Declaration Of Sentiments Rhetorical Analysis

In Elizabeth Cady Stanton’s “Declaration of Sentiments and Resolutions”, Stanton declares that equality between men and women is largely disproportionate. With the Seneca Falls convention as her audience, Stanton launches her claims of injustice against women largely based on the principles set forth in the Declaration of Independence largely matching them with the strains of the colonials when affirming autonomy from Great Britain. Her address to the public necessitated equality between men and women in all aspects; highlighting the absence of the right to vote, lack of access to education, no opportunity for employment or little pay for employment, along with desire for involvement in the government. Stanton emphasizes the multitude of conduits by which men had subjugated women whilst boldly asserting “he has” as a precedent to the wrongs that men have bestowed among women. For example, “He has made her, if married, in the eye of the law, civilly dead” (Stanton, line 8). Stanton’s purpose in repeating “he has” was large in part to emphasize who and what the women’s right movement was battling against. Stanton also maintains throughout the passage that everyone be given parallel rights as all are created equal in the eyes of God suggesting that her movement for equality is endowed by greater power than mankind.
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She is employing pathos to associate the urgency with which women’s rights need to be addressed and the spectator’s emotions of those rallying the cry for justice. Stanton brazenly emphasizes that the revolution for the rights of women “anticipate[s] no small amount of misconception, misrepresentation, and ridicule” (Stanton, line 20-21). This is the last part of her address before the resolutions are stated. The importance of her stance at the end of her address is to signify the spirit of the movement she is representing; a movement unwilling to stand