Gettysburg Address President Abraham Lincoln\'s Gettysburg Address
This paper argues that the Gettysburg Address is made great by its literary qualities—its mastery of English prose, its concision, and its irony. But the last of these is perhaps the most memorable aspect of Lincoln's brief speech. Perhaps the greatest irony of all is that Lincoln achieves his dedication of the memorial at Gettysburg by refusing to perform it. Rather than memorialize them, Lincoln cleverly asks the audience to consider that they have memorialized themselves by their deeds—and the best way to share in that memorialization is to stick to the ideals for which they fought and died, so that "these dead shall not have died in vain". The combination of rhetorical skill, brevity and irony is what makes the Gettysburg Address great.