ipl-logo

A Rhetorical Analysis Of Margaret Thatcher's Eulogy Of Ronald Reagan

1298 Words6 Pages

The passing of who was once Ronald Reagan was one that affected not only the United States, but also the world. It was a loss we all felt, but it was felt more by those close to him. Margaret Thatcher, the former Prime Minister of Great Britain was one who's Reagan's death affected at a more personal level. During her eulogy she's described him as a great president, American and friend with the usage of rhetorical strategies such as anaphora, repetition, comparison, parallelism, her usage of pathos and ethos and the strong personalizing, to describe him and pay her respect to him. Ronald Reagan, while many things, one of his biggest accomplishments is his long presidency. Thatcher in her eulogy used repetition, comparison and emphasis on his …show more content…

During her eulogy, she discusses his effort against Russia throughout his presidency, and the victory against them is one of Reagan's greatest accomplishments. She creates a picture of a comparison between Reagan, who is presented as the hero and Russia as the villain. It is clear that Thatcher sees Reagan as a great leader of our country, she paints him as a powerful leader who defeated a threat towards us and showed great skills to be able to rule and lead our country. Thatcher repeatedly mentions Russia throughout her eulogy, when talking about them, she uses words such as "enemies" "evil empire" "weaknesses" "failures" and "communism" a drastic contrast from the words she used for him such as " freshness" "a man of good" "sincere." The contrast alludes to the idea that Reagan was the good guy, who defeated the evils of Russia, a proud success of his presidency. This is a comparison she regularly uses throughout her eulogy. Thatcher alludes to the idea of Reagan being a great president in lines 30-39. Thatcher uses anaprophy by repeating the word "Others.." for example "Others prophesied..." "Others saw..." and "Others hoped..." This helped emphasizes all the work he did, work …show more content…

It is evident that throughout her speech, Thatcher makes a point to personalize both their relationship and himself to provide us with insight to their depth of their friendship. During her eulogy, Thatcher shifts from referring to Reagan as "Ronald Reagan," his full name to then refer to him as "Ronnie." The contrast to the usage of his name provides the audience/reader with contextualization on their depth of their friendship. The usage of nickname implies how much she deeply cared for him and viewed him as a close personal friend, not just someone she remotely associated. Since nicknames are something we only do with our close friends, her switching calling him by a nickname we can only assume she used regularly with him, shows how close of friends, they were. Thatcher also makes a point to discuss the longitude of her friendship with Reagan, by pointing how she "worked closely with Ronald Reagan for eight of the most important years of their life." While she could have simply stated she knew him for a long time, she takes the time to mention a specific number. This allows the audience to further sympathize with her, but get a better picture on how they were more that just acquaintances, but that they were there for each other through all the ups and downs for almost a decade, how much of their life they spend next to each other. This allows the audience to identify their deep

Show More
Related
400 Words | 2 Pages

In Reagan’s eulogy Thatcher uses pathos to unite herself with the audience, through the mutual feelings of grief and sorrow over losing a friend. In the opening lines of the eulogy Thatcher creates pathos by using diction. In lines one and two Thatcher said that a “Great President… Great American… Great man….” has died. Her choice of using the word great instead of good or any other adjective, effects the audience by showing what kind of man Reagan was. Since death is a universally known topic, it is safe to say that everybody has experienced the pain of losing a great person to death.

Read More
492 Words | 2 Pages

Reagan was I different times in his life. She uses irony on how Mr., Regan was after he got shot. “In the terrible Hours after the attempt on his life, his easy jokes gave reassurance to an anxious world… the were truly grace under pressure.” She also quotes Mr. Reagan when he says “Whatever time I got left now belongs to the big fella upstairs”. That is how Margaret Thatcher describes Mr. Reagans Grace in everything he does.

Read More
313 Words | 2 Pages

Rhetorical Analysis- Ronald Wilson Reagan In Ronald Reagan’s speech The Time of Our Choosing (aka “The Speech”) in his speech he uses emotional, appeals to the plain folk and shows patriotism. Reagan goes into depth by stating that he is greatly appreciated to speak with america. Also addresses how us as a country need to think about what freedom means. Reagan begins his speech with a situation to US citizens how he was standing there humbled by the task we have giving him of being president, how he is grateful for the trust we have giving him to be president of the united states.

Read More
873 Words | 4 Pages

One minute and thirteen seconds. The last entry on the flight transcript: LOSS OF ALL DATA. On January 28, 1986, the Challenger Space Shuttle exploded 73 seconds into its flight. Aboard were five astronauts, one of whom, Christa McAuliffe, was ready to become the first school teacher in space. Sadly, none of the five survived.

