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Patrick Henry Speech Rhetorical Analysis

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Liberty or Death The American Revolution is one of the greatest things The United States of America can take pride for. One American, Patrick Henry, had a strong voice of protest and spoke up about unfair treatment from British Parliament during his "Speech in the Virginia Convention" in 1775. Henry daringly urged and persuaded the citizens of the United States to show armed resistance to England. He sparked a feeling of revolutionary spirit to his audience by using many different methods of persuasion, which eventually led to the signing of the Declaration of Independence. In his speech, Henry used metaphors to show credibility, imagery to provoke emotions of rage and fear, and rhetorical questions to catch the attention of his audience. …show more content…

Pathos promotes either a positive or negative emotion or feeling, and in this case, Henry used pathos to evoke negative emotions. His audience could feel a sense of betrayal when he said that the colonists' petition had been received with "that insidious smile." Insidious means treacherous and crafty, and that's what Henry wanted the British to seem like in his speech. He was trying to show the citizens at the convention that Parliament was deceiving them into believing that they would accept the petitions in a positive manner, while he knew that the British were really just trying to keep the colonists under their rule. This angered his audience, and made them resent and fear the British when they realized how much power they had over …show more content…

His use of metaphors to establish credibility, imagery to provoke fear and rage, and rhetorical questions to catch the audiences attention are just a few of the different persuasive techniques Henry used in his speech. In the end, Henry was successful and did manage to get the colonists to go against Great Britain, and made many rethink what they had previously thought or believed in. He was straightforward and daring in his speech, ending it strongly and without any doubt or hesitation: "...give me liberty or give me

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