Give Me Liberty or Give Me Death! Themes
Freedom and Tyranny
As themes go, this is the big one…but you knew that. (It's not called the "Give Me Liberty or Give Me Death!" speech for nothing.) The speech is an argument for taking up arms in the cause of fre...
Warfare
The war hasn't actually started yet, so in "Give Me Liberty or Give Me Death!" Henry's dealing with war as a hypothetical idea. Because the goal of his speech is to convince the Second Virginia Con...
Hope
And by "hope" we mean "total and complete utter lack of hope."When Henry's not talking about freedom and tyranny or about warfare, he's talking about how little hope he has that Great Britain and t...