Ruskin's Traffic is first and foremost a speech. With an intense awareness of the audience, then, Ruskin's work often takes on the shape of a dialogue. Take this series of paragraphs:
. . . Good; we know them all now. What more need we ask?
'Nay,' perhaps you answer; 'we need rather to ask what these people and children do, than what they like. If they do right, it is no matter than they like what is wrong; and if they do wrong, it is no matter that they like what is right. Doing is the great thing; and it does not matter that the man likes drinking, so that he does not drink; nor that the little girl likes to be kind to her canary, if she will not learn her lessons; nor that the little boy likes throwing stones at the sparrows, if he goes to Sunday school.' Indeed, for a short time, and in a provisional sense, this is true. ...
But you may answer or think, 'Is the liking for outside ornaments, — for pictures, or statues, or furniture, or architecture, a moral quality?' Yes, most surely if a rightly set liking. ...' [234]
What is the effect of this rhetorical device on the audience? Perhaps more specifically, how does this device work differently with the written and spoken word? Is Ruskin's work equally as effective in both settings?
Last modified 28 February 2002