Half-Hanged Mary Rhetoric Questions

The poem’s use of the hourly structure (7pm–8am) serves rhetorically to…

• emphasize the length and progression of Mary’s ordeal

• trivialize the violence by reducing it to a clock

• appeal to logos by creating precise historical record

• suggest that Mary has control over the passage of time

Tags

CCSS.RL.11-12.8

CCSS.RL.8.10

CCSS.RL.8.5

CCSS.RL.9-10.10

CCSS.RL.9-10.9

The speaker’s description of herself as “a blackened apple stuck back onto the tree” most directly appeals to…

• ethos, by demonstrating her credibility as a farmer

• pathos, by emphasizing her grotesque and dehumanized condition

• logos, by logically proving the injustice of her situation

• kairos, by tying her suffering to colonial harvest rituals

Tags

CCSS.RI.11-12.5

CCSS.RI.9-10.5

When the speaker confronts God with rhetorical questions (“If Nature is Your alphabet, what letter is this rope?”), the rhetorical purpose is to…

• mock Puritan theology and dismiss God’s role

• appeal to pathos by highlighting despair and abandonment

• appeal to ethos by asserting her authority as a theologian

• present logos through a reasoned syllogism

Tags

CCSS.RL.11-12.8

CCSS.RL.8.4

CCSS.RL.8.5

CCSS.RL.9-10.10

CCSS.RL.9-10.9

The repeated imagery of villagers’ silence and passivity functions rhetorically to…

• elicit sympathy for the crowd’s fear of contamination

• highlight collective complicity and moral cowardice

• diminish the seriousness of their betrayal

• appeal to logos by proving their rational behavior

Tags

CCSS.RL.11-12.4

CCSS.RL.6.4

CCSS.RL.7.4

CCSS.RL.8.4

CCSS.RL.9-10.4

The terse declaration “I hurt, therefore I am” is best read as…

• a parody of philosophical reasoning that centers suffering as proof of existence

• an appeal to ethos, establishing Mary as credible through her pain

• a logical syllogism proving innocence

• a dismissal of the significance of suffering

Tags

CCSS.RL.2.6

CCSS.RL.8.3

The rhetorical shift at 6am, when the sun “is no longer a simile for God,” suggests that Mary…

• has lost faith in religious metaphors to explain her survival

• appeals to logos by proving the limits of Puritan theology

• trivializes her experience through natural imagery

• shifts to ethos by asserting her credibility as a survivor

Tags

CCSS.RL.11-12.7

CCSS.RL.6.3

CCSS.RL.7.3

CCSS.RL.8.3

CCSS.RL.9-10.3

In the final section, Mary’s declaration “Before, I was not a witch. But now I am one” serves rhetorically to…

• reclaim power through irony, embracing the label imposed on her

• appeal to logos by proving the villagers wrong

• appeal to ethos by restoring her reputation

• diminish the significance of the accusation

Tags

CCSS.RL.2.6

CCSS.RL.8.3

The tone of Mary’s voice throughout the poem can best be described as…

• detached and impartial

• bitter yet resilient

• joyful and celebratory

• calm and reverent

Tags

CCSS.RL.11-12.8

CCSS.RL.8.10

CCSS.RL.8.5

CCSS.RL.9-10.10

CCSS.RL.9-10.9

The rhetorical situation of the poem is shaped by which of the following?

• Atwood’s use of a historical figure to critique power and gender oppression

• Mary’s appeal to the court for judicial fairness

• The Puritan government’s attempt to establish logical governance

• A private letter written to Mary’s family

Tags

CCSS.RL.11-12.8

CCSS.RL.8.4

CCSS.RL.8.5

CCSS.RL.9-10.10

CCSS.RL.9-10.9

The overall rhetorical effect of Half-Hanged Mary is to…

• expose the dangers of unchecked authority and communal hysteria

• establish Mary’s innocence through legal reasoning

• minimize the importance of individual suffering in history

• justify the Puritans’ religious actions during the witch trials

Tags

CCSS.RL.11-12.10

CCSS.RL.8.10

CCSS.RL.8.4

CCSS.RL.9-10.10

CCSS.RL.9-10.9