The effectiveness of a speech depends on how the orator uses persuasive techniques. In The Speech in the Virginia Convention, Patrick Henry uses persuasive techniques of emotion and logic to urge colonists to fight for their independence from Britain. Emotion or pathos is a powerful technique that can enrage or calm the audience. Patrick Henry uses this idea effectively by trying to invoke the audience’s sense of fear and desire when he says “Is life so dear, or peace so sweet, as to be purchased at the price of chains and slavery? Forbid it, Almighty God!” The fear of being enslaved by the British makes the audience wary of all the cruel actions that have been done to the colonists by the British. The sense of desire for a life without chains …show more content…
One quote in his speech that appeals to a logical action to revolt against the mother country is “What terms shall we find which have not been already exhausted? Let us not, I beseech you, sir, deceive ourselves. Sir, we have done everything that could be done, to avert the storm which is now coming on.” This shows how the colonist have tried taking the equitable route by petitioning and begging the British to stop the cruel and unjust treatment of the colonial people. And yet the British have ignored the colonist’s pleads and continued this tyranny. This is also a clear representation of the irrationality of the British. Another quote from this speech is “If we were base enough to desire it, it is now too late to retire from the contest. There is no retreat but in submission and slavery! Our chains are forged! Their clanking may be heard on the plains of Boston! The war is inevitable and let it come! I repeat it, sir, let it come.” Henry tell the audience that they cannot just sit here and discuss whether to fight the British because the fighting has already begun. There is no turning back from the inevitable war because if they retreat everyone will be enslaved. There is only one logical solution which is to fight and have the chance to gain back the freedoms of the common man of which most has been taken