Intention

The speech “Freedom or Death” by Emmeline Pankhurst revolves around the topic of Women’s Suffrage Movement in Britain and was delivered in front of an American audience. Pankhurst' main intention is to defend and justify the means used by suffragettes in Britain.

The speaker’s intention with her tour in the US was to raise funds for her organisation in Britain which advocated for women’s rights: “I come to ask you to help to win this fight.” (p. 97, ll.9-10). This is why the speaker’s intention with the speech was to defend and justify the means used by suffragettes in Britain to advance their cause – which were sometimes aggressive and confrontational:

I am here as a soldier who has temporarily left the field of battle in order to explain - it seems strange it should have to be explained - what civil war is like when civil war is waged by women. (p. 91, ll. 8-10)

As she openly claims, the speaker does not want to promote women’s suffrage in the US but to gain support for her cause in Britain: “…I am not here to advocate woman suffrage. American suffragists can do that very well for themselves.” (p. 91, ll. 5-6)

To achieve her overall goal, the speaker uses...