Persuasive Techniques Used by Henry in Act Four Scene Three in Shakespeare's Henry V

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Persuasive Techniques Used by Henry in Act Four Scene Three in Shakespeare's Henry V Henry's speech is well prepared; he uses various key features in a persuasive leader. Before Henry starts of he is able to turn weakness into strengths. He immediately identifies what is wrong with his soldiers, the larger French army. King Henry commences by giving his soldiers confident advice, he says 'if we are marked to die, we are enough to do our country's loss.' Essentially this means that the fewer who die the better for our country, because the less loss of lives. The key feature that Henry uses is that he never mentions the word 'lose.' Since that is a negative expression. Soon after he talks about his side winning, 'and if to live, the fewer men, the greater share of honour.' This signifies that if they win the battle and live, Henry's soldiers will have extra honour because they had fewer men to begin with. Within Henry's sentence there is a lot of rhythm and balance. One of the key words in his dialogue is 'honour' because in Elizabethan times honour was bound up with ideas of nobility and manliness. Henry has constant reference to the divine, to get permission for his actions, 'God's will.' Additionally there is various uses of semantic fields, associated with religion, God, covet, honour and sin; all taken from the bible. Henry applies a very close relationship term, 'cuz.' Meaning his soldiers are in close contact with Henry. 'Oh, do not wish one more!' This is an exclamatory phrase. This injects emotion into his speech. The biggest fear to Henry is desertion of soldiers, he cleverly emphasises this point by offering free passage ... ... middle of paper ... ... to royalty. Additionally the relationship between Henry and his nobles are friendly and caring. The last persuasive technique Henry exploits is the word 'man hood,' deliberately to suggest manliness could only be earned by achieving honour in battle. In conclusion, there are various persuasive techniques brought into play by Henry. Henry uses inspiration in his speech. He can coin phrases that will designate in a mind. Many leaders use Henry's attributes. Henry boosts a lot of morale in his speech and confidents. There is quite a lot of turn around and Henry never uses negative comments. Henry has close relationship with his men, by using a variety of strong terms. Henry's lecture has reference to the superior being to give more assurance. Furthermore King Henry gives divine inspiration to many leaders now days.

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