12.3 The relationship between style and emotional effect

Modes of Persuasion

Longinus treats style not as decoration but as a vehicle for emotional force. In On the Sublime, the central claim is that certain arrangements of language don't just describe feelings; they produce them in the audience. Understanding how style generates emotion is key to grasping why Longinus considers the sublime the highest achievement of rhetoric.

Emotional, Ethical, and Logical Appeals

While Longinus focuses primarily on the sublime (which operates through overwhelming emotional and imaginative force), his framework intersects with the classical modes of persuasion that Aristotle outlined.

• Pathos appeals to the audience's emotions, aiming to evoke strong feelings that move them to action or shift their attitudes. Longinus is most concerned with this mode. For him, genuine passion (pathos) is one of the five sources of the sublime. Vivid language, emotive imagery, and personal urgency all serve pathos. A political speech that makes listeners feel outrage or hope is working through pathos.
• Ethos establishes the speaker's credibility and moral character. The audience trusts the speaker's authority, which makes the message more persuasive. Longinus connects this to the idea that sublimity reflects the "echo of a great soul": a writer's nobility of mind shines through the style itself, building a kind of ethical authority.
• Logos employs logical reasoning, presenting facts, evidence, and structured arguments. Scientific presentations and philosophical proofs rely on logos. Longinus doesn't dismiss logic, but he argues that the sublime transcends mere persuasion through reason. Rational argument convinces; sublime language transports.

Stylistic Devices

Rhetorical and Figurative Language Techniques

Longinus devotes significant attention to how specific figures of speech generate emotional intensity. These aren't ornaments added after the fact; they're structural choices that shape how the audience experiences the content.

Rhetorical devices enhance the persuasive and emotional power of speech or writing:

• Anaphora repeats words at the beginning of successive clauses, building momentum and emotional weight. Martin Luther King Jr.'s repeated "I have a dream" is the classic example. Longinus would note how the repetition doesn't just emphasize a point; it creates a rhythmic crescendo that sweeps the listener along.
• Chiasmus inverts word order in parallel phrases for emphasis and memorability: "Ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country." The reversal forces the audience to reconsider the relationship between the two ideas.

Figurative language uses non-literal expressions to convey meaning with greater vividness and force:

• Metaphors compare two unlike things directly ("Life is a rollercoaster"), compressing complex ideas into a single image. Longinus values bold metaphors especially, arguing that daring comparisons can elevate ordinary subjects to sublimity.
• Similes make explicit comparisons using "like" or "as" ("Her voice was as smooth as silk"). They guide the reader's imagination more gently than metaphors.
• Personification attributes human qualities to non-human things ("The wind whispered through the trees"), making abstract or natural forces feel immediate and alive.

Imagery and Amplification Strategies

Imagery creates vivid mental pictures by engaging the senses: sight, sound, taste, touch, smell. Longinus uses the term phantasia (visualization) to describe how a writer can make the audience see what is being described. A passage depicting a bustling marketplace, for instance, doesn't just inform you that a market exists; it places you inside the noise, the colors, the press of bodies. That sensory immediacy is what produces emotional engagement.

Amplification emphasizes or expands on an idea to heighten its effect. Longinus identifies several amplification strategies:

• Repetition reinforces key points through restatement, driving them deeper into the audience's mind.
• Elaboration adds details or examples that flesh out an idea, making it more concrete and harder to dismiss.
• Climax (or auxesis) arranges ideas in ascending order of importance or intensity. Each successive element raises the emotional stakes, so the final point lands with maximum impact.

Longinus cautions, though, that amplification alone doesn't produce sublimity. Piling up details can make writing impressive without making it truly sublime. Genuine sublimity can flash out in a single striking phrase, while amplification works through accumulation.

Sentence Structure

Asyndeton and Polysyndeton

Longinus pays close attention to how the rhythm of sentences shapes emotional response. Two techniques he highlights involve the strategic use (or omission) of conjunctions.

• Asyndeton omits conjunctions between phrases or clauses, creating a rapid, breathless rhythm. Caesar's "I came, I saw, I conquered" (veni, vidi, vici) is the textbook example. The lack of connectors makes each action feel immediate and decisive. Longinus argues that asyndeton conveys urgency and passion, as though the speaker's emotion is too intense for the orderly grammar of connecting words.
• Polysyndeton uses multiple conjunctions in close succession ("We have ships and men and money and stores"). This slows the pace and gives equal weight to each element, creating a sense of abundance or relentless accumulation. Where asyndeton rushes forward, polysyndeton forces the audience to register every item.

The choice between these two techniques is itself an emotional decision. A writer selects asyndeton to simulate the rush of passion, polysyndeton to convey overwhelming fullness.

Hyperbole

Hyperbole is deliberate exaggeration used for emphasis, not meant literally. "I've told you a million times" doesn't report a fact; it communicates frustration at a level plain language can't match.

Longinus treats hyperbole as one of the figures that can serve the sublime, but with an important qualification: hyperbole works best when it's driven by genuine emotion. If the exaggeration feels calculated or hollow, it falls flat and can even seem ridiculous. When it springs from real intensity of feeling, though, the audience accepts the overstatement because it matches the emotional truth of the moment.

In literature, hyperbole creates memorable characters and heightened dramatic scenes. Homer's descriptions of battle, for instance, use exaggeration to convey the terrifying scale of warfare in ways that literal description never could. The key insight from Longinus is that the best hyperboles don't feel like exaggerations at all, because the emotion behind them is so convincing.