Martin Luther King Jr.'s famous "I Have a Dream" speech was so popular and moving because of King's delivery and choice of words. He elicited an intense emotional response from supporters and opposers alike to what he was preaching. There are many examples in television and film of what an effective speech looks like and what characteristics it has that make it effective. Aristotle provides answers that are still considered today for what composes an effective monologue.
Aristotle was a great philosopher and influential figure on Western though from Ancient Greece who studied under Plato. His writings included topics such as politics, psychology, zoology, logic, metaphysics, biology, ethics, rhetoric, poetry, and physics. After Plato died he proceeded to tutor Philip II, King of Macedon's son, Alexander. His most read books today are Metaphysics, Nicomachean Ethics, Politics, Poetics, the De Anima, and the Organon (Rodger and Bakewell). Aristotle explains in Rhetoric that persuasion is the most effective because emotion is powerful particularly when someone knows how to use it. He continues, "There are, then, these three means of effecting persuasion. The man who is to be in command of them must, it is clear, be able to reason logically, to understand human character and goodness in their various forms, and to understand th emotions- that is to name them and describe them, to know their causes and the way in which they are excited. It thus appears that rhetoric is an offshoot of dialectician also of ethical studies." (Aristotle) Essentially what Aristotle is explaining is that for rhetoric to be effective it must meet the criteria of utilizing the logos, pathos, and/or ethos appeals. He notes that the art of persuasion is majorly influenced by emotional appeals that are evoked by knowledge of logic and emotion itself. Ethos, or the ethical appeal. is just as important as pathos, the emotional appeal, and can be even more effective when used in conjunction with each other although they don't always have to be.
During the episode, "Lahey v. Commonwealth of Pennsylvania" on the television show How to Get Away With Murder, Annalise Keating, a defense attorney portrayed by Viola Davis, defends Nathaniel Lahey, an unjustly convicted felon before the Supreme Court. In Keating's rebuttal during her client's court hearing she states that, "Racism is built into the DNA of America." She claims that the criminal justice system is broken, and the people of color are disadvantaged when it comes to mental health and civil rights issues. Keating asks the Supreme Court to giver her client who also represents the Black community's injustices, a chance at a fair trial with a competent attorney. Annalise Keating's speech effectively applies Aristotle's ethos, or ethical appeal, as she requests that the Supreme Court stand on the right side of history. She singles out Justice Strickland specifically who, in a previous case, declared, "As an arbiter of the law, with whole knowledge of historical jurisprudence in this country, race must always be considered a variable," so that he would realize that his current opposition to her case is contradictive of his former standpoint. Keating also appeals to what Aristotle identifies as logos, or the logical appeal, when discussing how the Jim Crow Era is over, yet people of color still suffer from racial oppression. ("Lahey v. Commonwealth of Pennsylvania")
Football Coach Boone from the 2000 film Remember the Titans delivers a speech to his team composed of Black and white young men who are disputing with each other over their differences in order to unite them. Coach Boone took his team to the cemetery where soldiers fought at the Battle of Gettysburg telling them that, "...fifty thousand men died right here on this field, fightin' the same fight that we're still fightin' amongst ourselves today." (Yakin) He pointed out that malice brought those men to destruction and the same will happen to his team if they don't come together. He asks them to learn that lesson from the dead as he stands in front of tombstones. Boone doesn't care if they like each other but expects them to respect each other so they can play the game maturely. By bringing his team to a cemetery where fifty thousand men died over spite for one another, Coach Boone employs Aristotle's effective rhetoric criterium of pathos, the emotional appeal. He does this to express how his football team is similar to the men in the Battle of Gettysburg in their mindsets and behavior and how ultimately, they will destroy themselves. Boone creates an environment where his team must reflect on their own words and actions seeing how they must transform in order to thrive.
In the 2006 movie, 300, based on the Battle of Thermopylae between the Greeks and Persians, Queen Gorgo of Sparta gives a speech in support for her husband, King Leonidas, who is away battling Xerxes. Queen Gorgo tells the councilmen that she is here, "...for all those voices which cannot be heard: mothers, daughters, fathers, sons..." in order to convince them to send the army to aid King Leonidas. She wants to preserve their liberty, law and order, and reason by fighting against Xerxes who threatens their values. Even though the army is short on manpower with only 300 soldiers, she petitioned for the councilmen's vote to assist Leonidas because it was the right thing to do. Queen Gorgo's rhetorical strategies are both pathos and ethos. She tells the council, "...I come to you as a mother. I come to you as a wife. I come to you as a Spartan woman. I come to you with great humility...We must send the entire Spartan army to aid our King in the preservation of not just ourselves, but of our children." She initially utilizes the emotional appeal then proceeds to tune into the council's ethics, requesting their support for sending the army. Queen Gorgo continues, "...send our army for hope- hope that a king and his men have not been wasted to the pages of history; that their courage bonds us together; that we are made stronger by their actions; and that your choices today reflect their bravery." The councilmen are then in a position to decide whether they want to uphold the principles Sparta was built upon or retreat from a serious threat. (Snyder)
What allows these speeches to be effective originates from Aristotle's identification of the three criteria- pathos, logos, and ethos. These criteria for effective rhetoric are demonstrated by the movie and TV speeches in How to Get Away With Murder, Remember the Titans, and 300 by actors Viola Davis, Denzel Washington, and Lena Heady respectively. Although compelling speeches are often delivered by politicians about bettering a nation, they can also be within fictional work executed by real people applying Aristotle's standards for such speeches.
Works Cited
300. Dir. Zack Snyder. Perf. Lena Heady. Warner Bros. 2006.
Aristotle. Rhetoric. Trans. W. Rhys Roberts. Random House, 1984.
“Lahey v. Commonwealth of Pennsylvania”. How to Get Away With Murder. ABC, KCAU, 9 March 2018.
Remember the Titans. Dir. Boaz Yakin. Perf. Denzel Washington. Walt Disney Pictures. 2000.
Rodger, Liam and Joan Bakewell. "Chambers Biographical Dictionary." 9th edition. Chambers Harrap Publishers, 2011. Credo Reference, http://libproxy.estrellamountain.edu/login?url=https://search.credoreference.com/content/entry/chambbd/aristotle/1?institutionId=5536. Accessed 03 Jul. 2018.
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