Rhetorical Techniques In Henry's Speech

Henry makes it clear that he knows England has betrayed the colonist. He also knows that something needs to be done about this. Henry says, “to be betrayed with a kiss.” (paragraph 3) The meaning of this quote shows that England has tried to betray the colonist in a nonviolent way to try to keep the colonist on their side, but Henry won’t let that happen. England has attempted to betray the colonist without looking like the bad guy. This is why Henry used that allusion. Another thing that Henry says that proves Henry feels like England has betrayed them is when he said, “...are fleets and armies necessary?” (paragraph 3) In this quote it is shown that Henry feels like England didn’t need fleets and armies to get done what they wanted done and it just wasn’t something that they even needed. Saying something like this would make his listeners really think about if England really did need armies. Then they would see that it was not necessary for England to have fleets are armies. Both of these quotes prove that Henry uses England betraying the colonist as a way of his audience to get a good understanding of what he is saying.

His rhetorical appeal is extremely important in doing this. Henry did many things through the speech to ensure that everyone would have a well understanding of what he is trying to say, such as, using God as a powerful way to get his point across; showing how necessary it is to go to war with England; and proving to his audience that England has blatantly betrayed them as colonist. All three of these rhetorical appeals help Henry throughout his speech to get his audience to change or make them firm believers in what Henry is trying to say. Using these three strategies Henry can easily persuade his audience because all of these things he is saying stop and make them think because the words he uses connect to his audience on a personal