Patrick Henry Speech To The Second Virginia Convention Rhetorical Devices

Emphasising certain points lets the orator direct the audience to the major points since they cannot memorize the entire speech. Henry’s extensive use of the rhetorical question, a question which is not supposed to be answered, is one way he emphasized points in his speech. When people hear questions, they intuitively develop an answer in their heads. This process is what makes the rhetorical question so successful in emphasising ideas: it requires the audience to actively think about the point, which reinforces it more compared to passively listening. For example, Henry rhetorically asks, “But when shall we be stronger? Will it be the next week, or the next year?” These questions were used to emphasize how Great Britain was making the colonies weak. Another way Henry successfully guides the audience to the important ideas was through his use of hyperbole. Simply put, people better remember things that are ridiculous. Exaggerated ideas stand out from the rest of the speech, and therefore are better able to be retained by the audience. To summarize the end of the speech, Henry states that the colonies consist of an invincible force of three million. However, this is clearly false. The grand population of the colonies was three million, including loyalists, slaves, women, children, who at the time lacked the political

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.

On March 23rd, 1775, Patrick Henry delivered his Speech to the Virginia Convention. This speech becomes one of the most famous speeches in American Oratory. His audience were white men, that owned slaves and land, were wealthy, and men that received advanced education, compared to most men at that time. Considering all of these factors, Henry uses kinds of logic and emotion that appealed to them. In the Convention, Following a discussion about negotiating with the British, Henry presents a counter argument, saying that the colonists should fight against the British. Patrick Henry uses a variety of literary devices in his speech to defend his point, and convince the audience about his argument. The most significant literary device used by Henry

Patrick Henry uses diction and appeal to the authority to conjure up the people to believe in themselves to demonstrate ethos. Henry uses different vocabulary to make his speech more serious and important. Patrick Henry points out, “we have petitioned; we have remonstrated; we have supplicated; we have prostrated ourselves before the throne and have implored its interposition to arrest the tyrannical hands of the ministry and violence and insult; our supplications have been disregarded; and we have been spurned, with contempt, from the foot of the throne! In vain, after these things, may we indulge the fond hope of peace and reconciliation. There is no longer any room for hope”(Henry 2). Everything that they are doing is making a difference, but it takes time. The word choice of “petitioned”, “interposition”, “supplicated” and “discarded” will convince the people that Henry knows what to say, to his advantage, with his skills he worked with makes him a reliable

Have you ever needed to be persuade someone, to change or make them understand the positive viewpoint on the situation given? Within Patrick Henry’s “ speech to the Virginia Convention” he persuaded colonists to go to war with Britain by using these rhetorical techniques, imagery, repetition, rhetorical question, and appeal to ethos. Using such techniques, to either paint a picture of why to go to war, enforce an idea, for them to question their own ideas, and to be convinced that the Speaker is the one they should be listening to.

Henry appeals to this very effectively when he lists, “We have petitioned; we have remonstrated; we have supplicated; we have prostrated ourselves before the throne…” (Henry). The repetition of “we have” represents the actions the colonists have taken to get the British to respond to some of their demands. The parallel structure indicates that all actions are equally important, but they become more emphatic as the list goes on. The parallel structure of the final line of Henry’s speech, “…give me liberty or give me death!” shows the equivalence of the two subjects, liberty and death. He again states that one or the other will occur, and no compromise is possible. At this point, the people of Virginia carry massive respect towards Patrick Henry and are persuaded by his appeals and strategies. He gives the audience a chilling impact on the war. Henry points out that everyone is in it together and more specifically, he will be in it until death. He is very passionate about his ideas and will stand behind them until death does him apart which gives him more credibility; therefore, persuading the audience a great

Patrick Henry’s “Speech to the Virginia Convention” performed before the House of the Virginia Convention on March 23, 1775, argues that the colonies should no longer rely on Great Britain and encourages war against them. He worked to convince the men of the Virginia convention to stop trying to befriend the British, and instead, wage war against them. Patrick Henry employs various rhetorical devices such as hypophora, anaphora, and allusions to religion, along with persuasive appeals effectively work to convince the colonists that they should no longer be dependent on and trusting of the threatening practices of the British.

