King's Speech : The Role Of A King

“A superior man is modest in his speech, but exceeds in his actions“ -Confucius. This quote is relevant because in Shakespeare’s play, Julius Caesar, Brutus and Antony gave speeches after Caesar’s death. A speaker has to make connections with the audience, use creativity, and have passion. Antony was rhetoric, cunning, and used pathos to connect with the people of Rome. Brutus was also rhetoric, honorable, and used logos and ethos to influence the audience. Overall, Brutus did not influence the crowd like he hoped to. Antony knew how he was going to persuade the people before he gave his speech.

The speech by the Player King in Act 3, Scene 2, is part of the play that Hamlet asks the Players to put on to try and find evidence of Claudius's guilt. The speech itself is a response to the statements by the Player Queen regarding her ever getting a second marriage if he dies. The Player Queen suggests that second marriages are not on the grounds of love or want, but on money and fortune. This part of the acted play by the Player King and Queen is a trap to try and invoke any reactions from Claudius that would show his guilt in the murder of Hamlet’s father. The topic in the speech of second marriages clearly points out the wrongness of Claudius’s marriage to Gertrude.

The speech I chose to analyze is Every Man a King by Huey P. Long. This speech was truly moving especially since the era was during the Great Depression. Wealth inequality was at an unsurpassed high in America, and the majority of the people were in the position of struggle and famine. Huey Long was a longtime advocate of redistributing wealth in his own state, he took this platform to a national scale to address his concern of building support for his movement. The society that he was making was the "Share the Wealth Society", a society in which the motto was "every man a king" and whose goal was the limit the wealth of the rich and share with the poor. He used sources such as the Bible, information about the past presidents and philosophers, as well as information of the amount of debt the U.S. has to support his claim. Huey P. Long used ethos, pathos, and logos to persuade his listeners of the broadcast to create a "Share the Wealth Society" in their communities.

Thesis: King brilliantly applies rhetorical strategies such as pathos, logos and ethos that are crucial in successfully influencing detractors of his philosophical views on civil disobedience.

People need to have a certain type of voice to make a speech effective. To make a speech effective it depends on your tone of voice and how you deliver your speech. If you deliver your speech effectively, it could be memorable and even make a great impact on the world. An example of a speaker that made a great impact on the world is, Martin Luther King Jr, who delivered the famous I Have a Dream speech. Martin Luther King Jr. was a civil rights activist and he wanted to make a change in America. King wanted American’s to treat each other equally and not have discrimination against people depending on what race they were. King’s speech is effective because of the tone and rate he uses, his reasonable arguments, and his use of repetition

Passion is a necessary trait all excellent speakers use to persuade their audiences. A passionate speaker uses pathos to sway his or her audience to the speaker’s side by playing with the audience’s emotions. Before pathos is used to move the audience emotionally, it is smart for the speaker to use ethos to build good credibility. With credibility, the speaker has the ability to make the audience trust him or her. That trust is beneficial to help the audience believe what the speaker is saying. Logos is another trait that a strong speaker must make use of to show intellect. It is the appeal to logic. Logic is needed to show the audience that the speaker knows his or her facts and can effectively back them up. Ethos, pathos, and logos are three vital aspects of a good speech. Elizabeth I uses all three appeals subtly throughout her speech, using pathos the most. The queen also uses rhetorical devices to emphasize her points. Through the use of amplification, asyndeton, and climax, Elizabeth I reassures and inspires her troops with her compelling speech.

The king certainly has absolute power; he demonstrates it through punishment and rewards for disobeying or obeying his authority. He is the distributor of wealth, etc. So he can just as easily take it away. Although, you are allowed to think for yourself as well but it must be thought out extensively before said or done. If not and it has damaged you or the kingdom, it comes attached with serious consequences.

