Rhetorical devices

In his speech on terror, Tony Blair uses devices like allusion, rhetorical questions, and antithesis. Other devices that help the speaker are analogy, direct address, enumeration, and repetition.

Rhetorical devices are language constr…

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Allusion

Allusions are references to events, people, and media that are related to the topic of the speech or have some relevance to it.

As Tony Blair’s speech is about terrorism, most of the allusions he makes are to terrorist networks and terrorist attacks. For example, he talks about Afghan-based terrorist group Al-Qaeda, responsible for the 9/11 terrorist attacks: “From the mid 1990s onwards, statements from Al-Qaeda, ga…

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Analogy

In the speech, Blair includes an analogy (comparison) between terrorism and Christian fanaticism: “This is a religious ideology, a strain within the world-wide religion of Islam, as far removed from its essential decency and truth as Protestant gunmen who kill Catholics or vice versa, are from Christianity.” (ll. 44-47).

The analogy is also an allusion to the conflict in…

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Antithesis

Much of the speech is structured on antithesis, which means that the speaker sets up contrasts to make his points.  

First, the speaker builds contrasts between “us” and “them”, presenting terrorism as the opposite of Western democratic values. He talks about “their perversion of religious faith” (l. 127) as opposed to “our values of freedom, toleranc…

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Direct Address

The speaker occasionally addresses the audience directly, in attempts to get them involved with the topic of the speech, or to call them to act against terrorism: “They are well-financed. Look at their websites.” (ll. 26-27); “We must pull this up by its roots. Within Britain, we must join up wit…

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Enumeration

The speaker uses enumeration with two main purposes, to give coherence to his speech and to create a state of urgency (the more issues, the more urgent). For example, he creates a feeling of urgency when he lists the many places that harbour terrorists:

…in the madrassas of Pakista…

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Repetition

The speaker uses several repetitions to make his message and arguments stick with the audience. For example, he uses anaphora (repetition of the same words at the beginning of consecutive sentences) to make the audience remember that the London bombings were carefully planned: “It was not random. It was not a product of particular local circumstances in West Yorkshire.” (ll. 4-5).

In another instanc…

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Rhetorical questions

At one point in the speech (ll. 92-106), Blair introduces six rhetorical questions in a row which are meant to support his argument that terrorism “is founded on a belief, one whose fanaticism is such it can't be moderated.” (ll. 85-86):

If it is the …