Rhetorical Analysis Of Speech In Virginia Convention By Patrick Henry

    In Henry’s speech, he first sets the stage by using a proud tone while explaining the importance of war with Britain. His illustrious delivery of the speech itself is very moving, as the efforts to convince America to settle on the side of war. He goes on to convey, “Sir, we are not weak, if we make a proper use of  those means which the God of nature hath placed in our power” (Henry 38). His tone of taking charge and only accepting the best from his country supports the claim that Henry is indeed the proud man he is. Henry also in his speech uses an enlightening tone to inspire his crowd he uses terms to explain how he will settle for only the best for the country. He uses phrases such as, “The war is inevitable-and let it come!” (38). This phrase brings up the emotion of the crowd as they believe in war, and Henry himself is full of power as he enforces that war must go on. He uses such enthusiasm and inspiration to uplift himself and the crowd to ensure that war is necessary. Overall, Henry;s tone of the proudness and

Henry also used many metaphors to give a clear picture to the audience in order to dramatize the current conflict. Toward the beginning of the body of his speech, he called Britain sending troops in response the colonists’ rebellious activities as “war-like preparations” and said they “cover[ed] our waters and darken[ed] our land.” There he compared Britain sending troops to a “cover” or a shadow, making them seem like a heavy burden or threat. This comparison painted them in an ominous and untrustworthy light without Henry directly declaring that the British soldiers were untrustworthy. Later in the speech, Henry compared submission to the to slavery, saying, “It is now too late to retire from the contest. There is no retreat but in submission in slavery! Our chains are forged! Their clanking may

Throughout the entire speech, he creates emotion that affects the audience. He created emotion throughout the speech by using other rhetorical strategies, such as repetition, imagery, rhetorical questions, and allusions. By using repetition, he made the audience feel some guilt. In the repetition “Let us not, I beseech you, sir, deceive ourselves” creates the guilt-feeling towards the audience, because if Henry were right about Great Britain, then the audience would be in fault for not going to war with Great Britain. By using imagery, the images of an “insidious smile”, “delusive phantoms of hope”, and slavery and chains, creates an unpleasant image to the mind making the audience feel angry, empty, and fearful. Henry uses many rhetorical questions. The use of the rhetorical questions is a question that can only be answered with one right answer. This is because the question being asked is the truth. Sometimes the truth can be hard to hear and accept. As Henry asks these questions, “But when shall we be stronger? Will it be the next week, or the next year? Will it be when we are totally disarmed, and when a British guard shall be stationed in every house? Shall we gather strength by irresolution and inaction?” he evokes fear towards the audience and perhaps anger. He also uses biblical allusions in the speech. He does this to create some credibility but also to provoke some trust from the audience. When Henry mentions God or the biblical allusion it comforted or delighted the audience to know that God is a role in his speech. Although Henry uses repetition, imagery, rhetorical questions, and allusions, he incorporated emotion to those three other rhetorical strategies used.

In his speech during the Virginia Convention, Patrick Henry used a dynamic tone to express his ideas. He utilized the rhetorical technique of fallacy to persuade his audience into thinking that America’s independence was necessary for the good of the nation and its people. Henry takes advantage of fallacies such as the either or fallacy, fallacy of complex questions, appeal of consequence, and appeal to emotion to implement his ideas into the audience.

In his speech, Henry uses rhetorical devices to suggest that Americans need to join the cause for the looming war. The first use of rhetorical questioning occurs about halfway into his speech, when he proposes, “…what means this martial array, if its purpose be not to force us into submission?” (Henry 102). During this timeframe, Britain sent in troops to quiet the rebellious acts of the citizens, such as the Boston Tea Party, where Americans dumped 10,000 pounds of British tea into Boston Harbor. In this quote, Henry takes a different perspective, implying that the British sent these troops in to submiss the colonies, to keep them firmly under British control. This affects his audience by making them feel inferior to the British. Towards the end of his speech, Henry mentions that, “Our brethren are already in the field. Why stand we here idle?” (Henry 103). Henry refers to the open resistance in Massachusetts, and the people already fighting for independence. In his rhetorical question, Henry probes why most Americans stand by while others actively participate. This proves his point that America must go to war immediately, and that some already agree with him. These rhetorical questions are just two examples of Henry using literary techniques to convince listeners to go to war with Great Britain.

