Patrick Henry's Ethos In Speech To The Virginia Convention

In Patrick Henry’s,“ Speech in the Virginia Convention,” he explains to the President as well as the government at the time on how a war with Britain is completely necessary in order to gain full independence for America. Henry uses a proud tone to inspire his audience, simple and complex sentence structure to convey straightforward details, patriotic and passionate diction to bring an uprising of emotion, and ethos to ethically support the main idea.

The colony of Virginia could not agree if they should press for an undisturbed solution with great Britain or to prepare for war. Patrick henry introduced resolutions calling for military preparedness. After politely listening to his fellow colleagues refusal to armed rebellion, he rose to deliver this impassioned speech. His speech was towards the delegates from Virginia, Henrys purpose was to persuade the colony of Virginia to withdraw from great Britain to fight back against them. He alienated Britain by blaming every hardships they faced to Britain. He uses rhetoric to initiate a well- known tone with the audience while the exigency in his words and alarming last line," give me liberty or give me death", left the crowd with a threatening

In “Speech to the Virginia Convention” by Patrick Henry, he used allusions to contribute to the meaning of his purpose. Patrick Henry wrote this speech right before the American Revolution took place. His purpose was to persuade the Virginia Convention leaders that it was time to declare war against Great Britain. To prove his point that the time for rebellion had come, he used allusions, which are indirect references to historical people, events, or documents. One of the allusions Patrick Henry used was in lines 18-22 and referenced The Odyssey by Homer.

Patrick Henry’s speech to the Virginia Convention written and spoken by Patrick Henry raised the people 's attention. He spoke passionate words because he no longer wanted to be a slave to Britain.The men that attended the Virginia Convention realized that they needed to start fighting back after all the troubles the British caused. The British terrorized innocent people of America, even killed men, women, and children. In his speech he proposed resolutions to prepare the Virginia Colony for war and gave the speech to support those resolutions. His reasons for the speech were to convince the colonist, to try and maintain peace, to persuade war against Britain, and to show that he would be a good president. Patrick Henry’s speech was very effective regarding the Virginia Convention using ethos, pathos, and logos.

In the first paragraph Henry does this by explaining that anything he says is not meant to be disrespectful or alienate what the other men have said. He also specifically mentions that his opinions will have a “character very opposite to theirs” (Line 10). Patrick Henry said this to show that he was alert to his audience and to inform them that he planned to “speak forth [his] sentiments freely and without reserve” (Line 11). In addition, Henry spoke respectfully throughout his entire speech by addressing the audience properly as “gentlemen” and the president as “sir.” By doing this he was able to seem more respectable to the audience which once again appeals to

President Bush uses many pathos, which is the persuasion through emotion, throughout his speech to prove his point. President Bush calls out the victims of 9/11 who were “moms and dads” (Bush 1) and “friends and neighbors” (Bush 1). This is a persuasion through pathos because President Bush emphasizes the importance of these victims’ lives to other people. President Bush uses these names to influence his viewers to understand that many people loss very important people who cannot be replaced by any means. President Bush uses pathos again when he paints an image in our head of “airplanes flying into buildings [and] huge buildings collapsing” (Bush 1), which has “filled [this country] with disbelief, terrible sadness and a quiet, unyielding anger” (Bush 1). This is pathos because Bush tries to influence the feeling of those who was not there and to help them understand. President Bush uses pathos in the form of imagery to persuade the nation how devastating this event is and how it has affect the emotions of many Americans. President Bush tries to appeal to the heart of the nation by using pathos to explain how terrible 9/11 was and its effects on the people.

Patrick Henry evolved from being an attorney to becoming an influential and inspirational revolutionary who convinced the colonists to fight for independence. During this time the British ruled and colonists had begun to resist them. Furthermore, religious values were important in the time as most everyone belonged to a church. In his speech to the Virginia convention, Patrick Henry uses pathos to enact a sense of distrust and fear toward the British.

The fight for American independence was a long, arduous struggle, but many great literary works aided the battle. One such example is Patrick Henry’s “Speech in the Virginia Convention”. Given in 1775 at the Virginia Provincial Convention, Henry aims to convince listeners of the futility of peace with Britain, and that they should join the efforts for the inevitable war. To accomplish this, Henry uses many different persuasive techniques and rhetorical devices. In Patrick Henry’s “Speech”, Henry uses techniques such as rhetorical questions, allusion, and emotional appeal to convey the point that the United States must rebel against Britain.

