Manipulation Through Words: Rhetorical Devices in Political Speeches

1861 Words8 Pages
Manipulation through Words: Rhetorical Devices in Political Speeches 6.07.2013 Never give in Winston Churchill “An orator`s primary aim is to persuade his audience.” – Macaulay Winston Churchill, the well-known and influential Prime Minister of United Kingdom during the World War II, was also considered one of the greatest orators of the twentieth century, thanks to his impressive oratorical skills. One of his most quoted speeches, “Never give in”, made by Churchill when he visited Harrow School on October 29, 1941 to hear the traditional songs and to speak to the students, is a great example of a clear address using excellent devices to persuade, motivate and inspire the audience. In my paper, I intend to make an analysis of the speech, by identifying and comment the rhetorical devices. As a great speaker, Churchill knew how to motivate the British people and for that he inserted rhetorical devices and imagery to make his speech that persuasive and inspirational. In ” Never give in” I identified phonological, lexical, syntactical and also semantic levels. The first one, alliteration, the rhetorical technique in which the initial sounds in words or in stressed syllables within the words are repeated in a pleasing manner, was adopted by Churchill to draw attention to the phrase and to emphasise his idea, and I identified in the first paragraph “air attack” “long lull” ( I underlined more examples of alliteration in the text using this particular color). The rhythmical effect of alliteration made his speech more impressive. In order to make himself heard by everybody in the audience, the speaker uttered his words articulately as in the following example “ We are not so poorly armed today…”(1st paragraph ) / “They do not expect to move from crisis to crisis; they do not always expect that each day will bring up some noble chance of war” ( 2nd

More about Manipulation Through Words: Rhetorical Devices in Political Speeches

Open Document