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Patrick Henry Speech Analysis

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Patrick Henry Speech Analysis
Patrick Henry's Speech Analysis
In the speech, “Give Me Liberty, or Give Me Death,” Patrick Henry set out to convince the VirginaVirginia delegates that war with England was inevitable and the longer they waited the harder the war would be to win. Patrick Henry displays immaculate persuasion skills that disarm his audience from favoring reconciliation with Britain. Henry uses rhetorical strategies, such as, allusions, parallelism, and repetition to captivate his audience and appeal to their emotions. Henry institutes effective use of the range of appeals, ethos, logos, and pathos cementing the speech in physical and mental wholeness. These devices and strategies being used result in highly persuasive, motivational, and emotional words and ideas which produce an extremely powerful speech. The ethos contribution of Henry's address expresses how passionate he is when discussing his country. Patrick Henry states, “No man thinks more highly than I do of patriotnismpatriotism, as well as abilities, of the very worthy gentlemen who have just addressed this house.” When Henry asserts his devotion through this quote, he is exhibiting, to the House as well as others, his moral beliefs that establish his competence of the situation while gaining the trust of the people. Another example of ethos would be when Patrick Henry says, “...but as for me, give me liberty, or give me death.” This quote is the most significant in entire speech because so much allegiance is being proliferated by just these few words. Henry is using parallelism to declare his belief of supporting his country and fighting for its people. He establishes his place amoungstamongst the people of the country and gains the trust and respect of many by simply being a patriot. As a patriot, Patrick Henry is faced with clarifying to the citizens that no matter what percausionspersuasions are taken, war will come. “The war is inevitable and let it come! I repeat it, sir, let it

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