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Rhetorical Analysis Of Susan B. Anthony's Speech

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In 1872 women did not have the right to vote and were not treated as equals to men. Susan B. Anthony, a leader for women's suffrage in her time, illegally voted in the presidential election that year. She believed that it is a basic human right for people to vote, and women should not be deprived of that right. She gave a speech explaining her civil disobedience using many tactics to get her audience to side with her in her fight for justice. In her speech, Susan B. Anthony used moral equivalence, logos, and anaphora to appeal to her audience and get them on her side. To begin, Woman were not seen as equal to men in this time period. To be heard or taken seriously as a woman was very difficult. To combat this, Susan relied heavily on moral …show more content…

Women were seen as emotional and naive compared to men. Thus, Susan used logos in her speech instead of trying to appeal to emotions so that she could give herself the best chance of being seen as just as logical as a man. She uses evidence from the constitution to back up her claims because no man could doubt the word of the constitution even when said by a female. She uses the line “We the people of the United States, in order to form a more perfect union, establish justice, insure domestic tranquility…” In using this line in her speech, she challenges the men that oppose her are also opposing the constitutional rights. This use of the constitutional phrase is something that the men who judged her could not fight against. Like before, she draws a connection between a woman’s right to vote and the right stated in the constitution that all men live under. In proposing this, Susan made it clear that if you fought against women’s right to vote, you were fight against the constitution and laws that make america what it is. This leaves almost no room for men to challenge her …show more content…

She acknowledges that to get her point across she would need to be very clear in what she was proclaiming. Like before, she knows that men will not see her word as equal to theirs. So repeating important parts of her speech would help to emphasize her poing.To give an example, in promoting her side of the argument, she repeats the word “we.” She says “We the people; not we, the white male citizen; nor yet we, the male citizens; but we, the whole people...” This makes her words stand out from the rest of her speech and catches the attention of the men she is trying to persuade. She uses anaphora again later in her speech, repeating the phrase “To them.” Using this form of repetition helps her get her point across more clearly and sets an almost demanding tone. This demanding nature of the speech makes her views seem superior and almost forces people to pay

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The strategies that Garrett Hardin used to develop his idea in “Lifeboat Ethics” was rhetorical devices and logical fallacies mainly in the sense that he used metaphors rhetorical questions and circular arguments as well as ethos and logos statements. In Susan B Anthony’s speech after being convicted of voting she argues that though she voted in a presidential election during a period when American women weren’t allowed to to vote she states that she didn’t commit any crime and that she was only exercising her citizen’s rights. She succeeds proving her point because she although it was illegal for women to vote she explains that the constitution says that every person should have the human right to vote and own land. With that she ask if a women is a person just to let the fact that she’s right sink in.

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Thousands of women have screamed at the top of their lungs, clawed at the patriarchy, and tirelessly fought for their rights as citizens of the United States of America. From the beginning of mankind, women have been labeled as inferior to men not only physically, but mentally and intellectually as well. Only in 1920 did women gain the right to voice their opinions in government elections while wealthy white men received the expected right since the creation of the United States. A pioneer in women’s suffrage, Susan B. Anthony publicly spoke out against this hypocrisy in a time when women were only seen as child bearers and household keepers. Using the United State’s very own Constitution and Declaration as ammunition, Anthony wrote countless

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“She declared that the vote was implied right under the Constitution, by virtue of the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments.” (Victoria C. Woodhull) After this statement Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony invited her to speak at a convention of the National Woman Suffrage Association. They believed that since the Fifteenth Amendment stated that the states couldn’t deny citizens the right to vote on the grounds of race then women should be able to vote as well because “Women, white and black, belong to races, although to different races. A race of people comprises all the people, male and female.

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Therein, she expressed her ideas about women 's suffrage. She gave a talk to encourage American men and women to give political rights to women. In her speech, she states that both men and women are created equal and hence due to this equality women should have political rights too. Throughout her speech she emphasizes the discrimination against women, using the right to vote, the roles in marriage, and unequal wages as her evidence.

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The theme of both of the Passages; The Watsons Go to Birmingham and Susan B Anthony Dares to Vote is being different. In Susan B Anthony Dares to Vote, Susan B Anthony is Different because she is a girl. Back in the 1800s women were treated unfairly. The Watsons have colored skin and have to drink out of different fountains,Go to different schools and also they have to eat in the “back” instead of eating at a table. Although they have the same theme they don’t take the same risks.

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Susan B Anthony Dares To Vote and Don’t Give Up The Fight share the same theme of overcoming obstacles but have different evidence to support it. Susan B Anthony Dares to Vote shows how Susan B Anthony overcame obstacles moreover, she could have been arrested, but, she kept fighting. In the passage Don’t Give Up The Fight, she had to overcome obstacles without letting anyone know that she cared about the bullying. Susan B Anthony Dares to Vote shows how one fierce woman fought for the rights she knew she deserved. In the text it says “Gangs of ruffians sometimes broke into her lectures and threw rotten eggs at her.”

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How they couldn’t vote and how they didn’t have the rights that white men had. But throughout the whole speech, she is trying to convince people to start a big ordeal on how white men are not the only ones able to vote. In conclusion, the author is speaking to her fellow women and the to the wrong white men of the United States. Her purpose of making this speech is that woman have just as much right to vote as white men do.

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“Until woman has obtained ‘that right protective of all other rights -- the ballot,’ this agitation must still go on, absorbing the time and the energy of our best and strongest,” wrote Susan B. Anthony as she fought to equalize the rights of different genders. Susan B. Anthony is a  woman known for her many accomplishments in her life. She has influenced both abolitionists and suffragists, as well as those who wanted to protect children. Daring and bold, Susan B. Anthony created a lasting impact to women and slaves alike. From her early life, Anthony was exposed to more knowledge and learning capabilities than most other women in her time period.

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Susan B Anthony was a woman advocating women's suffrage. She recognized that without the right to vote women would keep fighting the same battle for equality over and over again. She traveled many miles, giving hundreds of speeches, gathering thousands of signatures on a petition to press for womens suffrage. One way the documents are the same is they both have the same wording. One example of this is they both say, “We hold these truths to be self-evident.”

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Susan B. Anthony, a woman who was arrested for illegally voting in the president election of 1872, in her “On Women's Right to Vote” speech, argues that women deserve to be treated as citizens of America and be able to vote and have all the rights that white males in America have. She begins by introducing her purpose, then provides evidence of how women are citizens of America, not just males by using the preamble of the Constitution, then goes on about the how this problem has became a big problem and occurs in every home in the nation, and finally states that women deserve rights because the discrimination against them is not valid because the laws and constitutions give rights to every CITIZEN in America. Anthony purpose is to make the woman of America realize that the treatment and limitations that hold them back are not correct because they are citizens and they deserve to be treated like one. She adopts a expressive and confident tone to encourage and light the hearts of American woman. To make her speech effective, she incorporates ethos in her speech to support her claims and reasons.

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This obviously shows she is on the side of women's rights in her argument and again, quoting the Declaration of Independence, gives her the quality of formality using lines from a piece that dear to American

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For a very long time, the voting rights of the citizens have been a problem in the US. It started out with only men with land being able to vote, and then expanded to white men, and then to all men. However, women were never in the situation, they were disregarded and believed to not be worthy enough to have the same rights as men. They were essentially being treated as property, therefore having no rights. But, in Susan B. Anthony’s speech, she hits upon the point that women are just as righteous as men.

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