Patrick Henry Speech In The Virginia Convention Rhetorical Devices

Words: 446
Pages: 2

Patrick Henry, the author of “Speech In The Virginia Convention” supports the idea of freedom and equality for the Americans. He uses rhetorical devices to express the purpose of his speech and to make it more impacting on the audience to purposely gain their attention. Throughout the speech Henry developes a questioning-like tone to grab the crowd and make them question their own thoughts, along with his beliefs as well.

Henry starts his speech off by showing respect for the audience. His purpose of doing so is to successfully open their ears and reassure them that he is doing this for a good cause because he is on their side. At the beginning of his speech he says, “I hope that it will not be thought disrespectful to those..”, and he also says, “very worthy gentlemen” to keep their attention from the start. By doing so, it shows that he is very respectful to them and they are respectful right back to him as well for supporting them and their opinions. While he continues to keep the audience connected he also appeals to patriotism. He does this to grab them even more considering the fact that most of the crowd mainly consists of patriots. The goal of this was to gain even more of their respect for his speech since he
…show more content…
This rills the crowd in and makes them frustrated which motivates them to do something about the situation by taking action. He says, “They tell us, sir, that we are weak” to evoke the people and make them realize that something has to be done sooner or later to make a difference.
In short, Patrick Henry concludes his speech by continuing to use his strategies. He keeps questioning the audience, rowling them up, respecting them, supporting their ideas and proving them right. This all ties together to make Henry successful in the Virginia Convention to constantly restate and elaborate his ideas on freedom and equality of the Americans and to make a difference in the