How the political speech exerts power?
Martin Luther King ‘I have a dream’
Martin Luther King delivered a speech on August 27 1963, in which he called for an end to racism in the United States. The speech is one of the most memorable speeches of all time, it uses many techniques to exert power for example; extended metaphors, allusion and anaphora. The speech uses influential power to persuade people to want racial equality.
Throughout the speech Martin Luther King uses allusion at the beginning of the 2nd paragraph he says ‘Five score years ago’ this refers to president Lincolns Gettysburg address speech. Allusion is used to exert the power as Lincoln was a president this is a powerful position and also hints that Lincoln would have approved of the campaign for equal rights. There are also numerous biblical allusions used throughout the speech, this is used to provide moral basis for the arguments and religious power. 1st person singular pronoun is used throughout the speech, ‘I have a dream’ this gives King authority and power however the first person pronoun ‘we’ is used 30 times this unites King with his audience. King also uses anaphora in his speech e.g. ‘I have a dream’ this is to repeat the message of the speech.
Extended metaphor is a technique which King uses to assert power, in the 3rd and 4th paragraph there is an extended metaphor of a check. King uses extended metaphors to make the argument more powerful so the audience can understand. ‘With this faith we will be able to work together, to pray together, to struggle together, to go to jail together, to stand up for freedom together, knowing that we will be free one day’, this is an example of King using synonymous parallelism. King also uses a rhetorical question ‘When will you be satisfied?’ and answers it himself, this exerts power as it shows he has the knowledge to answer the question.
The Essay on Capetian King Power State One
The suggestion that the Capetian kings of the tenth and eleventh century were weak and merely Primus inter pares, appears a valid one. There has been a trend ever since the age of Charlemagne for the position of the kings of the Frankish State to be fragile. There are some historians however; who would refute this description of the Capetian kings of this period, most notably the historian ...
The discourse structure of the speech is planned and topics would have been prepared. Imperatives are used by King in the speech e.g. ‘go back’ this shows that King is powerful enough to command his audience. Metaphors are used to highlight the contrasting concepts in the speech for example ‘joyous daybreak to end the long night of their captivity’, this creates powerful images and emotions for the audience. Another way Martin Luther King exerts power is by using figurative language such as personification King casts American society as a person who has done African Americans wrong. This personification gives the audience and Martin Luther King someone to blame for the mistreatments of black Americans.
In conclusion many power techniques were used by Martin Luther King in his ‘I have a dream speech’ such as allusion, metaphors (particularly extended), imperatives and parallelism. All these techniques were used to exert influential power over the audience.