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Elizabeth Cady Stanton delivered her speech entitled The Destructive Male at the Women’s Suffrage Convention. Hence, it was part of a larger political debate about whether women should be granted the right to vote. In her speech, Stanton aimed to persuade her audience that extending suffrage to women was essential to build a world where everybody’s interests would be considered. This paper will argue that the author effectively used rhetoric for persuasion by combining different modes of speech, employing several figures of speech, and choosing the right words to fit the audience.
In The Destructive Male, Stanton combined all three modes of speech — ethos, logos, and pathos — to appeal to her audience. When ethos is used, persuasiveness is achieved by showing the speaker’s virtue, practical wisdom, and goodwill (Al-Zahra and Al-Ghezzey 3636). In her speech, Stanton demonstrated her wisdom by appealing to the sixteenth amendment and her virtue by revealing that her ultimate goal was to reach “the health, strength, and prosperity of the nation” (par. 6). Logos is used when the author presents logical arguments to the audience. For example, Stanton employed logic to refute the main argument of the opposite side, according to which “the right of suffrage will make the women masculine” (par. 3). Finally, the author utilized pathos to appeal to the audience’s emotions by showing the consequences of women’s exclusion from political life: “And now man himself stands appalled at the results of his own excesses…” (Stanton par. 5). Thus, a combination of ethos, logos, and pathos helped the author make a compelling argument.
Further, the use of such figures of speech as personification, repetition, and simile reinforced the author’s persuasiveness. Personification means describing an abstract concept as if it were a person (Al-Zahra and Al-Ghezzey 3637). Stanton employed personification when she said, “mercy has veiled her face,” and this rhetorical device helps to strengthen her emotional appeal (par. 1). The author used repetition when describing women’s subordination to men: “She must respect his statutes… She must look at everything from its dollar-and-cent point of view… She must accept things as they are” (Stanton par. 3-4). Such repetition fosters persuasion because it serves as an emphasis and draws the audience’s attention to the subject of the speech (Al-Zahra and Al-Ghezzey 3636). Finally, Stanton used simile when she said that nature was “like a loving mother” (par. 9). By making this comparison, the author persuaded the audience that women were capable of establishing balance and harmony if they were permitted to participate in political life.
Lastly, Stanton meticulously chose words for her speech to make the right impression on her listeners and enhance her persuasiveness. The word choice assisted Stanton in creating the formal diction, which seems to be the only appropriate option given the author’s circumstances, topic, and audience. Formal diction involves the use of sophisticated vocabulary and the avoidance of colloquialisms. While Stanton did not use informal expressions, her speech included such elevated words as “aggrandizing,” “sublunary,” “disfranchised,” “dethronement,” and others (par. 1, 2, 3, 9). Moreover, the author used complex sentence structures and generally followed the principles of formal writing. This application of rhetoric helped Stanton establish her credibility and persuasiveness in front of upper-class women attending the Women’s Suffrage Convention.
In conclusion, Stanton’s The Destructive Male is adequately persuasive because of the author’s effective use of rhetorical devices. She combined ethos, logos, and pathos to appeal to listeners, employed personification, repetition, and simile to reinforce her message, and utilized formal diction to make her language appropriate for the circumstances and the audience. Stanton’s use of different modes of speech, figures of speech, and word choice contribute to her overall success in convincing the audience of the importance of expanding women’s political rights.
Works Cited
Al-Zahra, Shaima’Shakir Abdul, and Khalida Hashoosh Addai Al-Ghezzey. “A Critical Discourse Analysis of Feminist’s Strategies in Persuasion.” Journal of Positive School Psychology, vol. 6, no. 6, 2022, pp. 3633-3644.
Stanton, Elizabeth Cady. “The Destructive Male.” SoJust, 1868, Web.
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