Speech In The Virginia Convention Patrick Henry Rhetorical Analysis

Colonial America is facing struggles from within and from the British, but are still trying to maintain neutrality. However, Patrick Henry believes in otherwise and being fed up with British actions against the colonies, expresses his thoughts in his “Speech in the Virginia Convention.” Henry is biased since he is an American and sees the British as the enemy, but this is also in a time where tensions between colonial America and Britain are rising as the colonists revolt. Patrick Henry utilizes rhetorical strategies such as rhetorical questions, antithesis, and parallelism to bring forth claims that they must go to war against Britain since all the possible ways to try to prevent war have been exhausted and ineffective. Moreover, he makes the audience believe that America must go to war against Britain and nothing else will work to prevent it, by using rhetorical questions. Henry wants to know why “…force must be called in to win back our love?” (Henry). He asks these questions to make us think about what he is saying and to show us everything from his perspective. Right after he asks each question, he answers it to explain that the British

He shows the opposing view, “shall we try argument?”, and goes on to explain that they have “…been trying that for the last ten years” (Henry). Henry provides views from those that would oppose him and says why they are wrong. This makes the audience support him even more because they will see why the opponent’s viewpoint is wrong and he is right. He shows that they have run through all the different ways that they could stop the war and have no other choice but to initiate war between colonists and the British. It satisfies the colonists who want to fight back and opens the eyes of the President and Delegates to the fact that the British leave no other