Will Arbery’s contemporary drama Heroes of the Fourth Turning investigates the rifts between four Catholic conservatives as they struggle to live faithfully in a post-Christian world. Classically educated and steeped in the Western tradition, the four postgraduates debate politics, philosophy, and faith in the aftermath of Donald Trump’s election. A preliminary investigation of this paper will be the kairos of Heroes of the Fourth Turning, highlighting intellectual conservatism during one of the most polarizing eras for politics and religion. Although Heroes of the Fourth Turning features inflammatory speeches and a morally indeterminate ending, this paper will analyze the speakers through the Aristotelian frame to determine who argues the most persuasively. The Aristotelian frame includes Aristotle’s teachings on logos, ethos, pathos, invention, arrangement, style, and delivery. This paper will argue that Aristotelian rhetoric predisposes the speaker to argue for the just and good rather than their opposites. Therefore, the instances where proper rhetoric is employed are the instances where the eudaemonic ideal is being fought for. This paper will define the eudemonic ideal as “flourishing,” or the state of living virtuously. Since all the speakers in this play belong to the Catholic community, this paper will define virtue according to Catholic thought. This paper will attempt to find the common ground between the characters of The Heroes of the Fourth Turning by identifying instances where they are all working towards this eudaemonic ideal. Therefore, this paper will use Aristotelian rhetoric to determine examples of unity in a play fraught with disunity.
Speaking to Understand: Analyzing Will Arbery’s Heroes of the Fourth Turning Through the Aristotelian Frame
Category
English and Literature 2