Kings Speech Response
It seems hopeless, a person with such responsibility to his country can’t even speak without stuttering to the point of incomprehensibility. This person is none other than the King of England, King George, and his position naturally involves a lot of public speaking which is rather unfortunate for him. The situation King George is faced with is eventually mended through hard work and support from his two prominent literacy sponsors, Lionel and Queen Elizabeth, King George’s wife. Without the help of his sponsors, King George would be incapable of being the leader England needed during this time and would further damage his already low self-esteem.
First it is essential to give some background information of what George went through leaving him with his stammer and to point out that George is by no means illiterate, he just can’t project his thoughts verbally. After some revealing scenes about George’s childhood one can draw the conclusion that his stammer comes from emotional scars inflicted by his father and his nanny. When George was learning how to read and write whenever he made a mistake his father would scold him and his nanny wouldn’t feed him for up to three days. This caused immense emotional trauma and inflicted a fear of making any mistakes which quite possibly could be the root of his stammer. That being said, George reads just fine and can say things in his head making him literate but he just can’t clearly articulate his thoughts with words which is where his wife and Lionel come into play.
King George’s two most influential literacy sponsors are his speech therapist Lionel and his wife Queen Elizabeth. Literacy sponsors are people who lend their resources or credibility to the sponsored but also stand to gain benefits from their success, whether by direct repayment or, indirectly, by credit of association (Writing About Writing, 47). Now Elizabeth doesn’t exactly fit this definition exactly but her role can be partially related to some of the elements laid out by this definition. Elizabeth doesn’t possess the resources or credibility to help George directly but she does go out and search for people who do have the qualifications to help him since George has too much pride to do so himself. She tries to find help for George because it would indirectly benefit her if George could speak clearly since his stammer makes him angry and depressed. In her efforts she stumbled upon a man named Lionel who specializes in speech therapy and convinced George to give him a chance. After the first couple of minutes George quickly realized that Lionel’s methods were a little unorthodox but effective. As time goes on and Lionel gets to know George, He sees that George lacks self-confidence and that becomes his main focus in their sessions. Lionel helps George build up his self-confidence which in turn makes his stammer becomes less consistent. Once all was said and done George eventually worked up to giving a speech to millions of people addressing the situation with Germany without any noticeable stutters. This priceless gift Lionel gave to George was relatively easy for George to repay since being friends with the king automatically raises one’s social status in society and gave countless other benefits. These are the two literacy sponsors that helped guide George on his path from a stammering Duke of York to a confident King of England.
To conclude, George’s journey began as a child learning how to read and write just as anyone would expect. Unfortunately due to cruel treatment from his father and his nanny, George developed a stammer that stuck with him into his adult years. After many embarrassing speeches and failed attempts to fix his stammer, George’s wife Elizabeth sought out a man named Lionel who specialized in speech therapy. Lionel coached George for quite a while until George could speak fluently and the two of them became close friends. Without Elizabeth and Lionel, George could have lost the support of his people because of his inability to speak publicly hurtling him into an even deeper state of depression.