The King’s Speech is a historical movie based on real events surrounding King George VI’s speech impediment and the friendship that forms between him and his speech therapist Lionel. The movie begins while King George, more fondly known as Bertie, is still the Duke of York and carries through to the beginning of World War II. The opening sequence depicts Bertie’s painful ordeal of attempting to give a speech before a large audience but finding himself incapable. However, it soon becomes apparent that the title indicates more than just speech giving; rather, it also denotes Bertie’s voice, that is, his personal right to be heard in a way that pleases him.
In the beginning, Bertie and his family are convinced that the impediment is strictly a mechanical problem. This is shown in the scene where Bertie’s father tries to force him to give the Christmas speech. As Bertie struggles with the words, his father stands over him and shouts, “Get it out, boy!” This insistence reveals his father’s impatience and belief that Bertie’s problem is akin to a malfunctioning machine. His father’s yelling, though, only makes the process more difficult, proving that Bertie’s troubles are more than flesh limitations.
Lionel, a middle-class man without formal medical training, is the first to understand that Bertie’s impediment is mostly psychological. He recognizes this from the moment he meets Bertie, but Lionel’s insights are best proved in the scene following the death of Bertie’s father. Bertie goes to Lionel’s house in search of comfort and finds himself telling Lionel about the abuses he suffered as a child. While Bertie’s speech is still halting, and he manages to talk for a long time without serious difficulty. This shows that he has grown comfortable with Lionel, and confronting his pain sets him on the right path to finding his voice. However, he does not fully realize his voice until the scene where he confronts Lionel about his lack of credentials. By this point, Lionel has discovered that Bertie speaks better when he is angry, and therefore pushes him into a fury. At the end of the argument, Bertie shouts, “I have a voice!” This is a moment of revelation for Bertie—until then, he has had no confidence in himself. Yet when he defends himself from Lionel’s taunts, he proves not to Lionel but to himself that he is a worthy king despite his speech impediment. Thus, with his newly discovered self-worth, Bertie is able to deliver the war commencement speech at the end of the movie.
This is an interesting way of looking at the film's meanings. Not that it's about the speeches he gives, rather his speech difficulties and his voice, the fact that he deserves to be heard. From what Bertie explains about his childhood, he never felt worthy or that he was worthy of being heard; his thoughts and opinions were of no consequence. It came down to him having to overcome the abuses he suffered and his resulting insecurities. After years of attempts to fix his problem, it isn't until he encounters someone without formal training to break through the walls he has put up (rightly so), and help him find his "voice".
ReplyDeleteIt was actually refreshing to review your thoughts on the meanings behind the film title, as most are led to believe that there are only two meanings. There is quite an extensive range, however, in the clever play on words as they relate to technical aspects of speech (impediment, therapy, and conversation), social consequences (public display of Bertie's stammer, credibility as a royal, and Bertie's older brother's blunders as the outright heir to the throne that ultimately push Bertie and his family into reign), and the thrill of victory (the apparent evolution from stammering Duke of York to a more confident and socially apt King George VI). The fact that there are a multitude of possible interpretations is a major part of the film's appeal, I believe. Thanks for the revelation!!
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