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Tony Blair

In: English and Literature

Submitted By sophieafc
Words 640
Pages 3
Britain will be better with New Labour

This essay will include an analysis and discussion of a speech by Tony Blair from 1997. Tony Blair was a Labour Party politician, who in 1997 got elected as Prime Minister of Great Britain. The speech we are analyzing is the same speech that won Tony Blair the election back in 1997, and therefore holds great meaning in British history.

Firstly, we will have a look at a rhetorical analysis of the speech, by filling in the rhetorical pentagon. The writer of the speech is Tony Blair. The topic of Tony Blair’s speech is the way he wants to renew the political system of Great Britain, by implementing some new reforms, with the purpose of making Great Britain a more equal place for the people of Britain. The reader of the speech is the registered voter of Great Britain - in particular the old supporters of The Labour party. The circumstances of the speech is the election of Prime Minister. The language of the speech is rather formal, considering that he is speaking out to the majority of Great Britain. The effect of this, is that Tony Blair appears more convincing and well structured, both in his speech, and in his way of carrying out his politics. Finally, the intention of the speech is to persuade the recipients of the speech to vote for him as Prime Minister.

Roughly, Tony Blair’s speech can be divided in two major fragments. An introduction from the first line to line 6, and the speech itself, running from line 7 and to the end. In the introduction of Britain will be better with New Labour, Tony Blair’s intention is to catch the readers attention, by firstly complimenting Great Britain as a Nation, and secondly drawing up some critics of the system as it is now (example on line 3-6; “..Britain can and must be better: better schools, better hospitals, better ways of tackling crime..”) This has the rhetorical effect of putting the ideal Nation up against some issues to be solved, and gives the idea of a man with a vision.
In the second part of the speech, Blair starts out by taking use of the rhetorical device “repetition”. Whenever he lays out a new statement or an issue, he starts with the two words “I want”. This gives a coherence throughout the whole speech, and helps keeping the recipient on track. This also helps Blair retaining a certain structure in his speech for it to seem more convincing and considered. (Example line 7, 11, 14, 16, 19, 22, 25, 27 and 28.) In line 25 it becomes clear to the recipient that the speech is almost over, as Blair uses the word “and” before “I want”, to sum up the speech. Also this is clearly where the speech reaches its climax, due the to power in these four sentences.

The speech of Tony Blair is mostly characterized by the use of ethos. Tony Blair is a very high ranked person in the British society, and therefore very qualified to talk about the issues that he brings up. This is a reacquiring phenomenon throughout the majority of the speech. We also see a use of Pathos within the speech. Pathos is used, for an example, in the last line of the speech.
“.. in which what I want for my own children I want for yours.” This appeals to the feelings of the recipients, given that he uses his own family as an example. Logos is not as strong a factor as the other two, due to the fact that he doesn’t include things like statistics or other measurable things.
All of these features helps to build a level of trust towards Tony Blair and his party, and this is what helped Tony Blair win the election.

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