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Rhetorical Analysis Of Victor Hugo By Elizabeth Barrett Browning

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Elizabeth Barrett Browning uses an array of rhetorical devices to aid her in persuading of Emperor Napoleon III of France to let the controversial poet, Victor Hugo, back from exile. Browning writes to Napoleon to persuade him to “make an exception of him as God made an exception of him when He gave him genius, and call him back without condition to his county and his daughter’s grave.”
The first strategy used by Browning is to feed into Napoleon’s ego. She does this by first addressing him as “sire” before getting to the point of her letter. As the final few words to the letter, she leaves him with a last thought. The poet claims, “I have trusted you for doing greatly. I will trust you besides for pardoning nobly.” This acknowledges the greater status that Napoleon holds compared to Browning’s status of a lowly female poet, which she repeatedly reminds him of.
Browning gives herself authority by expressing her position as a poet and the wife of one, but humbles herself to Napoleon by restating multiple times …show more content…

Browning makes it a point to the emperor that no historian shall ever say “While Napoleon the Third reigned Victor Hugo lived in exile,” or ask “But where is our poet?” if he allows Hugo to return. The woman persuades Napoleon by urging him to visualize his son reading the poems and that “he may exult to recall that his imperial father was great enough to overcome this great poet with magnanimity,” Napoleon is advised to “disprove him [Hugo] by your generosity,” and as a finale to the letter, she says “you will be Napoleon in this also.”
Elizabeth Barrett Browning uses rhetorical strategies in a letter with the purpose of persuasion. The subject of this persuasion is Napoleon III, Emperor of France. The intended goal was to convince the ruler to let Victor Hugo back from exile, though this letter was never

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