What Is Patrick Henry Rhetorical Devices

Patrick Henry’s speech is to persuade the audience to go to war with Great Britain. He does this flawlessly by using the following rhetorical strategies: imagery, repetition, and emotion including other rhetorical strategies, such as rhetorical

In 1775 Patrick Henry gives his “Speech to the Virginia Convention,” in order to persuade the delegates to join the fight for independence against the british by using ethos, logos, and pathos.

Patrick Henry adresses the delegates at the Convention of Virginia (1776) in his speech titled, “Give me Liberty or Give me Death!” Henry develops his claim by speaking candidly with a dramatic tone. He strengthens his credibility through his use and application of a ceremonious diction, and his syntax perfectly fits the occasion. In the speech he hopes to induce delegates into seceding from Great Britain to take arms against the English.

Patrick Henry was born in virginia in 1736. He was a lawyer and a politician who encouraged the separation from great britain, by delivering the “Speech to the virginia convention” on March 23 1775, 3 week before the actual war. He was a powerful speaker whose words helped sweep the colonist towards their Declaration of Independence. Rhetorical devices and rhetorical appeals are ways that the writer draws you into the reading. By using ethos pathos and logos, the author finds ways to entregue everyone in different ways.

During the Revolutionary War, writers and orators publicly revealed their thoughts on how to respond to Britain’s further subjugation of the American colonies. After a futile hope for reconciliation and failed petitions to the British government, several patriots, such as Thomas Paine and Patrick Henry, called for the colonists to take up arms against the British. Through Paine’s Common Sense and Henry’s “Speech in the Virginia Convention”, they displayed an adamant message for the colonies to fight immediately. Both used the rhetorical elements of ethos, pathos, and logos within their respective works, and their various applications to the three elements allowed for their arguments to reach all ears and influence the majority of the population towards the fight for independence.

In “Give Me Liberty or Give Me Death,” Henry utilized many rhetorical devices such as logos, pathos, and questions to successfully persuade the delegates at the Second Virginia Convention, in fighting against the British. He stated, “I have but one lamp by which my feet are guided; and that is the lamp of experience,” revealing his previous struggles with Britain.

The use of rhetorical analysis is very useful to make works appealing and contribute effectively to the author’s purpose. They are used in Patrick Henry’s extemporaneous speech “Give Me Liberty, or Give me Death.” Henry, a revolutionary leader, made this speech at the meeting of the Virginia convention on March 23, 1775. The purpose of this speech was to persuade the delegates of the convention and colonists to form a militia and start war against the British to declare independence. This speech Patrick Henry uses parallelism, pathos, and allusion to persuade the Virginia delegates to go to war against Britain.

In support of arming the Virginia militia to fight the British, leading advocate of American independence, Patrick Henry argues that his countrymen have to declare war against the British. To strengthen both the logic and persuasiveness, Patrick Henry deftly employs rhetorical questions, parallelism, and powerful diction. Henry makes subtle yet effective use of rhetorical questioning to persuade his audience that war is the path that leads to freedom.

Patrick uses this to affect the feeling of the audience by presenting this evidence because he calls them “warlike preparations which cover our waters and darken our land.” The use of the words “cover” and “darken” connote an image of suffocation, death, and total imprisonment. Continuing, Mr. Henry stated, “They are meant for us; they can be meant for no other”(Henry) which emphasizes the military preparations which the British are taking while using a balanced sentence with parallel independent clauses which repeat that same point. He ends the paragraph with a metaphor comparing the build-up of armies and navies to “chains” which the British will “bind” and “rivet.” This creates an effect on pathos through the imagery of imprisonment created through the metaphor. In the next paragraph, Henry presents more opposing arguments with his refutation. The opposing arguments are asking the colonists to try and argue with the British with entreaty and humble supplication. Henry refutes these arguments by saying that they have already tried all of these strategies to no avail. Henry’s rhetorical pattern throughout these paragraphs is presenting the opposing arguments through rhetorical questions and then to respond to some of the rhetorical questions with

Patrick Henry, which was known was “the orator of liberty”, was also known from his political speeches. Henry believed that we should go to war against Britain, in his speech that was given at the Virginia Convention. The Virginia Convention took place March 23, 1775. In the following, I will give Patrick Henry’s evidence in Rhetorical Appeals such as logos, pathos and ethos as to why we should go to war.

Liam Carr Mr. Rutledge Dual Credit English 4 21 September 2015 A Timeless Argument for Liberty Without Patrick Henry’s “Give Me Liberty or Give me Death” speech most of America’s founding fathers would either be forgotten or vilified today. Ironically many Americans today have forgotten Patrick Henry despite his contributions. Patrick Henry used rhetorical questions, context, ethos, pathos, and logos in his speech “Give me Liberty or Give me Death” to convince the colonists to prepare for war with Britain. Patrick Henry believes that war with Britain is inevitable and that the colonies would only be made weaker and less able to resist British tyranny the longer they tried to gain increased independence diplomatically.

He makes references like,”...listen to the song of that siren till she transforms us into beasts.” This is referring to the story of Odyssey. In this story, the sirens would lure sailors to their deaths. He used this allusion because he felt the British was luring the colonists into slavery. A biblical allusion that Henry refers to is Mark 8:18, Henry said,”...those who, having eyes, see not, and, having ears, hear not…” In Mark 8:18 this same phrase is stated, just a little differently. It is said as follows, “Having eyes, do you not see? And having ears, do you not hear? And do you not remember?”This allusion shows that the colonists do not understand what is going to happen if they do not act. One last allusion found in Henry’s speech is, “...different men often see the same subject in different lights…” He used the world light to show that his view is aligned with god’s purpose. These allusions helped relate his views to the bible and literary stories, which urged the crowd to comply with

On March 23, 1775, Patrick Henry was able to convince loyalist and colonist to go to war with England, who had the biggest army in the world. In the speech “In the Virginia Convention” he persuades his audience through several rhetorical devices. In his speech he uses imagery, diction, allusion, and rhetorical question. One of the rhetorical devices he uses to convince loyalists to fight England was imagery. Through imagery, Patrick Henry made his audience realize the situation they were in and how no one really cares enough to do something about the British.

Patrick Henry, one of the most persuasive figures in Virginia politics, delivered a riveting speech against the Stamp Act in 1765. Ten years later, when the Colonies decided they had enough of England, he delivered one of his most famous speeches, “liberty or death.” Using logic and emotion, Henry attempted to persuade his audience to initiate war. His audience, the conservative Colonists of the 1700s, believed him to be the most prestigious speaker of that time. Patrick Henry effectively used rhetorical devices, such as rhetorical questioning, references to God, and metaphors in order to secure the chances of the Colonists going to war with England.

This parallelism is showing a great example of pathos through him getting an emotion and feeling from all of his audience. Next, we have this parallelism which is “Give me liberty or give me death.” This is one of his most famous quotes and with it comes a huge meaning. Patrick wants them to fight back and through this quote he is saying that he wants liberty and justice. This is an example of pathos because it really brings out Patrick’s feelings on using force and gaining liberty against Britain.