Recognizing Rhetoric
“The Final Speech from The Great Dictator” by Charlie Chaplin
Ethos:
1: Chaplin’s character is a Jewish barber, gained credibility to his audience to speak about dictators.
2: Chaplin was born 4 days before Hitler and is compared to him often, given that Charlie and Adolf both lived in the same world and professed wanting to help people.
3: “I’m sorry, but I don’t want to be an emperor. That’s not my business. I don’t want to rule or conquer anyone. I should like to help everyone - if possible - Jew, Gentile - black man - white. We all want to help one another. Human beings are like that.”
Logos:
1: “We want to live by each other’s happiness - not by each other’s misery.”
2: “Our knowledge has made us cynical. Our cleverness, hard and unkind. We think too much and feel too little. More than machinery we need humanity. More than cleverness we need kindness and gentleness. Without these qualities, life will be violent and all will be lost…”
3: “In the 17th Chapter of St Luke it is written: “the Kingdom of God is within man” - not one man nor a group of men, but in all men! In you! You, the people have the power”
Pathos:
1: “Soldiers! don’t give yourselves to brutes - men who despise you - enslave you - who regiment your lives - tell you what to do - what to think and what to feel! Who drill you - diet you - treat you like cattle, use you as cannon fodder.
2: “Let us fight for a new world - a decent world that will give men a chance to work - that will give youth a future and old age a security. By the promise of these things, brutes have risen to power. But they lie! They do not fulfil that promise. They never will!”
3: “To those who can hear me, I say - do not despair. The misery that is now upon us is but the passing of greed - the bitterness of men who fear the way of human progress.”
Ethos:
- Chaplin’s character is a Jewish barber.
In Chaplin’s first speaking role, he wrote the final speech for The Great Dictator. It was in parallel to the threat of Adolf Hitler. His character was a Jewish barber/dictator, meaning that he already easily establishes creditability with it his audience. He’ll quickly gain their attention, and he’ll appeal to the audience in the exact way he was anticipating.
Logos:
- “In the 17th Chapter of St Luke, it is written: “the Kingdom of God is within man” - not one man nor a group of men, but in all men! In you! You, the people have the power”
How Chaplin uses logos in this stanza makes a great point. Logically, if we’re to live by biblical rules and logic, this is a good example of how the logos in this speech speaks to that. It’s also a good rallying cry for those still on the fence. If we’re told the Kingdom of God is within man, we’d have to assume it’s referring to man-kind. Though the language is completely incompatible with inclusivity, given the time it was written, I still believe Chaplin was including women in his statement too. His ethos wouldn’t have it any other way.
Pathos:
- “Let us fight for a new world - a decent world that will give men a chance to work - that will give youth a future and old age a security. By the promise of these things, brutes have risen to power. But they lie! They do not fulfil that promise. They never will!”
Here, Charlie tries to appeal to the people. Fighting along with him, you’ll be fighting for a chance to have a life. He reminds us that all parties make that promise, but fascists always lie and never end up fulfilling such promises. He’s appealing to the audience’s emotions by reminding them why he’s fighting, what he’s fighting for, and how often people are used by those in power, often fatally. Reminding people that those who are in power rarely, if ever, care about their own people can be a powerful wakeup call. It’s very effective.
Exploring the Positive & Negative Uses of Rhetoric
In what Google has deemed one of the most popular speeches of all time, The Final Speech in “The Great Dictator” ignited the world when it was released. As the first speaking role of Chaplin’s career, it was surprising that it was a direct attack on Adolf Hitler, though it was effective. The film and speech spread throughout the globe and infantilized Hitler’s megalomania. One negative from the speech I got is that, while it was written to be inclusive, it still wasn’t. Sure, you can assume when he wrote ‘man’ or ‘all men’ that he was including women, and you’d probably be right. But it would’ve been nice to explicitly state so. Regrettably, this speech is just as valid as it was then.
References:
“The Final Speech from the Great Dictator.” Charlie Chaplin: The Final Speech from The Great Dictator, www.charliechaplin.com/en/articles/29-the-final-speech-from-the-great-dictator-.