First, Patrick Henry, author of “Speech in the Virginia Convention”, uses allusions and rhetorical questions to convince his

In “speech in the Virginia convention,” Patrick Henry convinces colonists to fight Britain through the use of four main rhetorical devices: Allusion, Rhetorical Questions, Figurative language, and Diction. Through Figurative language, he connects to the audience by expressing emotions and explaining the main problems with peace negotiations. Patrick Henry uses allusion in his speech by telling people what is appropriate. Patrick Henry used also Rhetorical Questions to tell people what is right and what is not. He also used diction as the power to explain a topic in a short sentence.

In his speech Henry convinced Virginia that all the acts of peace had not worked, and will never work. The solution he saw was to fight, and to start the fight immediately. Henry said that they had a right to fight and that God was on their side. From previous British actions, he foresaw war coming and instead of fearing war, he encouraged his audience to embrace

Most people know the famous line “Give me liberty or give me death;” some people apprehend the concept of where that line came from, less understand that it was impelled to persuade the colonists to secede from Britain and even fewer comprehend that a major key to enticed the colonist was the use of rhetorical devices. Patrick Henry sways his audience in "Speech in the Virginia Convention" to fight Britain by using several rhetorical devices. The first rhetorical devices he uses, ethos, helps him gain the audiences’ trust by speaking highly of them and with respect. The second rhetorical device he adapts is allusion, in which he applies a euphemism to form a connection with his audience. The third rhetorical device he uses is pathos, which he employs to make a

In Patrick Henry’s Speech at the Second Virginia Convention, Henry attempts to persuade the opposing side that the colonists should mobilize for military action against the British. Henry is able to convey his message about the need for war by employing rhetorical strategies throughout his speech. Henry utilizes tone, rhetorical questions, allusions and parallelism as his main rhetorical strategies in order to build and present a strong argument against the opposers.

The “Speech in the Virginia Convention” by Patrick Henry was written and spoken to tell colonists the war with Britain was already under way. This discourse pointed out Britain had already begun preparation by sending troops and navy ships to the colonies. Henry used rhetorical devices like, pathos and tone, to get his point across and to show the colonists they have to defend their rights.

Effective- Henry uses restatement to stress the importance of the impending war. He feels strongly that a war is needed because the colonists must fight for their freedom. War isn’t only for those who can and will fight, it’s for anyone who wants a better life. The battle is for the brave people, and the ones who are ready for danger, and are active. Because they

In Henry's Speech in the Virginia Convention he used many rhetorical devices, but the ones I'm going to go over are three that he used most and of higher quality than Franklin in his speech in the Convention. The three main rhetorical devices are rhetorical questions, parallelism, and charged words and phrases. A rhetorical question is a question asked without expecting an answer. Parallelism is the use of successive verbal construction. Lastly charged words and phrases are intended to bring out emotions in the audience. My opinion Henry used rhetorical devices supplementary and superior to Franklins speech.

Along with using pathos and repetition to show the imperative need to fight, Henry also uses anaphoras, metaphors, and rhetorical questions to prove that Americans are ready for war. In his speech, Henry repeatedly uses the beginning phrase “we have” to emphasize how much the citizens have done to show there is a need for change. The people “petitioned”, “remonstrated” and “supplicated” but to no avail. The military leaders and political elites were the ones pushing off the citizens’ efforts to go regain their liberties. The leaders in America did not want to jump into war with the British, so Henry brought light to this by asking the people through a rhetorical question if they would “resort to … humble supplication.” Through the view of the people it would be obvious this controversy can not be solved by just asking kindly. The people know they will have to fight so they petition and argue their side to the political leaders. Along with asking if the people would have to “resort to entreaty”, Patrick Henry also asks what other terms they could find that “have not already been exhausted.” The people have done all they can within the country to try and regain their liberties, the only thing left is to fight with the British. Henry is well aware of this and explains how there are “three millions of people” that are “armed in the

In Patrick Henry’s speech to the Virginia House of Burgess during the Virginia Convention, Patrick Henry tries to persuade his audience; the delegates, who are present in the convention on going to war with Britain in order to defend their liberties as British subjects as he regards the British government and crown as decisive. He believes that despite being American colonists they are still Englishmen and therefore should be respected and treated equally as all Englishmen. His famous line of “I know not what course others may take; but as for me, give me liberty, or give me death!” (Henry) shows he is adamant in his views and is not willing to compromise on any other plan. Like this, he portrays and makes use of rhetoric devices to engage his audience to assure them that his plan is the most effective and reasonable. Henry makes use of a persuasive appeal by implementing the use of rhetorical questions, ethos and parallel structure which all evoke emotion in his audience.