Rhetorical Analysis Of Elizabeth I's Speech

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The Queen of England, Elizabeth I, in her speech, assured the people of her country Her purpose is to convey her personal strength and loving protection for her country. By adopting a powerful and sentimental diction, she disregards any hesitation in her audience of nobles and common people. In this way, she produces a sense of confidence and assurance within the hearts and minds of the people. Queen Elizabeth I opens her speech by directly addressing the concerns of people who have been wary of her loyalty to the kingdom. Immediately, she denies that claim by listing her sympathetic thoughts, “Let tyrants fear, I have always so behaved myself that, under God, I have placed my chiefest strength and safeguard in the loyal hearts and good-will of my subjects” (5-8). Through her enumeration of the loyal and good-willed subjects, she causes a hint of pride in the people and affirms the power of her voice and position. To the audience, her words become a combination of emotions …show more content…

She induces sympathy from her audience by deriding her own physical prowess, “I know I have the body but of a weak and feeble” (13-14). This generates the audience’s understanding and sympathy towards Elizabeth’s physical state. She chooses to utilize synonyms of “weak” and “feeble” to emphasize her disadvantage. As a result, it opens the gateway to strengthen her mentality amongst the people as she indicates, “but I have the heart and stomach of a king and of a king of England too” (14-15). In this scenario, she is disregarding any thought the people had previously of her physical disadvantage. Her vocabulary metamorphoses from weak to strong transforming the people’s lives and opinion and leading them to believe in her true power instead of what her visage gives away. She transitions from a pro to a con in order to leave her prowess as the lasting tough in the audience’s

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