In his letter, King uses all three modes of persuasion- ethos, logos, and pathos. King addresses all of the clergymen's concerns methodically and answers them both with clear, indisputable facts and with emotional appeals to allow the reader a closer and honest view of a colored person's life in the South at the time. King uses ethos to establish his character, but also to reassure the reader of his intentions. In this letter King keeps his tone unemotional and informative allowing logic to prevail. Throughout his letter King is successful using metaphors and imagery to express ideas or emotions that would otherwise be difficult for the reader to grasp.

There are various authors whose motives have always been trying to either educate or entertain their audiences via their works and have been basing their writings on politics for centuries. Henry V by William Shakespeare is an ideal example of the manner in which great political writings have been influencing politics for many years including the present day. Various influential and famous political leaders have always been determined to quote various sections of King Henry V for the sake of emphasizing and communicating their ideas properly to the intended audiences.

King Henry V, is one of the only successful monarchs in Shakespeare’s plays. He displays great strength and intelligence. King Henry V is capable of uniting all of his people in his St. Crispin’s Day speech as they prepare to go to battle. The troops were greatly outnumbered and believed they had no chance at winning. But King Henry makes them feel like they are part of something important, and by doing this he motivates them to fight their hardest.

Another way Hitler was able to captivate his audiences was through his gestures. Gestures are extremely important to creating emphasis during different parts of the speech. Patrick Mott said it best, "Take away the dictator’s ability to punctuate his speech with his hands and arms and you’re left with a frothing, sputtering caricature flopping around behind the lectern like a beached shark – not exactly the object of blind, hypnotized devotion" (Mott). Every good speaker needs gestures to make their speech more memorable. The speaker uses gestures to appeal to the emotions, or ethos, of their audience to make the audience excited to listen to what the speaker is saying. Gestures have been used just about all over the world, from daily conversations to mass rallies, to emphasize important and key information that a speaker wants his or her audience to remember.

Their responsibilities were limited in that their rule was mainly a generalship. This is supported by Aristotle, who states that the King could “command the army on foreign expeditions, and supervise religious worship; beyond that their sovereignty does not extend…an independent and permanent generalship.”

On April 23, 1934, United States Senator Huey P. Long delivered his most well-known speech to the American people via radio. His speech became known as “Every Man A King.” During this time period, the United States had felt the effects of the Great Depression for about five years and looked to the president for a solution to their suffering. Both presidents during this time, President Herbert Hoover and President Franklin Delano Roosevelt, had the responsibility of facing the economic depression and leading the United States out from the clutches of the Great Depression. Feeling that he himself would resolve the issues more effectively, the senator committed himself to run for president in 1936, threatening the current president Roosevelt.

While The Kings Speech draws upon a number of historical facts and events, this is not its primary concern. The film is about the effect of a person’s family on how the person develops. For example, in The Kings Speech, King George VI’s brother abdicating and his father’s cruelty played a part in his stammer and lack of confidence. The film is also about the importance of a secure support system, for example Queen Elizabeth and Lionel Logue were Bertie's support system and they helped him overcome his stammer and lack of confidence. A third important issue in the film is about the different approach to class distinction by British and Australian people, as shown by the expectations of Bertie and Queen Elizabeth that Lionel Logue will do

In the film “The King’s Speech”, written by David Seidler and released on November 26, 2010, the filmmaker portrays Albert being constantly under pressure for speaking correctly, by comparing his speech to great broadcasters who are anything but great leaders. The pressure that comes from Albert’s father, King George V, results in more frustration for the both of them, without either of them realising that to lead a country into greatness depends more on just speaking well. Throughout the film, there had been ideal speech models like Hitler, David, and King George V, shown in order to compare their speech to Albert’s and to show what a great speaker has to sound in order to gain the public’s support. Ironically, all of those speech perfect models turned out to be egocentric individuals and the least egotistical leader, Albert, is the one with the impaired speech. I argue that in “The King’s Speech”, the characters who serve as models of ideal speech are figures of oppression, therefore the author is implying that the idea of having ideal speech does not live up to it’s praise.