Question

In at least 150 words, describe the tone of Patrick Henry's Virginia Convention speech, including the rhetorical devices

Answer 1

Answer and Explanation:

Henry's speech at the Virginia Convention is titled "Give Me Liberty or Give Me Death" where he expresses all the anger he feels towards England's domination of American territory. In this speech, he presents a persuasive tone, where he encourages the listeners to agree with his arguments and also to revolt against the English dominance. To achieve this he uses the rhetorical device called "pathos" which is the device that evokes the sentimentality of people and uses the emotions of the public to persuade them. In Henry's speech, this rhetorical feature can be observed in several sentences, especially in sentences such as:

• " What terms shall we find which have not been already exhausted? Let us not, I beseech you, sir, deceive ourselves. Sir, we have done everything that could be done to avert the storm which is now coming on. We have petitioned; we have remonstrated; we have supplicated; we have prostrated ourselves before the throne, and have implored its interposition to arrest the tyrannical hands of the ministry and Parliament."
• "Why stand we here idle? What is it that gentlemen wish? What would they have?"
• "Sir, we are not weak if we make a proper use of those means which the God of nature hath placed in our power. The millions of people, armed in the holy cause of liberty, and in such a country as that which we possess, are invincible by any force which our enemy can send against us. Besides, sir, we shall not fight our battles alone."