Pathos In The Gettysburg Address

In "The Gettysburg Address" Abraham Lincoln addresses a speech to his peers to explain that the fighting men who died on the battlefield died with gallantry and honor. Therefore, he persuades his audience to honor the dead men because they died for a good reason. Abraham Lincoln expresses his message throughout examples of repitition, antithesis, and parallelism.

The Gettysburg battle was a major turning point for the Union, but was also a devastating battle because there were over 50,000 casualties. On November 19th, 1863 during the dedication ceremony for the National Cemetery in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, Abraham Lincoln gave his famous speech, “The Gettysburg Address.” Lincoln addresses his speech to a whopping audience of 15,000 people. Those 15,000 people consist of family and friends of the deceased soldiers, Union, and activists. His speech is only 272 words and less than three minutes long ,but is able to appeal to the audience. In “The Gettysburg Address,” Lincoln uses the rhetorical strategies allusion, formal diction, anaphora, antithesis, and parallelism to achieve his purpose to honor the soldiers who gave their lives and to remind the nation to keep fighting for liberty and equality that was constructed by the Declaration of Independence.

That was the reason for the visit to Gettysburg. It was a trip with Edward Everett to dedicate a newly created cemetery that was must needed in the country at the time due to all the fallen during the war. President Lincoln followed Mr. Everett’s two hour speech with his two minute speech which was decided in nature to sum up what Mr. Everett just talked about. A key thing to remember in the Gettysburg address was the importance not to forget about the fallen young Soldier’s on the battle field. This is mentioned in the in the second sentence of the second paragraph “ We have come to dedicate a portion of it, as a final resting place for those who died here, that the nation might live”. What the President is talking about is the importance of not just remembering the fallen but also reminding the audience of why they died. They died believing in a cause; weather it’s about uniting the country or making two separate

The 16th president of the United States of America, Abraham Lincoln, in his speech, “The Second Inaugural Address”, expresses his gratitude for the soldiers that died at Gettysburg and the importance of supporting the cause to preserve the Union. Lincoln’s purpose is to honor the lost souls of the brave me that sacrificed themselves out on that battlefield by dedicating this national cemetery and to encourage the people not to give up on the war. He adopts a strong and determined tone in order to boost citizens morale and give them hope that this war would be brought to a halt soon.

Furthermore, in Abraham Lincoln’s “Gettysburg Address” speech, he begins with the famous, “Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth, upon this continent, a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that ‘all men are created equal’.” A well known passage by Abraham Lincoln but holds a quote from the Declaration of Independence. “All men are created equal”. Now to give some background to the speech. Take note that Lincoln is speaking during the dedication of the Gettysburg Cemetery. The final resting place for more than 3,500 Union soldiers killed in the Battle of Gettysburg. On into the speech, Lincoln touches on the survival of the nation. “Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation, or any nation so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure.” He’s not only speaking to just the Union side of the war, but to both the Union and the Confederacy. Hoping that both see where the war is headed to. Gettysburg was a major turning point in the Civil War. Abraham Lincoln provides key notes to the people just in the time they needed them.

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.

"It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us—that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion—that we here highly resolve that" (Gettysburg Address, paragraph 3). When Lincoln was presenting his speech, he was at Gettysburg, standing on the ground where thousands of people had died not long before. While presenting his speech, he gives you this image and can show you the destruction that was caused right in front of you. Him standing there symbolized the importance of honoring those men. Additionally, Lincoln stated this, "The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have consecrated it far above our poor power to add or detract" (Gettysburg Address, paragraph 3). Where they are standing men have struggled; even more so have died, and when he says this these people would develop an image of the battle, where they are standing men of the same country; created the same had fought and killed one another. Lincoln showed people that they were all the same, the men were to be honored the

The importance of remembering, honoring, and dedicating is evident and presented in Abraham Lincoln's speech, "The Gettysburg Address. " Lincoln's objective is to bring forth recognition and honor that the dead deserve and to encourage the living amd breathing Americans to carry that honor and finish the hard work they fought for and sacrificed their lives for. By including the use of antithesis and parallelism, he makes his point valid as well as communicating with his audience. With Lincoln's passionate and political tone, he comes across a use of rhetorical devices such as antithesis in his speech. He firmly states, "The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here.

In the second paragraph of his speech he says, “We have come to dedicate a portion of that field, as a final resting place for those who here gave their lives that that nation might live” (Lincoln). In these lines, Lincoln played on the feelings and emotions of his listeners and thought that by dedicating the field to the young men who had died during the battle he would get the nation’s attention and thus spur the people of the nation into action, to end the war. If the people of the nation began to feel the responsibility that Lincoln imposed on them, these men gave their lives in order to preserve the “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness” (Jefferson) of the American people that were promised to them in the Declaration of

In the Gettysburg Address by Abraham Lincoln, Lincoln reminds the audience the reason why the soldiers died. He uses rhetorical devices throughout his speech to demonstrate how important this issue was. Lincoln uses parallelism and repetition to remind the audience that the soldiers did not fight to keep the North and South apart, but unite them as one whole nation.

In his speech, Lincoln first sets the topic of how not that long ago that all men are created equal. This statement was said after the civil war that killed about ten thousand Americans. At this time that meant a lot because the civil war was at its worst. Lincoln continues by discussing that even though this civil war was one of the worst but that it needed to be fought.

Lincoln expands on the significance of the sacrifices the citizens recently made for the betterment of the nation. Lincoln gives The Gettysburg Address standing on the battlefield soldiers died on to dedicate the grounds as a memorial to them and to honor the sacrifices they made. While remembering the fallen, he

Lincoln indicates, "we can not dedicate - we can not consecrate - we can not consecrate. " The evidence suggests that the ground where the dead died cannot be made any more sacred. The people who fought and died for a matter in that ground made it holy by having a devotion to a cause. Repetition connects the author's

Lincoln (1863) opens by discussing our new nation “conceived in liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal”. As Lincoln had instituted the Emancipation Proclamation earlier in the year, the war was becoming increasingly about slavery. Here Lincoln declares that the document our country was founded on, The Declaration of Independence, validates the Union cause and that abolition is an inherently American ideal. He then talks of the war and whether our nation as constituted will survive. He speaks of dedication; of the cemetery, of citizens, and most of all the soldiers who have died. Lincoln

Along with ethos and pathos, President Lincoln uses logos (logical appeals) in his delivery of the speech. “Fourscore and seven years ago…” is a use of logos because it is a piece of factual information by being a date in history, and a flashback referring to the establishment of America. Also, Lincoln says, “... a new nation, conceived in liberty and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.” Even today, we enjoy this concept of a free nation.