The Gettysburg Address Examining Lincoln’s Vision and Rhetoric

To Start: Recall and Review: In studying earlier American political oratory, we studied Aristotle’s three rhetorical appeals. What were the names of these appeals and to what part of the human mind or soul did each appeal?

Pathos The appeal to emotion – make the audience feel and connect emotionally to your idea

Ethos Appeal to the moral sense – help the audience see that your idea is the right and moral thing to do – also establish that you are a moral and ethical person whose idea and word can be trusted.

Logos Appeal to logic and reason – show the audience that your idea is sensible and is the smart thing to do.

Objective Students will read and analyze the rhetorical appeals Lincoln used in his Gettysburg Address. Students will identify an example of parallelism in Lincoln’s speech and will then create their own examples of parallelism.

The Gettysburg Address Lincoln gave this short speech on 19 November, 1863 at the dedication of the cemetery for those killed at the battle of Gettysburg in July of 1863. Though Lincoln first thought that his speech was a failure, it quickly became one of the greatest and most treasured examples of American oratory.

The Gettysburg Address The speech can be found on page 388 in the new anthologies.

The Gettysburg Address -- Analysis Working in pairs or threes, please identify at least one specific appeal to pathos (emotion), ethos (morality), and logos (logic/reason). Compile a group report in the following format: Rhetorical appeal Quote Explanation of how this quote appeals to the appropriate part of the mind (short para.)

The Gettysburg Address -- Analysis Find the definition of parallelism in the text. Identify an example of parallelism in Lincoln’s speech. Then analyze the impact or effect of these words on the audience. What does this rhetorical device allow Lincoln to communicate? Create your own example of rhetorical parallelism. What effect will your words have? What will be communicated?

Wrap Up To conclude, what example of parallelism was found in Lincoln’s speech? What is its effect? What original examples of parallelism did you create? How do your words affect a likely audience? Was there one rhetorical appeal that you had difficulty in finding? Which one? What are the likely reasons for this?