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Elizabeth Cady Stanton's 'The Destructive Male'

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One of the key elements that makes Elizabeth Cady Stanton’s, “The Destructive Male”, speech so memorable and inspiring, is her use of creative language. This speech glides effortlessly into the deep ravines of our memories as the loaded words such as, “destructive force”, “loving war”, and “discord”, carry heavy connotations. “I urge a sixteenth amendment”, says Stanton. She isn't demanding or violently requesting, she’s urging and pleading which is an important factor to take note of as it is the opening line of her speech, which up the initial moving tone. In the beginning of her speech Elizabeth Cady Stanton lists adjectives and loaded words to describe male dominated society. “The male destructive force, stern, selfish, aggrandizing, loving war, violence, conquest, acquisition, breeding in …show more content…

The first Paragraph is the most important, as it sets the tone for the rest of the speech; however, the tone shifts from the harsh and abrasive harping on men, to how society can move forward and bring about balance if women have more of a say in how things are run. Towards the end of the speech Stanton’s tone remarkably differs from the initial tearing down of men, to the pleading for equality, “There is a striking analogy between matter and mind, and the present disorganization of society warns us that in the dethronement of women we have let loose the elements of violence and ruin that she only has the power to curb.”. Here Stanton rests the current chaos of society on both genders shoulders when she says “we” rather than addressing just men. She concludes her speech eloquently and with professional composure, pleading with the government to aid the repair of society with women by man’s

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This evidence is portraying how when women get married their freedom and rights are being taken away by men. What Stanton is arguing in her statement is that women must make a promise to give compliance to their husband in order for their husband to become their master. When the husband becomes their “master” it's technically saying that women are their property. The way Stanton uses the word “master” in her statement she is showing the relationship between the women and husbands to show how men had the total control of women’s rights.

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Stanton’s “Declaration of Sentiments” was the first convention for women rights. Its purpose was to address the status of American women. Stanton felt that women were feeling they were getting shorted and disrespected of their rights. It was a list of resolutions to the problems dealing with their rights. She also included needs for women’s right to education, property, and vote.

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Women had to endure many negative attitudes towards them during the Women’s Suffrage Movement. For example, men thought that women should take care of the children. One man who thought this was Senator Leighton. He was always expecting his wife Emily Leighton to watch the children all day, everyday without a break for herself. They thought that the women were their little slaves while they went off to have a great day with their acquaintances.

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By repeating the words “we” and “our” (1) Cady Stanton is able to appeal to her audience thereby increasing her credibility. She includes herself throughout the speech in hopes to unify the women of America so they may realize the world in which they inhabit and calls upon them to join the movement. However, Ms. Stanton does not include the males in her speech which may arouse questions of how she hopes to accomplish her goal without them, taking into consideration that they inhabit a patriarchal society. Nonetheless, Ms. Stanton assures her audience of who she is attempting to unify, which clearly, are the women. Furthermore, by identifying who Ms. Stanton is addressing in her speech allows for the audience to understand why she repeatedly used “we” and “our” throughout her speech.

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Text two explicitly asserts, “When the meeting time arrived, she would step back and let Stanton do what she did best—give a fine, humorous, well-planned address.” This provides us with a detail that describes what she could fulfill. Text one plainly states, “In fact, the women asked a man to preside at the convention.” This sentence vaguely presents readers without any specific particulars about this man. Text two also says that Anthony reminded Stanton of the injustices women have faced to keep her motivated.

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In the passage, the Declaration of Sentiments by Elizabeth Cady Stanton is shown and reveals the perspective of a woman who believes that her gender is being oppressed. Stanton makes this clear when she quotes the Declaration of Independence; “We hold these truths to be self-evident […] that they [men and women] are endowed by their creator with certain inalienable rights.” She goes on to argue that women have never been allowed to practice these inalienable rights, but have rather been forced to follow laws in which they have no power. Some women deeply desired to hold high positions in the studies of theology, and medicine, but in reality, they were all forced to work at home. Those who were allowed to work outside of home were being robbed of their accomplishments and little wealth by their husbands.

