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Patrick Henry's Speech Rhetorical Analysis

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In the 1700’s the British ruled the 13 colonies and the people of the colonies were in unrest by the British but no one wanted to take action in fear of the British. At the Virginia Convention, on 20 March 1775, great minds of the colony were deciding whether to take action. Patrick Henry persuaded the people of the Virginia Convention to take up arms and fight against the British to win their freedom and independence. He showed how powerful Pathos was by using it in his speech to heavily sway the hearts and minds of the members which persuaded them to fight against the British. “It is natural to man to indulge in the illusions of hope. We are apt to shut our eyes against a painful truth and listen to the song of that siren” (Henry 102) Henry uses pathos,saying this to the members to changes their mind on what they see. The people who think peace instead of war is the way are seeing what they think is hope,changing their feeling to happiness if they stay to the path of peace. Henry says the it is only an illusion,trying to make them doubt that peace is the right way because the illusion is not real,and these people do not want to open their eyes and see the “painful truth” that they refuse to look at. He says the british are …show more content…

Trust it not,sir; it will prove a snare to your feet. Suffer not yourselves to be betrayed with a kiss.” (Henry 102) Henry uses pathos,using words that have a deep meaning such as “insidious” and “kiss”. The insidious smile makes it seem like the no matter what you do to try to change the British minds such as with the petition, they will always find a loophole or by pass it to continue to have full control over the colonies. They also will make everything seem like it will be better in the future by “giving the colonies a kiss”, but they will be betrayed and be oppressed once the British have full control of the colonies,and by then,it may be too late to

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