Hi
Today's post will be an analysis of Winston Churchill's "We shall fight on the beaches" .
This text
is a political speech by Winston Churchill from June 4th 1940, right
after the beginning of the Second World War in the dawn of the Battle of
Britain. This can also be deduced from the text since Churchill is constantly referring
to Germany, their opponent during the Battle of Britain, as a threat for
England, a “menace of tyranny”. The identification of the text as a speech is
based on the consistency of the text as it contains a powerful message that is
being directly sent to an audience orally, with the aid of rhetorical devices
and phrases with powerful meaning and impact on the audience. This analysis
will look into the features of this speech along with the devices used by the
author in order to effectively send the message to the audience.
One of the most important
features of a political speech is its audience since depending on the audience
the content can be changed so that the purpose could be achieved. The main
audience of this speech are people from Great Britain as the author focuses his
ideas on the future actions of the country in what regards protecting it from
the attacks of the Nazi oppressors as well as the future of the country itself
after their success. The author mentions that “we shall prove ourselves once again able to
defend our Island home” giving another reason to believe that the audience are
people from England, since Winston Churchill, a British statesman, includes
himself in the group of people he is talking to by mentioning the pronoun “we”. Therefore, we can deduce that the overall purpose of this political
speech was to encourage people to fight for their country, be united in times
of crisis and even more important to convince them of their power and ability
to succeed. The author uses repeatedly
the pronouns “we” and “our” in order to achieve the goal of uniting people and
bringing them closer to each other as well as building a stronger relationship
between himself and the people. By mentioning all of the environments in which
the British could fight and succeed - on seas, oceans, in the air, etc. - he
also tries to achieve the previously mentioned purpose of convincing the
British of how powerful they are and their good odds of winning.
The content of this speech
also plays an important role in the ability of the author of reaching his goals
and delivering the message effectively to his audience. The speech starts with
Winston Churchill, the author, mentioning that he has “full confidence” in the
ability of the British Empire of overcoming the current crisis consisting in
the attacks of the Nazi. The allies of the country, the French Republic, are
mentioned as well and they are described as ready for fight, ready to die to
protect their “native soil”. Furthermore the author describes a variety of
places, environments and conditions such as seas, oceans, air, beaches, France,
where their people could be able to fight and still win. The speech ends with a
brief description of what would happen in the eventuality of the British
losing, however not much importance seems to be given to this situation or
possibility. The main overall ideas would be that for the British Empire, the
current threat from another nation represents only a challenge that could be
overcome and that their power and ability to adapt to numerous battle
conditions would be enough in order to eliminate this threat. This is what in
the view of Winston Churchill should give everyone confidence and eliminate the
idea of being defeated from the audience’s minds. Throughout the speech, we can
identify the overarching themes as being the one of confidence, tyranny and
power. Firstly, the theme of confidence is highlighted even from the beginning
of the speech, when the audience is being encouraged to have confidence in
their power to overcome the threat imposed by the oppressors of England. This
is generated indirectly by Churchill who has “full confidence” and who could be
using his authority, people themselves starting to feel confident if he declares
himself confident as well. Secondly, the theme of tyranny is being developed
constantly throughout the speech. Churchill describes the current threat coming
from the Nazi as “the menace of tyranny” and continues to develop this image
throughout the speech by using words such as “odious apparatus” and mentioning
that many other “famous States have fallen” while fighting the Nazi. Lastly, the
theme of power is omnipresent in the speech as were the previously described
themes. The audience is constantly being encouraged using as predominant
argument the power that England has in wars and the ability of adapting to any
given situation. This is done through the previously mentioned enumeration of
battlefield conditions such as seas, oceans and air.
The overall tone that this
speech is mostly informative, containing however hints of criticism while
exposing specific ideas. The informative side of the speech is based on the
attempt of Churchill of assuring people that “the best arrangements are made”
and that this is also “the will of Parliament and the nation”. The atmosphere
created by Churchill’s speech is stimulating, inducing hope and confidence to the
audience since if an authority figure with high power in the state wishes to accomplish
something, it is more likely for that to be done, but it also helps building up
the mood of the speech which will be discussed later on. In this part, the
priority and power of the nation which is composed of the people is being
placed as an equal to the Parliament. As previously mentioned, the tone could
be considered as well as being critical when the author mentions that the “old
famous States” have fallen, meaning that they might not have done the best they
could to overcome the “menace of tyranny”. It is possible for the author to have been sarcastic
and even a bit satirical when describing these nations as old and famous which
would be in complete antithesis with their current status of defeated countries.
The mood created by the speech is mostly a friendly and encouraging one. Starting
from the use of the pronoun “we”, the author of the speech is placing the task
of protecting the country in the hands of everyone, including himself, gaining
more trust and appreciation from the others. In other words, the task of defending the
country is distributed among the people of the society, not only one specific
group. The use of the pronoun “we” is also one of the elements giving the
speech the friendly and encouraging mood, suggesting that no one is alone in
this fight and that everyone will help everyone. As previously mentioned, the
idea related to the authority of the people being equal to the one of the
Parliament helps building up the mood as by doing so, people are encouraged to
take action and they are more likely to do so if they know someone will listen
to them.
As in any other political
speech, Churchill’s speech makes use of an abundance of stylistic and rhetoric
devices as well as appeals in order to achieve his purpose. The speech makes
use of ethos by mentioning even from the beginning the fact that Churchill has
“full confidence” and continuing by using the Parliament that is a big
authority symbol in the state. Pathos is used as well through the means of the
pronouns “we” and “our” since they are creating a more friendly relationship
between the author of the speech and the audience. Also, a metaphor is being used in the
beginning of the speech, Churchill associating the Nazi with a “storm of war” potentially
because a storm can be very destructive, therefore trying to reinforce the
vicious image of their enemy in the minds of British people. The anaphora “if
necessary” is used as well, in order to make people understand that the best
will be done in this situation, no matter what happens. Furthermore, Churchill
uses antithesis in order to compare the British Empire with the other
countries, England being pictured as a much more powerful country as they will
not “flag or fail” by comparison to the
others. In this part of the speech, a very clear distinction between ‘friends
and foes’ is established by speaking about the Nazi as “the menace of tyranny”
and describing the allies, the French Republic as a nation ready to “defend to the
death their native soil, aiding each other like good comrades” therefore
creating another antithesis between these two nations. Lastly, one of the most
powerful devices used in this speech, the anaphora, is used again through the
repetition of the structure “we shall fight”. This structure is being used in
front of successive phrases containing numerous situations in which the British
could find themselves during a fight. By doing so, Churchill aims to convince the
audience of their power and convince them to be united and fight for the cause.
From the point of view of structure, we can notice that Churchill opens the
speech with his own position in this situation, describing himself as highly
confident and creating a general mind-set for everyone else. Next, he continues
by describing all the reasons why he believes that the Nazi will not succeed in
their attempt of conquering England and ends with a very brief description of
the eventuality of England losing the fight. This tells us that little
importance is given to this possibility.
In conclusion, this speech of
Winston Churchill from 1940 was a very efficient way of creating an optimistic
view towards the outcome of the Second World War for the British people. It is
important for such an image to be created in a situation as such since a positive
attitude is more likely to lead towards a positive outcome of any given
situation. All of this has been achieved through the use of the rhetoric and
stylistic devices, as well as the appeals such as ethos and pathos which
unified lead to a highly stimulating content, able to reach to the hearts and
minds of the audience.
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