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In this piece she addressed many of the issues women of that time were facing. Although it mainly was written to address the issues white women faced due to the way white women were the main focus of the women’s movement at that time. Stanton wrote this with the help of her fellow women that were at the Seneca Falls convention, due to their only being white women there it strictly addressed their issues. This document was meant to be a very explicate critique of the declaration of independence and the state of America as a whole at that time.

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Stanton deviates from Jefferson’s patterns because she perceives equality of the sexes to be a major general notion of independence, whereas the Declaration of Independence see’s equality of men and politics to be a major notion of independence. Stanton includes a list of resolutions in her essay of things that needed to be arranged for the freedom of women and illustrates, “Resolved, That woman is man’s equal-was intended to be so by the Creator, and the highest good of the race demands that she should be recognized as such.” (Stanton 559). In this area of her resolution, Stanton manifests that women are equivalent to men and that even the highest authority has declared for this to be correct. Another area Stanton adjusts is Jefferson’s s declaration that, “all men are created equal” (551) and changes it to “all men and women are created equal” (557) in order to show that women deserve just as much as men do for they are both equivalent.

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America Adame Mrs.Gonzalez Engl 1302.S63 12 Feb ,2018 Women’s Suffrage Elizabeth is very well known for empowering the first movement in pushing for society especially men recognize women as actual citizens. She is especially known for the speech she did in Seneca falls and her use of rhetorical devices to make sure she has people’s attention and show how serious she was about the subject. In Seneca Falls Keynote Address, Elizabeth Cady Stanton uses anaphora’s, metaphors and allusion to persuade the audience to show that women should be treated equally just like men and should be more appreciated. Due to this speech it started the whole revolution in making sure women would be granted more rights as American citizens.

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Stanton delivered the speech Solitude of Self it is maybe one of the most influential pieces of literature of in the fights for women’s rights she first makes her point of women still have natural right even though they are not me. “The point I wish plainly to bring before you on this occasion is the individuality of each human soul; our protestant idea, the right of individual conscience and judgement. ”-”Solitude of Self, 1”. She is saying that not just women but each individual soul has their own right to make there own decisions in their own conscious minds without being controlled by another soul. Stanton then made a big point about a women being an important part of society “if we consider her as a citizen, as a member of a great nation, she must have the same rights all other members, according to the fundamental principles of our government.

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The authors had the same rationale, to make their objective for equality of both genders and regulate their demands. During Stanton’s speech, she encouraged women to stand up for the rights that they were denied to them and get to a place where they actually want to be, without feeling as if they are

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Making the view of women-hood one of being civilly dead in the eyes of the law in that day and time. One major resolved issue “That the women of this country ought to be enlightened in regard to the law under which they live, that they may no longer publish their degradation by declaring themselves satisfied with their present position, nor their ignorance , by asserting that they have all the right they want. ”(275) . Stanton worte her rebuttal in a postive manner. Meeting with other like minded women to slove problemmatic issues surrounding there country and womens values

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Men should have absolute rule over society. This was the mindset back when women's rights activists were considered rare and unorthodox. In A Declaration of Sentiments and Resolutions, Elizabeth Cady Stanton rejects the status quo and finds solutions to the overbearing problems she sees within society. A concept that has greatly been dreamt over throughout history has been challenged, by a woman. Elizabeth Cady Stanton exerts repetition, allusion, and pathos to express her opinions in favor of increasing women's rights.

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The passages are about the beggining of womens rights. Elizabeth Cady Stanton was a giant contribution. Both passages express that. “The Birthplace of Women’s Rights” by Howard Mansfield and “A Powerful Partnership” by Jean McLeod and Karen Gibson both tell how Elizabeth begin and what she did to contribute. They tell about her story and how she helped get us here.

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