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Rhetorical Analysis Of Winston Churchill's Speech

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On May 13th, 1940 Winston Churchill spoke for the first time as Prime Minister of Britain in the House of Commons, delivering one of his famous speeches “Blood, Toil, Tears and Sweat”. Churchill did not receive a very excited welcoming, due to the uncertainty in the crowd as they were facing a serious war with German Nazis at the same time as this change of government was taking place. Churchill used his speech to motivate the people in face of the impending devastation that Britain would have to face going to war. Churchill’s main purpose of the speech is to assure the audience that he is taking his new position in government very serious. Churchill opens his speech by speaking about what he has accomplished at that point, in rebuilding the …show more content…

The theme of the speech turns from trust building into a call-to-arms. Patriotism can be found throughout the end of his speech, rallying the people starting with their hearts. To do this, Churchill states that the policy is to, “…wage war, by sea, land and air, with all our might and with all the strength that God can give us; to wage war against a monstrous tyranny, never surpassed in the dark and lamentable catalogue of human crime.” The acts of Hitler caused many people to be shocked that a human being could do such terrible things, and in this speech Churchill backs up those feelings of being appalled, by calling out the very demon himself. Churchill goes on to say that the aim is, “…victory; victory at all costs, victory in spite of all terror, victory, however long and hard the road may be; for without victory, there is no survival.” This is also clearly an emotional appeal, considering that in times of war the main thoughts are both victory and survival. Churchill states plainly that without victory, there will be no survival of the world as it was back then. That things would change for the worse if they were to fail their mission of victory. Churchill continues on speaking about survival, his tone one set for victory, for the continuation of the British Empire. Churchill once again builds character with his audience at the end of the speech, saying, “I take up my task with buoyancy and hope. I feel sure that our cause will not be suffered to fail among men.” This ties all of the points together, the first part showing that he has dedication to his new title as Prime Minister, and the latter part giving hope to the people that their victory will

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These two emotions are powerful, but he exaggerates his points in such a way, that it could make people fearful that the strength of Britain is far too advanced to fight back yet they have no choice. His words are forceful and demands the people must accept their fate as a part of this war that is believed by him to be “inevitable--and let it come! I repeat it, sir, let it come” (Henry, par. 4). His speech uses religion and patriotism to persuade the ones who are not fearful of war, when Thomas Paine brings all aspects of American life into the face of danger, so all people will fight for the things that they have worked for without Britain guiding

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This speech did that and established Winston Churchill as one of the greatest leaders in British history, within his first few months of taking office as Prime Minister of Great Brittan. While presenting this speech Churchill used a multitude of rhetorical devises to engage and rally the public. He used devises such as repetition, allusion, and use of ethos, pathos and logos. Churchill’s’ rhetoric combined with hi tone and emotion during his

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Winston Churchill, in his informational speech, “Their Finest Hour” (June 18th, 1940) explained the military situation and rallied his people for what he probably knew was going to be a tremendous struggle against the Axis. Winston Churchill supports his thesis through, rhetorical questioning, pathos, ethos and logos. Churchill’s purpose was to inform and rally the people in order to strengthen their confidence in Britain 's military. Churchill was addressing the people of Britain as he uses a formal tone, in explaining the military situation. Winston Churchill was born into an aristocratic family, on November 30, 1874 in Woodstock, United Kingdom.

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Churchill uses a praeteritio. He passes on darker days by saying that they shouldn’t talk about them. “Do not let us speak of darker days: let us speak rather of sterner days.” Churchill then goes on from saying this to talking about how these are great days. He does this for empathis about how things are getting

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In his speech titled “Their Finest Hour,” delivered in 1940, British Prime Minister Winston Churchill had a clear purpose: to inspire and uplift the British people during the early days of World War II. Let’s break down the three types of purposes he used. Informative Purpose: Churchill shared facts about recent military events. He explained the challenges faced by British and French troops, including the loss of divisions and equipment during the Dunkirk evacuation.

