Patrick Henry Rhetorical Devices

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On March 23, 1775, Patrick Henry, a Virginia Lawyer, used rhetorical devices in his speech “Give me Liberty or give me Death!”. The rhetorical devices created an emotional and powerful speech. It motivates the Virginia house members to raise a militia to fight against the British army. Rhetorical devices are a patterns of ideas that stir the emotions, create an emphasis by repetition, and persuades the audience to action. In the “Give me Liberty or give me Death speech, Henry uses the rhetorical device of repetition, parallelism, and rhetorical questions. Repetition, using the same words, as in; “The war is inevitable —and let it come! I repeat it, sir, let it come” (Ungar), “We must fight! I repeat it, sir, we must fight!”(Unger), and