Analysis

This analysis of “Freedom or Death” by Emmeline Pankhurst is based on the rhetorical pentagram model.

We will look at the topic of the speech – the fight for women’s rights to vote – and how it relates to other universal themes such as gender discrimination and the use of violence.

We will present the speaker— Emmeline Pankhurst— looking at her background as a women’s rights activist and the way she describes herself in the speech.

We will reflect on the audience, formed by the Americans gathered to listen to Pankhurst, while also noting which categories of the audience the speaker targets specifically.

We will examine the language of the speech, focusing on the speaker’s choice of words, rhetorical devices, and modes of persuasion to convey her message and achieve her intentions.

We will explore the circumstances of the speech, looking at the Women’s Suffrage Movement in the US and the UK.

We will discuss the speaker’s intention of gaining political and financial support from the American audience to advance the suffragettes’ cause in Britain and the means she uses to achieve it.  

You can read the full analysis in the next pages!