Rhetorical devices
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Antithesis
May makes use of antithesis a couple of times to outline contrasting scenarios. This device makes sense here since the topic of Brexit is so widely debated. In ll. 73-76 she says: “June the 23rd was not the moment Britain chose to step back from the world. It was the moment we chose to build a truly Global Britain.” Here she confronts the Brexit critics who are saying that Brexit is a disaster which will lead to British isolation. She does so by painting the opposite scenario: Britain may have turned away from the…
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Parallelism, alliteration, and tricolon
Generally, May’s speech is fairly straightforward and does not contain creative imagery, humour or irony - elements which might otherwise make her speech more vibrant. As mentioned before, May wants to come off as clear and competent. However, her speech makes use of three rhetorical devices which make her speech sound better: parallelism, alliteration, and tricolon. We will now take you through them.
May particularly uses parallelism and alliterati…
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Repetition (anaphora and epiphora)
Theresa May frequently employs two specific types of repetition: anaphora and epiphora. We will now give you examples of both devices.
When several consecutive sentences start with the same words, we call it anaphora. In May’s speech, the opening lines are just one example:
They voted to shape a brighter future for our country.
They voted to leave the European Union and embrace the world. (ll. 3-5)
By repeating “they voted to” May b…
