How does a King create such a great speech that his listeners would follow him into battle against overwhelming odds? In Shakespere’s text “King Henry V”,Henry gives his troops motivation by using ethos, pathos, and logos. Henry uses ethos to show his soldiers how to fight, he uses pathos to play on their emotions, and he uses logos to provide step-by-step directions.
The entire speech employs ethos because Henry is the King and an expert at warfare. His speech shows his skills at waging battle and encouraging his troops (Shakespeare). Providing this evidence shows that Henry knows how to fight in war. This proves that Henry is using his authority to help his soldiers. Henry V is a King. Therefore, anything he says becomes ethos. Although everything Henry says is ethos, there is also pathos in the text.
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His speech shows emotions such as empathy, bravery, and sternness. “Once more unto the breach, dear friends, once more; or close the wall up with our English dead” (Shakespeare). This shows that Henry was telling the troops to either fight or die. In the text, Henry states that their relationship is similar to brothers. “We few, We happy few, we band of brothers” (Shakespere). This makes us realize how close the soldiers are and how much they mean to each other. Reading this proves to us that Henry uses emotion to persuade the soldiers. Not only is there ethos and pathos in the text, but there are also