A Rhetorical Analysis Of Women's Suffrage Speech
In the 18th and 19th centuries, women were treated as inferior and there ideas were suppressed. Women’s places were in the homes. They had no voting rights, no career opportunities, no say, no freedom. These retrained women had enough, and so many stood up for themselves and others. Suffragette was the name granted to these women. One of history’s most famous suffragettes was a woman named Elizabeth Cady Stanton. Stanton accomplished many things in her lifetime. One of her most memorable moments was when she gave the speech The Destructive Male at the 1868 Women’s Suffrage Convention. With this speech she passionately states how the intelligent, wise female is kept from having any involvement in the world and how this affects our nation since
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Therefore, Stanton made her speech very personal and directed it towards every single woman in America. She uses this emotional appeal throughout her speech. Using her words she paints a picture of an intellectual, empathetic, powerful woman who is being suppressed by the male. When speaking about the male Stanton says, “The male element is a destructive force, stern, selfish, aggrandizing, loving war, violence, conquest, acquisition, breeding in the material and moral world alike discord, disorder, disease, and death.” The male is made out to be evil, selfish and destructive, while the female is made to be loving, wise, and courageous. Creating this good vs. bad scenario, she reaches the heart of every female in the audience and makes every woman feel as if she is speaking directly to them. Every woman hearing the speech will associate the words to their own lives, and when a woman does this she will feel angry at her many injustices. After creating a passionate, angry, justice seeking atmosphere, Stanton starts to twist in logical appeals with the emotions when she says “remember that man, who represents but half a complete being, with but half an idea on every subject, has undertaken the absolute control of all sublunary matters.” By the time she is done speaking, every woman in the house will be 100 times more passionate about suffrage. Each individual woman in the audience will want to fight for their freedom, and Stanton did this by simply making the speech
Therefore, Stanton made her speech very personal and directed it towards every single woman in America. She uses this emotional appeal throughout her speech. Using her words she paints a picture of an intellectual, empathetic, powerful woman who is being suppressed by the male. When speaking about the male Stanton says, “The male element is a destructive force, stern, selfish, aggrandizing, loving war, violence, conquest, acquisition, breeding in the material and moral world alike discord, disorder, disease, and death.” The male is made out to be evil, selfish and destructive, while the female is made to be loving, wise, and courageous. Creating this good vs. bad scenario, she reaches the heart of every female in the audience and makes every woman feel as if she is speaking directly to them. Every woman hearing the speech will associate the words to their own lives, and when a woman does this she will feel angry at her many injustices. After creating a passionate, angry, justice seeking atmosphere, Stanton starts to twist in logical appeals with the emotions when she says “remember that man, who represents but half a complete being, with but half an idea on every subject, has undertaken the absolute control of all sublunary matters.” By the time she is done speaking, every woman in the house will be 100 times more passionate about suffrage. Each individual woman in the audience will want to fight for their freedom, and Stanton did this by simply making the speech