Pathos in Blood, Toil, Tears, and Sweat

The final line of Churchill’s speech appears in quotation marks, though its origins are unclear. The note with which Churchill ends the speech is a decisive call-to-action to the British people, whose aid he feels “entitled to claim.” The sentence is structured as a mandate, as Churchill begins with the firm but inviting “Come then.” In an appeal to pathos, Churchill calls for unity among the population and creates the image of an accumulated national strength.

In this simple statement, Churchill makes explicit the stakes of Britain’s struggle against Germany. The purpose of victory is the essential task of survival. To evoke such a struggle is a clear appeal to pathos, for it taps into the most basic of animal instincts.

This passage is an example of epizeuxis, a rhetorical device by which a single word is repeated continuously in order to emphasize a central idea. In Churchill’s case, the idea is the aim of victory, which he underscores by repeating the word “victory” five times over the course of the paragraph. The incantatory effect of this focused repetition constitutes a powerful appeal to pathos.

Churchill appeals to pathos, to his audience’s emotions, when he characterizes Germany as “a monstrous tyranny.” The image of a monster evokes fear in a primal sense, and the threat of tyranny produces fear of a political—though still powerful—kind. Churchill also stirs fear and anger by using a superlative construction, framing the threat of the Axis powers as the greatest yet in the “dark and lamentable catalogue of human crime.”

Churchill’s use of “Sir” to begin this paragraph and the next one serves as a kind of affectation or tonal flourish. “Sir” is a shortening of “sire,” a title which denotes knighthood, though in common parlance “sir” can merely confer respect. Because Churchill addressed the House of Commons, a legislative body of 650 men, the word “sir” adds a tone of intimacy and closeness, as if each member of the audience were being spoken to directly.