Bois). Her basic message in this speech was that of the necessity of equal rights for all individuals, a theme that was central to all her writings and speeches. While Stanton never did get to see the rewards of her life long struggle, the nineteenth amendment, which allowed women the right to vote, was passed nearly 20 years after her death. Her struggles and hardships she had endured were not in vein. Victory prevailed. Now that I have provided an extensive overview of Elizabeth Stanton and the women’s movement during the late nineteenth century, I will now be taking a closer look at the rhetorical components of three of Stanton’s speeches that I have just mentioned. Speeches can be extremely difficult to analyze due to their complexity. The way that I, as a critic, intend to tackle these complexities will be by employing the following four steps: observation, analysis, interpretation and evaluation (Foss 26).The first speech I will focus on is her address that she delivered at the Senaca Falls convention in 1848. The “Declaration of Sentiments” focuses on women’s right to demand political equality, a stand that gave feminism a clear strategy that set it upon firm ground. Stanton, while she was not the sole composer of this speech, was the main driving force behind it. Upon first observation of the speech you will notice that she carefully drafted it to closely resemble the 1776 Declaration of Independence, thus connecting the women’s campaign for equal rights directly with the American symbol of Liberty. Using this former document as a model, she utilized as much of the original wording as possible. She also created a list of eighteen of the women’s grievances, the same numbers that were in the 1776 document. By using the 1776 declaration as a model, Stanton demonstrated great persuasive technique. Thomas Jefferson, who as the author of this document, was in his own time a great refo...