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The aforementioned quotes illustrate the extent of Winston’s desire for change and revolution, which can be inferred by the structure, language, and context present in the quotes. For example, the leading quote displays Winston’s desperation for change, as seen by the use of “hope” and the simple sentence structure of the statement. The use of “hope” shows that Winston’s desires hinge upon the proles, thereby illustrating the extent of his nonconformity; he is willing to place the burden of his own humanity upon the undereducated masses of society, because they are not restricted by the party’s orthodoxy, as opposed to viewing them as mindless cattle. Similarly, the simple sentence structure of the leading quote displays the certainty of

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820 Words | 4 Pages

Churchill then realized that Adolf Hitler and his Nazi were coming to England to invade the state. Analysis Blood, Sweat and Tears” exploited numerous rhetorical strategies consisting of pathos and ethos in order to achieve the purpose of convincing the citizens to trusts in him and combat the inhumane Nazi Army. The analysis of the various features of the speech is as below: Diction Winston Churchill uses some words in his speech that is mostly not used among speeches to an audience. For example, Churchill’s use of the words “Mr. Speaker and Sir”. The purpose of using such words is to establish an appeal of trust and a sense of regard for the House of Commons.

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On March 5th 1946, not even one year after the overwhelming victory of the Alliance over the Nazis in World War II, Winston Churchill, former Prime Minister of the United Kingdom at the time (1940 – 1945), was invited to deliver a speech at Westminster College, in Fulton, Missouri. It is commonly known as “The iron curtain speech”, but Churchill refers to it as “The Sinews of Peace” at the end of the same. This speech reflected his own personal opinion, and was aimed at the people of the United States of America, his countrymen across the Atlantic ocean and other nations. The nature of it is political, taking into consideration the historical context within it occurred: tensions between the Western Bloc (composed of the United States of America,

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This was the first time that another leader called out the Soviet Union for being a threat to the European values and it was labeled “The Iron Curtain Speech”. Churchill understood that even though the war was over the west could not just let the Soviet Union attempt to destroy the European way of life and that he could not sit by and let them just try to put a stronghold on Europe by spreading communism. He refused to let this happen even if he was worn out from WWII, he couldn’t be complacent and he fought back and never let up and pushed his allied nations to help protect the ones who needed it the

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Churchill felt that Great Britain should stay in the war and continue fighting despite the other government officials' views. They felt a resurrection of their army was impossible due to the lack of soldiers and the known strength of the Nazis. The characters in the movie are an exact representation of who they were in real life. Every character shown in the movie impacted what decisions Churchill made in real life. World War Two takes place throughout the whole movie which is what causes Churchill to make the decisions he did.

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But the misery of our people is terrible!” made it sound like he really cared about the people by saying how terrible it is that the people of Germany were in a depression and how they should trust him because other countries destroyed the trust thus destroying the economy. “Germany must not and will not sink into Communist anarchy.” Lastly when he said that it made him sound a lot more trustworthy and like he knew what he was doing more than what he did. Hitler was a really good speaker for how he acted like he wanted to better everyone’s life. With his use of hand gestures, how he would start with his voice being low than get really loud to make him seem so much more emotional and how he would word things to make him seem like a more caring person than people thought.

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Winston Churchill, the former prime minister of the United Kingdom, was well known for his two speeches “Blood, Sweat, & Tears” and “We Shall Fight on Beaches” as he expressed his desire to serve his country. Through the use of rhetorical devices and word choice, he was able to empower the British citizens and encourage Parliament to take action against these tyrannous acts. On May 13th, 1940, Churchill stood before the House of Commons and delivered his infamous speech “Blood, Sweat, & Tears”. This speech was given during the early days of World War II when the British people were facing the threat of invasion from Nazi Germany, Winston Churchill pieced together this document to communicate with the country and address their fears. In this speech, he used many rhetorical devices but the one that really conveyed the message was rhetorical questions.

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587 Words | 3 Pages

Churchill was speaking to the members of parliament, England, and the world, although only parliament got to hear it in the moment. As with any public speech by the Prime Minister, he expected this one to be retold in the papers the next day. With this expectation, Churchill had to tailor his speech not just to his peers in parliament, but also the world. He had to be able to motivate the people, and to reassure them that although Dunkirk was a loss that they would still prevail. In Churchill’s speech, he tells of how the British and French narrowly escaped at Dunkirk.

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477 Words | 2 Pages

The speech did, in fact, mark the beginning of the rising tensions resulting in the Cold War. Churchill’s speech, overall, greatly influenced world relations after World War

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Rhetorical Essay Analysis World War II is a time of great struggle for humanity, especially for those within the midst of the battlegrounds. During the June of 1940 in an attempt to boost his citizen’s morale and confidence, Winston Churchill, then Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (UK), gave his speech “We shall fight on the beaches” at the British House of Commons. The rhetorical purpose of this speech is to convince the people of the UK that they have a fighting chance against the Axis forces, even if the worst comes to show. In order to gain people’s support, Churchill employed the rhetorical strategies of historical evidence and emotional appeal.

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