Rhetorical Strategies In The Gettysburg Address

Abraham Lincoln had carefully-crafted the Gettysburg address. This speech was extremely short but, it was full of information and writing strategies. One way he helps get his point across was through the use of rhetorical strategies. Lincoln’s purpose for the “Gettysburg Address” was to dedicate a portion of the battlefield and motivate the Union to win the war. He uses the rhetorical devices of repeated diction, parallelism, and juxtaposition to achieve his purpose.

For his Second Inaugural Address, Abraham Lincoln uses rhetorical strategies to surprise his audience’s expectations to talk about politics, slavery, and states’ rights. He offers his vision for the nation and contemplation of the effects of the Civil War. By doing so, Lincoln intends to spread hope to the citizens and congress of the nation through the uses of reframing, Biblical references, and word choice throughout his address.

In 1863, the Civil War raged on in America and July saw one of the bloodiest battles in American history, and the bloodiest of the Civil War. The Battle of Gettysburg came at a tremendous cost to both sides; an estimated 51,000 soldiers died during the three-day onslaught. This battle questioned both sides will to fight. Morale was running extremely low and many people wanted the war to be over. On November 19, 1863, Abraham Lincoln gave his famous Gettysburg Address to honor the fallen soldiers and to try to revive the war fervor that many Americans had lost.

Lincoln speech, The Gettysburg Address, is set with an extremely patriotic tone. His main focus behind the speech is to boost the morale of the people during the time of the Civil War. Lincoln opens by stating, “…our fathers brought for on this continent a new nation, conceived in Liberty,”(149) and goes on to state that, “all men are created equal”(149) in the same line. This could be easily described as a pathos part of his speech, as it appeals to a very common emotion, especially during times of war: patriotism. It also adds to the ethos, by giving him the credibility of using historical figures.

Lincoln's expressions in his tone of voice was an eloquent way of speaking their actions louder than words. Lincoln is trying to inspire those who are listening to

In President Abraham Lincoln's famed speech, The Gettysburg Address, one can plainly see the way he skillfully employed pathos, the appeal to emotion, to persuade and move his audience. The purpose of his speech was to push the people toward their common goal of victory, despite their horrific losses. In his address, two lines specifically stand out regarding his use of pathos. In the first, President Lincoln states “The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have consecrated it, far above our poor power to do so” (Miss & Daly, 245). Undoubtedly, he is appealing to the desire of his audience to honor their soldiers and their mission.

To being with, one effective rhetorical device that Lincoln uses in his speech is tone. In his Second Inaugural Address, Lincoln’s is very optimistic about the future as he describes his aspiration for the country’s reconciliation in a deep and sincere manner. During his speech, Lincoln mentions, “... to do all which may achieve and cherish a just and lasting peace among ourselves and with all nations….”

Never would Abraham Lincoln know that he would become famous after giving his Gettysburg Address speech in 1863, in front of thousands of people. This speech was given to recognize the soldiers who have sacrifice their lives to fight for America. Throughout this speech Abraham Lincoln uses anaphora, allusion and pathos in order to persuade his audience to show appreciation and honor those who had and continues to fight for the country and its people, and also to work together as a nation.

One rhetorical device he used often used was repetition. He frequently repeated phrases like “that nation, any nation and new nation” which he used on lines two, four, seven, and eighteen. Another source of repetition he used was at the end of the speech at lines nineteen and twenty, where he said “that government of the people, by the people, for the people”. Lincoln also uses pathos in his speech. He uses it on lines ten to eleven, “The Brave men, living or dead, who struggled here, have consecrated it, far above our poor power to add or detract”. Finally, one last example of the many literary and rhetorical devices he used is, a Call to Action. On lines thirteen through fourteen he uses that device, “to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced”. All of these literary and rhetorical devices Lincoln used, helped him speak to the

The tone of this speech was prideful and convicted. Abraham Lincoln describes the soldiers as “brave” and that they have honored the land their bodies had been strewn upon far more than the men who dug their graves and create a national cemetery had. His pride in his men is most evident when he states that they must dedicate their time to finishing the war the soldiers had “so nobly advanced.” He also shows a sense of conviction, and tries to persuade the audience that it is imperative they win the war so that “these dead shall not have died in vain” and that they ensure “that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom”. He is trying to convince his audience that the only way to ensure

Repetition is the final key rhetorical device in the address. Two examples of repetition are in the opening statement of the Gettysburg Address which set the repetitious nature of the whole speech. Common expression, such as “we,” “our,” and “us,” is used to tie the entire address together, but this set of repletion is outweighed by the other. The word “dedicated” has been used in the speech to not only tie the entire speech together but to also appeal to pathos, an emotional appeal. The words “I” and “you” are absent from the speech, instead Lincoln uses words such as “we,” “our,” and “us,” to include the people of the Union and the Confederacy to unite both parties as a whole under the one

The time of the speech was towards the end of the civil war, when the North and the South where still fighting after a bitter 4 year war. The battle of Gettysburg had already been fought and Lincoln had given the distinguished Gettysburg address just a few months before. He spoke of freedom, devotion, and the ideals for which he believed the Union stood. Lincoln had also already written the emancipation proclamation which had freed the slaves of the south in the previous year. The audience which

Many of the greatest presidential speeches were delivered during times of conflict. During his presidency, Lincoln spoke multiple times in regards to the Civil War. Shortly after being elected, Lincoln delivered the Gettysburg Address, which was followed by many more speeches including his second inaugural address. Both the Gettysburg Address and Lincoln’s second inaugural clearly display how Lincoln’s style of writing evokes emotion, and rally’s the audience. Not only were his words meaningful at the time but also can be a reminder of our country’s values today.

The Gettysburg Address is one of the most famous speeches in American history. The History Place indicates that on November 19, 1863 President Abraham Lincoln went to a battle field positioned in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania where three dreadful days of battle occurred called the Battle of Gettysburg. While he was attending the battle field to dedicate it as a national cemetery, he read his speech to the public. After the main orator, Edward Everett of Massachusetts, delivered his speech that lasted about two hours, it was Lincoln’s turn. Everyone was shocked that it only lasted a little over two minutes. The speech talked about the men who fought in the Civil War to help create the nation people have today: that it is only fair to honor them

“The Gettysburg Address” is a speech by the President of United States, Abraham Lincoln, which is one of the best representations of American history. It was produced by Lincoln during the Civil War, on November 19, 1863, at the commitment of the Soldiers’ National Cemetery in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. Abraham Lincoln carefully arranges the Address, which was not planned to be as important as other presentations that day; the Gettysburg Address ended up being one of his greatest and most important scripts just over two minutes. Lincoln repeated the equality embraced by the Declaration of Independence, and affirmed the struggle of Civil War fighting over the power from the secession crisis not just for the Union, but also for the principle