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Rhetorical Analysis Of Susan B. Anthony's Speech

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In 1872 women did not have the right to vote and were not treated as equals to men. Susan B. Anthony, a leader for women's suffrage in her time, illegally voted in the presidential election that year. She believed that it is a basic human right for people to vote, and women should not be deprived of that right. She gave a speech explaining her civil disobedience using many tactics to get her audience to side with her in her fight for justice. In her speech, Susan B. Anthony used moral equivalence, logos, and anaphora to appeal to her audience and get them on her side. To begin, Woman were not seen as equal to men in this time period. To be heard or taken seriously as a woman was very difficult. To combat this, Susan relied heavily on moral …show more content…

Women were seen as emotional and naive compared to men. Thus, Susan used logos in her speech instead of trying to appeal to emotions so that she could give herself the best chance of being seen as just as logical as a man. She uses evidence from the constitution to back up her claims because no man could doubt the word of the constitution even when said by a female. She uses the line “We the people of the United States, in order to form a more perfect union, establish justice, insure domestic tranquility…” In using this line in her speech, she challenges the men that oppose her are also opposing the constitutional rights. This use of the constitutional phrase is something that the men who judged her could not fight against. Like before, she draws a connection between a woman’s right to vote and the right stated in the constitution that all men live under. In proposing this, Susan made it clear that if you fought against women’s right to vote, you were fight against the constitution and laws that make america what it is. This leaves almost no room for men to challenge her …show more content…

She acknowledges that to get her point across she would need to be very clear in what she was proclaiming. Like before, she knows that men will not see her word as equal to theirs. So repeating important parts of her speech would help to emphasize her poing.To give an example, in promoting her side of the argument, she repeats the word “we.” She says “We the people; not we, the white male citizen; nor yet we, the male citizens; but we, the whole people...” This makes her words stand out from the rest of her speech and catches the attention of the men she is trying to persuade. She uses anaphora again later in her speech, repeating the phrase “To them.” Using this form of repetition helps her get her point across more clearly and sets an almost demanding tone. This demanding nature of the speech makes her views seem superior and almost forces people to pay

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