant similarities in regards to the rhetoric used to provoke emotion from the jury and the use of evidence to support a position, and …show more content…
In the beginning of the Law and Order episode, Avery talks with an NYPD detective and asks for their assistance. The police compile the evidence needed for the case to be trialed as accurately as possible. Additionally, Avery 's lawyer and Purcell 's lawyer both speak on their behalf, with neither Avery or Purcell saying anything unless they are on the stand. This differs greatly to Against the Stepmother, which simply comprises of a young man speaking to a jury and completely defending himself. The use of a lawyer changes the environment of the case, as the person inflicted of the crime is not appealing to the jury. Instead, it is a lawyer with years of experience and an education that combines knowledge of law and psychological appeal to the jury that is used to obtain a favorable decision for his or her client. Perhaps in a case such as Against the Stepmother, police would have been able to compile some sort of investigation for the death of the young man 's father, and obtain evidence that would link the death to someone. The ability of having lawyers and police in contemporary court cases brings a combination of persuasion and primary sources to the case, instead of having a speech that could be false be as persuasive as possible to appeal to the jurors for cases occurring in Ancient Greek

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