Rhetorical Analysis of "The Greatest Speech Ever Made"

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Adam Mertens Instructor: Lisa McClintock English 105 February 12, 2013 The greatest Speech ever made “The greatest speech ever made” is a speech that is Charlie Chaplin makes in his 1940 move The Great Dictator. The movie is a black and white slapstick comedy about a dictator and a barber who looks like the dictator and they get mistaken for each other one day. Chaplin gives this speech as an actor but gives a message to people in real life then and now. Charlie Chaplin effectively displays pathos more than ethos and logos in this powerful speech. The speech given in the movie is a powerful and serious one that is more than just a script to a movie, it is still remembered today and will be remembered for decades to come. In the speech Chaplin never states a specific audience but it is clear if someone thinks about it that they would be able to figure out who it is to. The only spot that Charlie is directing his speech at a specific person or group in in the opening paragraph where he states, “I should like to help everyone if possible, Jew, gentile, black man, white.” (1) In this line Chaplin is saying that he wants to help all those people and that he is talking to them. Also the audience that he is overall talking to is anyone in the world at that time that was dealing with the hardships of World War II. The speech can be made relevant to people that are living in today’s day and age. Chaplin was effective in getting to his audience because the speech is still remembered today. Charlie Chaplin is a man of few words his movies but in this movie he makes a great and powerful speech. Charlie Chaplin is most known for his roles in slapstick comedies of the early 1900s. In this film he plays both the dictator and the Jewish barber who have a case of mistaken identity. Chaplin is making fun of Hitler in this movie by dressing up like him when he

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