Julius Caesar
Using the elements of rhetoric that you thoroughly analyzed throughout the course of the semester and complete
a rhetorical analysis of one of the speeches listed on the following page. Be certain to site specific portions of
the text to support your thoughts.
You may find background information on the speeches and the text on The History Place website.
http://www.historyplace.com/speeches/previous.htm
www.Americanrhetoric.com
Rhetorical Analysis: You will select a speech from the list below and analyze the language for both what is
said and how it is said. Your focus will be on your chosen speech. Was the speech effective? Why? How?
What techniques were used? What was the speaker trying to accomplish?
What Must Be Considered in a Rhetorical Analysis?
1. Analyze the rhetorical situation: identify the speaker of the passage as well as his or her exigence
(urgent need), target audience, and purpose.
2. Analyze the rhetorical appeals: ethos, pathos, and logos. Be sure to cite particular details from the
passage in order to illustrate these appeals. Do not fail to note the speaker’s use of inductive reasoning
through paradigms (set of ideas used for understanding something) and / or deductive reasoning through
enthymemes (an argument that assumes the truth of one or more premises and therefore omits them from
the logical sequence).
3. Analyze the rhetorical devices: metaphor, simile, personification, synecdoche, metonymy, imagery,
diction (including word clusters), syntax (including anastrophe (an alteration of the normal order of
words or phrases in a grammatical construction, usually for rhetorical effect. Coleridge's "The helmsman
steered; the ship moved on; yet never a breeze up blew" ends with an anastrophe)), parallelism,
anaphora, selection of detail, repetition, pun, hyperbole, and so forth. In addition to identifying these
rhetorical features, be sure to analyze how they function within the passage—that is, how they contribute
to the effect upon the reader and / or the accomplishment of the speaker’s purposes.
4. Analyze how the passage reveals (or conceals) the character traits of its speaker. Also analyze how the
passage contributes to Shakespeare’s development of key themes in the play, including ambition,
loyalty, monarchy versus republicanism, fate versus free will, and so forth. What does the speech below
reveal about its speaker? What is the speaker trying to accomplish?
5. Evaluate the effectiveness of the passage as a rhetorical specimen. Does its speaker accomplish his or
her rhetorical purposes within the context of the play? Is the speaker’s success or failure predicated
upon the rhetorical effectiveness of the passage or upon others factors beyond rhetorical prowess?
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Susan B. Anthony - On Women's Right
to Vote (1873)
Tony Blair - To the Irish Parliament
(1998)
Napoleon Bonaparte - Farewell to the
Old Guard (1814)
George Bush - Announcing War
Against Iraq (1991)
George W. Bush - Speech to Congress
After September 11 (2001)
Jimmy Carter - Tribute to Hubert
Humphrey (1977)
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Neville Chamberlain - On the Nazi
Invasion of Poland (1939)
Winston Churchill - Blood, Sweat and
Tears (1940)
Winston Churchill - Their Finest Hour
(1940)
Winston Churchill - "Iron Curtain"
(1946)
Bill Clinton - "I Have Sinned" (1998)
Bill Clinton - "I Am Profoundly Sorry"
(1998)
Edouard Daladier - Nazis' Aim is
Slavery (1940)
Frederick Douglass - The Hypocrisy of
American Slavery (1852)
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Edward VIII - Abdicates the throne of
England (1936)
Elizabeth I of England - Against the
Spanish Armada (1588)
William Faulkner - On Accepting the
Nobel Prize (1950)
Gerald R. Ford - On Taking Office
(1974)
Gerald R. Ford - Pardoning Richard
Nixon (1974)
St. Francis of Assisi - Sermon to the
Birds (1220)
Cardinal Clemens von Galen - Against
Nazi Euthanasia (1941)
Giuseppe Garibaldi - Encourages His
Soldiers (1860)
William Lloyd Garrison - On the Death
of John Brown (1859)
Lou Gehrig - Farewell to Yankee Fans
(1939)
Richard Gephardt - "Life Imitates
Farce" (1998)
Al Gore - Concedes the 2000 Election
(2000)
Patrick Henry - Liberty or Death (1775)
Harold Ickes - What is an American?
(1941)
Martin Luther King Jr.’s I Have a
Dream
Lyndon B. Johnson - We Shall
Overcome (1965)
Lyndon B. Johnson - Decides Not to
Seek Re-election (1968)
Chief Joseph of the Nez Perce - On
Surrender to US Army (1877)
John F. Kennedy - Inaugural Address
(1961)
John F. Kennedy - "We choose to go to
the Moon" (1962)
John F. Kennedy - Cuban Missile Crisis
(1962)
John F. Kennedy - "Ich bin ein
Berliner" (1963)
Robert F. Kennedy - On the Death of
Martin Luther King (1968)
Edward M. Kennedy - "The Cause
Endures" (1980)
Edward M. Kennedy - Tribute to John
F. Kennedy Jr. (1999)
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Abraham Lincoln - The Gettysburg
Address (1863)
Nelson Mandela - "I am Prepared to
Die" (1964)
George C. Marshall - The Marshall
Plan (1947)
Vyacheslav Molotov - On the Nazi
Invasion of the Soviet Union (1941)
Richard M. Nixon - "Checkers" (1952)
Richard M. Nixon - Resigning the
Presidency (1974)
Richard M. Nixon - White House
Farewell (1974)
Daniel O'Connell - Justice for Ireland
(1836)
William Lyon Phelps - The Pleasure of
Books (1933)
Pope John Paul II - At Israel's
Holocaust Memorial (2000)
Ronald Reagan - Address to British
Parliament (1982)
Ronald Reagan - On the 40th
Anniversary of D-Day (1984)
Ronald Reagan - On the Challenger
Disaster (1986)
Ronald Reagan - "Tear Down this
Wall" (1987)
Maximilien Robespierre - Festival of the
Supreme Being (1794)
Franklin D. Roosevelt - First Inaugural
Address (1933)
Franklin D. Roosevelt - Third Inaugural
Address (1941)
Franklin D. Roosevelt - For a
Declaration of War (1941)
Franklin D. Roosevelt - D-Day Prayer
(1944)
Elizabeth Cady Stanton - The
Destructive Male (1868)
George Graham Vest - Tribute to Dogs
(c. 1855)
George Washington - Prevents the
Revolt of his Officers (1783)
Elie Wiesel - The Perils of Indifference
(1999)
Woodrow Wilson - The Fourteen Points
(1918)