Based on the character speeches by Aeschylus, Sophocles and Euripides, Vanessa Zetzmann asks why the three tragedians fail their characters' speeches and what assessment of rhetoric they guide their audience to. Points of contact between practical rhetoric and the first beginnings of rhetoric theory are negotiated without neglecting the drama of the genre. In addition to answering the timeless question of what causes communication to fail, the book makes an important contribution to the exploration of ancient rhetoric before Aristotle.