In the late 1700´s Patrick Henry delivered a speech called ¨Give Liberty Or Give Death¨ in Virginia in which he asked to fight back against Britain that had been defecting on promises of helping their citizens with all their needs for a long time. Henry was able to persuade the men around him to believe that the United States’ liberty was a cause worth fighting for. Throughout his speech, he appealed to the emotions of his audience giving it some diction and allusions. Henry used a lot of emotional appeals through diction during his speech in order to persuade more and more his audience. At the beginning of his speech, he captured the attention of the people in the convention by saying “Should I keep back my opinions at such a time through fear of giving offense, I should consider myself as guilty of treason towards my country’’ (line 15). This authorative tone made the audience fearful and anxious about what he was going to say. The emotional appeals in this speech are also formed with the use of figurative language which made his diction different from the usual. The audience can see this when he said, “We must fight! I repeat it sir, we must fight!”. His use of repetition and hyperbole emphasized that no matter what they will fight and they should be prepared. Also Henry took advantage of the feelings of his audience by using rhetorical questions, for example, in line 23 he asked that if the citizens should act like those who have eyes and don’t see, have ears and don’t hear in order to make the audience feel aggressive. This enthuses and motivates the audience to take action. Another example is when Henry in line 40 says “Is life so dear, or price so sweet, as to be purchased at the price of chains and slavery?” so audience can feel even more the anger of revenge. Moreover, the uses of metaphors are clever resources that help the people in the convection feel the courage. A metaphor that makes clear that he, Henry, knew what he was talking about is when he says “I have but one lamp by which my feet are guided; and that is the lamp of experience” (line 27) He is comparing experience to a lamp that illuminates one’s path, and he makes understandable that he had already a lot of experience during his life. The use of figurative language linked with emotions was a resource that helped Henry keep the audience more attentive and hooked on the speech.
Likewise, this speech implemented allusions. Henry used this in order to connect more with his audience, when he said “suffers not yourselves to be betrayed with a kiss” (line 34), Henry is referring to a biblical allusion to the Apostle Judas, who betrayed Jesus, because when they were coming to arrest Jesus, Judas identified him by kissing his hand. Henry uses allusions related with God, because it was very effective since in that time period people were very religious and portraying how they are treated with God makes them feel more anger. Another one that helped his speech to be more interesting to the audience was when he said “The song of that siren, till she transforms us into beasts”. This allusion refers to the Odyssey when the sailors got lost because of the sirens song and that leaded them to the goddess Circe who transformed them into pigs. This illustrates that the citizens can keep all their feelings towards the government in silence until that makes them suffer. In other words, they can be affected by the consequences of keeping everything for themselves, or they, the citizens, can act upon it and make justice. This speech was very memorable for Great Britain history because it was a turning point. Patrick Henry persuaded a big audience to fight against injustices. He implied a lot of sensory emotions that made it more valuable. His use of figurative language and other literary resources, like the use of rhetorical questions, made his speech not only clear enough to get through to each and everyone of it’s spectators but question them as well.