Rhetorical Analysis On A Woman's Right To Vote By Susan B Anthony

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Women’s right activist, Susan B. Anthony fought for women’s rights during the 1800’s and in her speech On A Woman's Right to Vote, she expresses her anger on the inequality woman experienced. Anthony’s purpose was to not only establish equality between men and women but simple voting rights for women. She embraces a stern and aggressive tone in her speech in order to accomplish her persuasive technique. Firstly, Anthony addresses the crime she had been accused of, which was the illegal casting of her vote. She states that the crime she is being accused of is not relevant because of the natural rights she beholds as a citizen of the United States. Anthony points out that no one and no state has the right to deny her of her individual freedom …show more content…

As well as Anthony’s appeal to logical information and basic human rights, she continues her speech using scare tactics as a way of persuasion. She wanted people to react with anger and a motivation to change the way things were. Anthony accomplished this with the use of rhetorical devices in her speech. One she used is repetition, Anthony continuously repeats the type of government women were facing. She called it an “odious aristocracy, a hateful oligarchy of sex, and so on. Anthony also identifies that the better educated ruled over the less, and the richer governed the poor. She wanted to not only seek justice for women but for every minority. She also wanted to show the ways of the corrupted government. “...this government is not a democracy. It is not a republic. It is an odious aristocracy; a hateful oligarchy of sex; the most hateful aristocracy ever established on the face of the globe…” (lines 22-23 ). The use of parallelism is evident and is used to contrast the American democracy to reality, which was the glorification of men that led to the unjust privileges women received. This rhetorical device creates for a strong impact on her audience, people did not want to hear that their government was flawed

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