Visualizing the Vir Bonus in Charles Dickens's Scenes of Persuasion : The Rhetoric of Pity, Sentiment, Fact, and Debt

Abstract: Charles Dickens’s novels are filled with scenes of persuasion—moments of heightened rhetoric. Throughthese scenes, the novels present a moral rhetoric and a person that uses this rhetoric toward ethicalends: a vir bonus. In particular, my study has focused on two separate but related levels of persuasion;the first remains within the narrative and the second takes into account the level between the text and itsreaders. The analysis of A Christmas Carol contends that readers witness the persuasion of Scrooge, amiser who learns to accept the kairos of Christmastime to become a kind, charitable man. Oliver Tiwst,this study argues, represents a rhetoric of pity through which both those who are pitied and those whoprovide the pity can be saved. This chapter shows that appeals to pathos are particularly effective in thiscontext. The analysis of Hard Times has found that pity and benevolence no longer function asstraightforward solutions to the problems that the novel stages. Instead, it paints a grim picture of whathappens when the fundamental logos of a society is misguided and when the most powerful rhetoriciansare not ethical. Finally, the analysis of Little Dorrit continues to discuss the issue of dangerousrhetoricians and highlights in particular the concept of ethos as a valuable way of understanding selffashioningand fraud. In addition, the analysis of this novel discusses the concepts of debt and credit andtheir importance to communities.