Rhetorical Analysis of Susan B. Anthony's Speech Essay Sample

In 1873, Susan B. Anthony delivered a speech persuading her audience that women should have the right to vote. Anthony voted in the presidential election and was convicted of a crime. She wrote her speech to take a stand and fight for women to have one of the most basic citizen's rights. Anthony developed her argument using the persuasive techniques Ethos, Pathos, and Logos.

Susan B. Anthony uses Ethos to support that women should have the right to vote. She uses a definition from the dictionaries Webster, Worcester, and Bouvier. In her speech she recites, “Webster, Worcester, and Bouvier all define a citizen to be a person in the United States, entitled to vote and hold office” (Anthony). Anthony refers to 3 well-known dictionaries which lets her audience know that she has taken her information from a credible source. The reason she adds in this definition is because the definition states that a person in the United States should have the right to vote. Anthony wants her audience to make the connection that women who are people in the United States should be able to vote.

The other persuasive technique that Susan B. Anthony uses is Pathos. She uses family as an example of how the way the American government would work in a home. She recites, “...which makes father, brothers, husband, sons, the oligarchs over the mother and sisters, the wife and daughters, of every household - which ordains all men sovereigns, all women subjects, carries dissension, discord, and rebellion into every home of the nation…” (Anthony). She uses this example because her audience can make a connection with their own home and put this example into action in their own family. She shows in her speech that if a family ran like the government that America had all male family members including fathers, brothers, husbands, and sons have power over all mothers, sisters, wives, and daughters.

The last persuasive technique that Susan B. Anthony uses is Logos. In Anthony’s argument she asks a rhetorical question. She recites, “The only question left to be settled now is: Are women persons?” (Anthony). She asks this question because the answer is logical, yes, women are people. The connection that Anthony wants readers to make is that because women are people they should have voting rights like the other people of the United States do.

Susan B. Anthony uses three persuasive techniques to convince her audience that women should have the right to vote. The techniques she uses are Ethos, Pathos, and Logos. In her example of Ethos she used a definition from the Webster, Worcester, and Bouvier dictionaries. For her Pathos example she connects the American government to families. Lastly, for her Logos example she asks a rhetorical question that leaves her audience answering with a logical statement. Susan B. Anthony uses all three techniques to convince her audience that women should have the right to vote.