Abstract
The relationships between rhetorical analysis and literary criticism can best be described as strained. Part of this estrangement may be caused by the medium of literature. Words and language are primarily a means of communication. Unlike other artistic forms which use means that are generally set off from everyday life, (painting, sculpture, music), literature uses the same means to create an artistic or poetic or literary "object" that is used for more common and pedestrian activities. Since rhetoric concerns itself with the practical use of language, perhaps it is this fact of practicality that leads many critics to deny its value to the artistic use of language.