Bush uses the first few paragraphs of his speech to introduce several of the people he is working with. The appeals he makes in these lines are excellent examples of ethos, the rhetorical appeal to character. Bush continuously comments on the character of the people around him. He speaks of them as if he knows them very well, almost like old friends. Through this appeal the audience became able to relate to these people and learn a little bit about their character. Some of the people mentioned have large families and are of an honest and selfless nature. Because the speaker’s purpose is to gain support from the constituents for the candidates represented, the appeal to the character of the candidates is a crucial tool that becomes extremely vital to the swaying of the audience to the purposes of the speaker.

Bush’s speech, the speeches are different. The differences in the two speeches are because of the difference in how Bush and Henry argued their ideas, how they used allusions, and how pathos was incorporated into the speeches to elicit certain emotions. Deductive arguing in Bush’s speech and inductive arguing in Henry’s speech was used to deliver the speeches in two different ways. In Henry’s speech, he uses several allusions to persuade his audience to believe that Great Britain was dangerous and would betray America. Lastly, Bush and Henry both utilize pathos in their speeches. Bush uses pathos in a repetitive way to remind his audience of the recent past attacks on America by the Iraqi regime. However, Henry exercises pathos to induce fear into his audience and elicits values of

The prominent patriot Patrick Henry once said, “I know not what course others may take; but as for me, give me liberty or give me death!” (Henry 7) implying that a life without liberty is not a righteous life. Henry’s quote is included in his popular oratory “Speech to the Virginia Convention.” While discussing with the colonists, Henry lists all of the discrepancies the thirteen colonies had with Great Britain, concluding that there is no other option, but to retaliate instantaneously. In Patrick Henry’s “Speech to the Virginia Convention,” he utilizes amplifying loaded words and coherent parallelism in order to influence the assembly to unify and reciprocate.

Writing to an audience that still lacks the desire to oppose the British, Patrick Henry in his "Speech to Virginia House of Burgesses" focuses on the rights of man and defying oppressors. Through figurative language, rhetorical questions, and diction, Henry heightens the necessity to rise up and fight against the British ruling power over the colonist population in Northern America.

In 1775, Patrick Henry wrote a persuasive speech in order to address the issue of whether or not to fight for independence from Britain. Many American-born representatives didn’t need much persuasion, but it took a lot of persuasive tactics to convince the Loyalists. These tactics were used to add flow to his speech, to depict vivid images in his audience's’ minds, to give supporting evidence to his argument, and many more. In Patrick Henry’s “Speech to the Virginia Convention,” Henry was able to convince the Loyalists to go to war with Britain with his use of rhetorical devices including allusions, imagery, parallelism, and ethical appeal.

“Give me liberty, or give me death!” is a quotation attributed to Patrick Henry, which he used to close his speech to Virginia Convention. During this time period, the 1770s, Patrick Henry, Thomas Paine, and Thomas Jefferson all made arguments in favor of separation of the American colonies from Great Britain; many of these appeals were persuasive for different reasons, whether that be logical, emotional, or pertaining to credibility and trust, which is to say logos, pathos, and ethos. First of all, we will examine Henry’s arguments during his speech at the Virginia Convention. Then, we will identify Paine’s appeals in a part of his essay, The Crisis n1. Lastly, we will evaluate Jefferson’s myriad of arguments in a part of his Autobiography.

“Give me liberty or give me death!” This statement from Patrick Henry’s “Speech to the Virginia Convention,” delivered to the House of Burgesses, has been quoted by many, becoming almost cliché. However, the declaration is truly understood by a select few. The unjust Stamp Act passed by the British crown in 1765, brought fame and notoriety to Henry as he spoke out against the unjust taxation without representation. Ten years later on the eve of revolution, Henry calls upon the Colonial government of which he is part, to act for the betterment of the people. Patrick Henry attempts to persuade the House of Burgesses to revolt and declare war against Britain by logically convincing them that it is their natural right to be free and calling on