Dear Christy,

During the Week 12 Rhetoric Literature Discussion (p. 54, Student Question #4), my son pointed out that the definition of a rhetorical question from the Poetics reading says, "... a question whose answer is so obvious that it is left unstated," but the examples given in the Teacher's Notes discussion include 2 questions that are both answered in the Les Mis excerpt.

I thought that perhaps the thoughts of Marius were rhetorical questions, and that the point of the Teacher's Note was that "Hugo himself answers both of them." so the questions were not answered by Marius himself?? Or, would it be more accurate to say that rhetorical questions are usually left unanswered?

He also wondered: if these questions are the exact thoughts of Marius, then why aren't they enclosed in quotation marks?

I would appreciate any tips on answering my son's two questions,

Sincerely,

Beth Ann

Hi Beth Anne. :-) On the first question, I'd say that when a rhetoric question is asked, either 1) the answer is unstated (because everybody already knows it) or 2) the person asking the question then goes on to answer it himself, even though everybody already knows what it is, or 3) the question really requires an answer, but the person asking it supplies it himself, so there's no need for the AUDIENCE to give it. It looks like the examples you have belong to categories 2 or 3 rather than 1.

I think that the Poetics explanation may need a little revision, though I do hope that it gets across the basic point: namely, that the question doesn't require an answer (at least not from the reader).

On the second question, please tell you son that that is just one of several storytelling conventions. It has changed a bit over the years... nowadays it is more common to set a character's thoughts off in italics and there was a time way back in the day when a characters' thoughts were in fact set off in quotes. In 1862, however (or in the year when the translation was made, which was much later) that convention had already gone by, and thoughts were not set off in quotes.

I'm in a bit of a rush, so I hope I'm being clear enough to be helpful. Please let me know if you need more explanation!

Christy Somerville