Analysis Of Emmeline Pankhurst Speech

Women's rights. That statement is powerful enough to stand alone, something that has been longed for by the women of this world for ages. Suffrage and suppression, something women were all too familiar with and have had enough of. But who was going to say something? That strong, independent person is Emmeline Pankhurst, a women's rights activist who spoke up for all of the women whos voices were silenced by the prejudice and preconceived idea of male superiority. Well, Pankhursts voice was heard on November 13th, 1913 When she delivered the speech to hundreds of people In Hartford, Connecticut. After years of silence, a voice submerged out of the dark cage of suppression and spoke out to the men and women expressing the worth and value and …show more content…
The use of the pronoun I allows her to connect with the audience. It adds a personal feel to the speech in which the audience can relate or can connect to her as a speaker and the information that she is relaying. Being a woman at the time and considering the topic it was a very hard role to play as the speaker of this topic because most of the time it was a male, but with her use of repetition it gives her a sense of power. She continually repeats the phrase “I am” which gives a vibe of vulnerability but also shows she has experienced exactly what she is fighting to eliminate among society. Overall, her use of repetition enhances the speech and the impact it has on the audience. Later on in the speech Pankhurst uses repetition again, stating, “I come in the intervals of prison appearance: I come after having been four times imprisoned under the "Cat and Mouse Act", probably going back to be rearrested as soon as I set my foot on British soil. I come to ask you to help to win this fight” (Pankhurst n.pag.). Pankhurst repeats the phrase “I come.” it acts as like a call to action. It shows that she is coming as a women who has suffered and she is coming to make a stand and fight. She repeats this phrase multiple time in different context but with the same general meaning. It makes her point powerful and also makes it more persuasive. It shows the importance of what she is saying, making the …show more content…
She uses the literary term very well in this instance, “In our civil war people have suffered, but you cannot make omelettes without breaking eggs; you cannot have civil war without damage to something” (Pankhurst n.pag.). What that metaphor is saying is that Someone may have to do bad to accomplish good, the end justifies the means. By representing that topic in metaphorical form it puts what she is saying into a context the audience can relate to. Saying that you can't make omelets without breaking the egg is something that nobody can protest, nobody can fight against that and it shows how sometimes one must do bad to come out with the good. By using the metaphor it makes the audience think about what is being said in a different context and it makes them look at it in a different way. Another great use of metaphor is when Pankhurst says, “You cannot rouse a Britisher unless you touch his pocket. What that means is that no change can be made unless an effort is made to cause them. The big picture lies within a metaphor it just says it in a different way. It makes the audience perceive the information being relayed in a different, more positive way. The use of a metaphor within Pankhursts speech helps to make it as persuasive and relevant as it