In his beginning statement, he politely state; “No man thinks more highly than I do of the patriotism, as well as abilities, of the very worthy gentlemen who have just addressed the House. But different men often see the same subject in different lights” (Give me liberty). According to this quote, Henry is respectfully introducing his position on what action to take. However, opposing his view with the rhetorical shift, “but,” and uses the word “light” to introduce the idea that light represent spiritual illumination. That his view is aligned with God’s purpose and that he will freely speak his own. Although Henry emphasizes that he is patriotic towards Britain, he has a different perspective on how to manage the combat with them. Throughout his speech, he repeated the word “sir” over and over which gives his audience a sense of important. From this distinguished use of ethos, Henry is able to gain a trust in his audience in which gives him more credibility along with increasing the rhetorical ethos of his

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.

Patrick Henry’s speech is used to convince tories and those who are undecided, on the topic of fighting back, to believe in his cause. Henry shows his belief in the patriot cause for freedom by allowing his emotions to seep through his writing as well as his words. “I know not what course others may take; but as for me, give me liberty, or give me death!” (24). The words “Give me liberty, or give me death!” have a powerful connotation upon his audience.

Patrick Henry begins by establishing that he is patriotic to his country as he affirms that no one but him "thinks more highly" of patriotism. Henry eventually builds ethos by his religious passion as he elaborates on the significance of light throughout this address. Henry

Patrick Henry uses rhetorical devices in his speech to catch the attention of his audience of the Virginia Convention. First of all, he uses allusion. He references a famous line from the Odyssey by saying, “...and listen to the song of that siren till she transforms us into beasts” (Henry 98). This line shows how negative the consequences of hope are. This is an allusion because he is using a quote from a famous book. He uses another reference to the Bible when he says, “...who having eyes to ee, but see not, who have ears to hear, but hear not” (Henry 101). This shows how hope is blinding the colonists. This is an allusion because he referenced the Bible, a well known book. When referencing God he says, “Sir, we are not weak, if we make

In 1836 the American colonies were at a crossroads. With no ideas on how to move forward, or how to break away from British control, colonists looked towards a leading figure to guide the way. This figure came in the form of Patrick Henry, a well-known American attorney who was willing to be the starting face of the revolution. With tensions in the colonies rising, many were willing to rebel against the newly implanted taxes imposed by the British. In his “Speech to the Virginia Convention”, Patrick Henry shows that he is willing to do anything to break away from English control. His strong use of persuasion and rhetoric make the Virginia Convention think about the possibility of rebelling against the British. This spark of revolt is all that is needed to set the revolution into motion, with it starting only ten years later. Through pathos, ethos and logos, Patrick Henry is able to make his purpose of persuading the colonists to unite against the Great Britain clear.

Everyday we read a piece of writing and just read it. You never think of the persuasive technique or emotions being used, going into depth with what you are reading. But today that all ends, you will be shown the persuasive technique, Patrick Henry uses in the Speech to the Virginia Convention. That persuasive technique Henry argues with is pathos, appealing to the emotions, feelings, and digging within one’s self.

Passionate for liberty and his nation, Patrick Henry was one of the most prominent Anti-Federalists of the Revolutionary War era. Henry’s influential speeches on the Stamp Act and to the Virginia Convention surely could have changed America’s course in history. The Speech to the Virginia Convention was given on March 23, 1775, among fellow delegates at the Convention. The question that plagued the colonies at the time was whether or not to go to war with the British for independence. Henry urged the Colonial politicians to commit an all-out revolt against the British Crown. Through personal promises, noteworthy consequences, and ultimatums, Henry establishes credibility, encourages action, and rallies the politicians.