Read More
1123 Words | 5 Pages

Being personal is a good way to unify people. In this speech President Regan uses a rhetorical canon; which is style, effectively. President Reagan personalizes his speech by talking directly to the families of the fallen heroes. Personalizing the speech was a good choice because it is a more effective way of talking about the situation rather than just talking about the incident an informing what happened. Also his choice of using the words “us” and “we” triggers unity among the nation.

Read More
421 Words | 2 Pages

The first sentence states,” Others prophesied the decline of the West. He inspired America and its allies with renewed faith in their mission of freedom .” In the first six sentences , she repeatedly uses “Others” (Reagan’s rivals) and “He” (President Reagan) as opposites facing each other during the climax of the Cold War. Next, Thatcher uses dialogue spoken between President Ronald Reagan and the leader of the Soviet Union Mikhail Gorbachev at the Geneva Summit. When talking about problems plaguing both the first world and second world powerhouses, Ronald Reagan told the leader of the country that he had been in constant conflict, “Let me tell you why we distrust you.”

Read More
610 Words | 3 Pages

Informing Americans that she worked with Reagan for eight years lets the citizens know that Thatcher and Reagan could have possibly knew a lot about each other. Thatcher uses ethos successfully in her eulogy because Americans can believe every single word that she says about

Read More
854 Words | 4 Pages

Ronald Reagan was an American politician who had become the 40th President of the United States of America. He had served eight years from 1981 till 1989. He was the President that would restore prosperity to United States and achieve “peace through strength” as they say. One of the top achievements that Reagan had accomplished

Read More
474 Words | 2 Pages

The speech conducted by former President Ronald Reagan titled “Evil Empire” was to address the National Association of Evangelicals. The speeches main topic is to focus on the evil that is among us. Former President Reagan conducted this speech at the time Congress was debating on a resolution for nuclear freeze. The speech’s main point is to inform and give hope to Christians to make sure America stays a free and great country.

Read More
704 Words | 3 Pages

Reagan: The Most Influential Some people may think any of the 45 United States Presidents are corrupt politicians, that they are only trying to accomplish reelection or simply making them stand out in history. Although, there is one president who stood out amongst them all, who “was committed to absolute integrity. His trustworthiness was recognized by those he dealt with in Congress, in politics, and foreign leaders throughout the world” (Meese). That man is Ronald Reagan, aka.

Read More
1747 Words | 7 Pages

Vargas 5 Ronald Reagan: America’s Leading Man Ronald Reagan, only movie actor to become president, was recognized for his conservative republicanism, fervent anticommunism, policies contributing to demise of the Soviet Union, appealing personal style, skilled as an orator which earned him the title “Great Communicator.” (Britannica) However, Reagan didn’t get this recognition easily, he worked really hard to get to there. Reagan got his start in politics in a televised 1964 address.

Read More
439 Words | 2 Pages

She uses informal diction to show her relationship between her and the deceased. Thatcher even calls the former president “Ronnie” to reflect on her personal and work relationship with Reagan. She creates a sense of nostalgia through her use of phrases such as “We talked regularly, both before and after his presidency…” She uses glittering adjectives to illustrate her point on how Reagan was a respectable man and how he was selfless for his country.

Read More
722 Words | 3 Pages

Margaret Thatcher, the British Prime Minister at the time, gave a eulogy to the grieving American people in honor of the late Ronald Reagan on June 11th, 2004. In her speech, Thatcher used rhetorical techniques to show the strength and principles of Reagan and project those values onto the American people. To project the ideas of strength and firm ideals, Thatcher used repetition, elevated syntax and the tone of optimism and sincerity to convey her message. In the beginning of the speech, Thatcher used repetition to show what Reagan had accomplished in his lifetime.

Read More
1089 Words | 5 Pages

To present his main points he will put into action during his presidency, Reagan uses logos on several occasions in his speech. Logically structured sentences that show his stance on the old government and a renewed one helps the audience to better understand why he believes what he does. For example, Reagan states, “Those who do work are denied a fair

Read More
610 Words | 3 Pages

Multiple presidents throughout history have presented their Inaugural speeches, but not all have been as influential as a speech presented with complete thought and various rhetorical devices. An inaugural speech or inaugural address is the first speech made by a President at a ceremony; this ceremony is called an Inauguration. In Ronald Reagan's inaugural speech, which was held on January 20th of 1981, he presents many Rhetorical Devices in which engage both to the audience's emotions and provide information throughout his whole speech. Ronald Reagan used many rhetorical devices and got his point across to the people which made his inaugural address nothing short of excellent. The first Rhetorical Device Ronald Reagan used in his Inaugural speech was the use of Pathos.

Read More

More about A Rhetorical Analysis Of Margaret Thatcher's Eulogy Of Ronald Reagan

Related Topics

Open Document