Comparing the Gettysburg Address and Pericles Funeral Oration

I.              Introduction Paragraph

a.     In history, funeral orations are speeches that leaders give to the people that remember and memorialize soldiers that died in battle.

b.    Pericles of Greece and one of our most remembered presidents, Abraham Lincoln; both gave funeral orations during their rule.

c.    Events leading up to both orations

                                          i.    Lincoln- the civil war just started, and many people already died. He wanted to assure the people that he was going to stop the war, and no one was ever going to forget the fallen people.

                                        ii.    Pericles-

d.    Thesis- Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address gave a stronger funeral oration then Pericles, because he appealed to patriotism, nation, honor

II.            Appeal to Patriotism

a.    Lincoln- “The brave men, living and dead who struggled here have consecrated it far above our poor power to add or detract.” (http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/mod/modsbook27.html).

b.    Pericles- “the moment only for the impression which they gave to melt at the touch of fact, we have forced every sea and land to be the highway of our daring, and everywhere, whether for evil or for good, have left imperishable monuments behind us.” (http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/ancient/pericles-funeralspeech.html).

c.    Lincoln’s appeal to patriotism really shows

III.           Appeal to Nation

a.    Lincoln- “Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation or any nation so conceived and so dedicated can long endure.” (http://odur.let.rug.nl/~usa/P/al16/speeches/gettys.htm).

b.    Pericles- “"In short, I say that as a city we are the school of Hellas, while I doubt if the world can produce a man who, where he has only himself to depend upon, is equal to so many emergencies, and graced by so happy a versatility, as the Athenian.”. (http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/ancient/pericles-funeralspeech.html).

IV.          Appeal to Honor

a.    Lincoln- “The world will little note nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here. It is for us the living rather to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced.”  (http://odur.let.rug.nl/~usa/P/al16/speeches/gettys.htm).

b.    Pericles- “ Rather, the admiration of the present and succeeding ages will be ours, since we have not left our power without witness, but have shown it by mighty proofs” (http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/ancient/pericles-funeralspeech.html).

V.           Conclusion