Criticism Post #1 – Revised

Rhetorical Situation

In this post, I will be applying the rhetorical situation method. “The rhetorical situation can refer to the speaker, the subject, the occasion, speech, audience, anything surrounding or impacting what may be said,” (Bitzer, p.46). From our class notes, we learned that rhetorical situations can be explained into three parts. First there is

exigence, which asks does this need to happen? It is an event that calls for us to speak about, so what is the thing that they needed to speak on? Second, there are audiences, which is figuring out who the actual audience is. Who is the intended audience for?

Lastly, there are constraints/opportunities, which is what can you say? Why can you not say? Constraints are what you can’t do, and opportunities enable you to do. The main goal of this method is to determine if it is a fitting response to the exigence. I will give a brief introduction to the show, then I will be applying the method to it, and determine if what happened was a fitting response.

In the Netflix series Grace and Frankie, two women, who were not friends in the first place, who also have complete opposite personalities, end up living with each other after their husbands leave them. Their husbands, Robert and Sol, are business partners at a law firm, and have been secretly in love with each other for the last twenty years of their marriages. They finally come out and tell Grace and Frankie the news, over dinner together, because they want to finally marry each other.

In this series, we witness Grace and Frankie’s world flip upside down under this bizarre circumstance, and see how they overcome this and many other life-altering events that take place. A running theme we see throughout the episodes is learning to adapt to your new reality. That no matter how old you are, (Grace and Frankie are both in their 70’s), it is never too late for new beginnings and new memories.

In Season one, Episode one, Grace and Frankie’s lives begin to unravel in the first few minutes of the show. The rhetorical situation takes place when Robert and Sol announce that they are not only leaving them (Grace and Frankie), but that they are also in love with each other. The exigence of the rhetorical situation is when Robert and Sol make this announcement at dinner:

Robert: “I’m leaving you. And he’s leaving you.”

Grace: “Who is she?”

Robert: “Oh it’s not what you think. It’s a He. And it’s Sol. I’m in love with Sol. Sol and I are in love.”

Frankie: “My Sol?!?”

Sol: “Your Sol.“

The audience is Grace and Frankie since they are being presented with this new information, and it was intended only for them. However, the audience is also all the other people eating dinner at the restaurant, where this announcement took place, because Grace makes sure to cause a scene, so others may witness and hear this news as well. The audience also later becomes Grace and Frankie’s children as well, when they get informed about the situation taking place.

The constraints/opportunities involve all the characters in this episode, because they all take an effect on the situation that occurred. (They are also all key characters throughout the entire series). The characters involved are: Robert, Sol, Grace, Frankie, and all of their children, who find out about the news the day after Grace and Frankie were told about the divorce. Sol and Frankie’s two sons find out first, Bud and Coyote, when they are invited over to their parents’ house. Shortly after, Robert and Grace’s two daughters, Mallory and Brianna, find out from Bud and Coyote, before they arrive at their parents’ house for dinner, which Grace and Robert were not planning on telling them just yet. All of their children are adults, with very different personalities, living very different lives, (which we also get to witness throughout the series). They all take part in this situation that is unfolding in the beginning of the show, and it continues to unfold over the next five seasons.

I believe the exigence is very fitting, because it not only sets up what this episode is about, but what Robert and Sol say to Grace and Frankie, sets up why this entire series exists. How Grace and Frankie react to it is also what creates this series, and shows how your life can be turned upside down in an instant. The way the kids react to this, is an ongoing event throughout the series as well. This first episode gives an introduction to the constraints/opportunities all these characters have dealing with Robert and Sol’s announcement. This was a good example of the rhetorical method, because it’s a good response to what is unfolding in the episode/series. Without all the characters responses and reactions towards the exigence taking place, the show could not be successful.