The Gettysburg Address Rhetorical Analysis

"The Gettys Berg Adress" contains rhetorical devices such as "The Gettysburg Address" contains rhetorical devices such as repetition, antithesis, parallelism, and anaphora to better communicate with his audience hearing the speech. Abraham Lincoln uses these rhetorical devices to better state that these men died for a good cause and that America shall have “a new rebirth of freedom”. Also that the men have made the battlefield holy and that we should carry on these ideas that these men have died for.

Lincoln uses repetition to make his point more concise. For example, “far above our power to add or detract”is an example of repetition. The quote states that the men who have deceased have already made a site holy and we do not have the power to add or detract that holiness. This helps get one of his points across which is that the gettysburg battlefield will be a memorial site. Repetition gives the speech a more dramatic effect thus helping lincoln's speech become more memorable. Another rhetorical device that Lincoln uses to further exclaim his point is antithesis. For example “add or detract” and “living and dead” are an example of an …show more content…
Government, is parallelism . One of his quotes “that the government of the people by the people, for the people, shall not perish from earth” is an example of parallelism. Lincoln says that quote because he is reminding the people, even though under grim circumstances shall not perish and when he uses parallelism, he makes his point about the government more memorable. The last rhetoric device Lincoln uses to help get one of his points across which is that we cannot change the past but we can form the future is anaphora. “We cannot dedicate, we cannot consecrate, we cannot hallow this ground” is an example of an anaphora. He repeated “we cannot” thus helping him exclaim his points and making his speech more