56 pages • 1 hour read
Mark Logue , Peter ConradiThe King's Speech
Nonfiction | Biography | Adult | Published in 2010A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Themes
Speech
Speech—in the abstract sense—is an important theme throughout the book. Communication between people, the performance inherent in delivering a speech, and the ability for loved ones to connect are all frequently addressed; all share speech in common. Characters share their thoughts, feelings, and emotions via speech and their ability to do so typically dictates their success.
The theme of speech is most obviously applied to King George VI. From childhood, he struggles with a historically bad stammer. His speech impediment is so pronounced that he struggles even to say “King” or “Queen.” Because of this, he struggles to integrate into social groups. He becomes self-conscious and unwilling to communicate freely. At school, he struggles to speak aloud in class and his academic performance suffers as a result, calling into question his future in any occupation. Because Bertie’s speech is inhibited, he suffers emotionally. Speech, to him, is a way of communicating with loved ones and being able to fully partake in society. Speech allows people to form bonds and relationships. Bertie’s restricted speech creates a “somber” and “diffident” (65) personality. He is cut off from the world, struggling to form relationships with people because he cannot communicate with them effectively (or, in doing so, he embarrasses himself). It should be no surprise that the warmest moments displayed by the King come at times when he is best able to communicate. Whether with Logue or his daughters, when the King’s ability to communicate improves, he is able to form long and meaningful relationships. The relationship with Logue is important, because Logue is the King’s point of entry for effective communication. The relationship with the princesses is important because they are the people with whom the King most wants to communicate, overcoming the cold and distant relationship he enjoyed with his own father. The contrast between the King’s relationship with his own children versus his early relationship with his father demonstrates the importance of speech.
On a wider scale, when Logue provides treatment and allows the King to speak uninhibited, he is better able to communicate, and gains more power as a result. He rallies the country during times of great stress and brings society together through speech. Praise for speech becomes a byword for royal success. Governance and the ability to govern are tied directly to the theme of speech.
It is also important to consider the inherent theatrical nature of speech as a theme. Logue first grows his fame by delivering performances to packed auditoriums, refining his own speech in front of delighted audiences. The ability to “speak well” is a sign of good character and is vaunted by everyone in Australia, America, and Great Britain. It is not only what he says that impresses, but how he says it. The physical act of speech impresses people; the control of the breathing, the diaphragm, and all the other attendant muscles make speech a skill that can be refined like any other. There is an audience for those who speak well, who will credit the speaker as they would an artist or a sportsman. This makes the King’s problem even worse. He struggles to speak at all; in front of an audience, he is not only able to communicate, but he lacks the ability to demonstrate his good character. The ability to connect with an audience in a theatrical mode is not available to him. As a public figure—especially as a King—this is a far-reaching problem for domestic leadership and international diplomacy. If speech is associated with governance, good character, and strong social bonds, then the role of the King seems an impossible one for those who cannot speak. Therefore, in order to rule, the King must make himself able to speak, and Bertie’s good character and steadfast work ethic enable him to fulfill his role.
Class
In the post-Victorian age and the twilight of the British Empire, class is a constant theme. It affects social matters, political matters, and is bound up in the colonial structures of the contemporary world. In the book, the two central characters come from vastly different class backgrounds. Logue is the self-described “common colonial” (19), a person from the backwaters of the Empire who has travelled thousands of miles from his home with the hope of succeeding in London. The King, meanwhile, resides at the absolute pinnacle of the social class structure. For Bertie’s entire life, no one could be considered above him in a class sense. Class, however, does not determine happiness. With class so central to the book’s narrative, the audience discovers the many ways in which the class structure is (or is not) interrogated.
Logue possesses one of the most complicated comprehensions of class in the book. Even though he is from Australia and a self-described “common colonial” (19), he lives a middle class life style in England. He has a successful professional job and employs several servants to help with running his large house. Though he exists in and operates in a complicated class structure, he is seemingly aware of this and is willing to engage with it. He writes deferentially about the royal family in his private diaries, seemingly making him a true believer in their position at the top of the class structure. He obsequiousness to the Queen Mother, in particular, reveals a genuine belief in the royal family’s institutional power and importance. At the same time, however, he frequently challenges this class structure. In his first meeting with the then-Duke of York, for example, he makes a demand (that the Duke come to his office on Harley Street). Making a demand of a royal in such a fashion is in direction contradiction to the traditions of the class system. Logue provides his reason: he tells the Duke that to do so will demonstrate willingness on his part and a commitment to the speech therapy. At other times, Logue grabs hold of the King’s arm or contradicts the traditions of the class system in minor yet noticeable ways. Though he is an adherent to the over arching structure, he challenges it nonetheless, in ways emblematic to the shifting social structure in the period between the World Wars in England.
These small challenges help to demonstrate the paradox of the royal family as a representation of the class structure. In the early-20th Century, political power had been largely given over to Parliament. However, certain legacies and vestigial traditions remained in place. The Prime Minister must ask the monarch for permission to establish a government, for instance, and the monarch must also open Parliament every year. This makes the royal family essential to running the government and indispensable when it comes to ensuring Britain continues to function. At the same time, there is no way for the monarch to veto parliamentary decisions. In the book, George VI’s regret at the election of a Labour government is noted. He is displeased to see the Conservatives taken from power and even less pleased to see his friend Winston Churchill sidelined in the government. There is nothing he can do. The perpetuation of the system depends on the King having all of the power, but only on the provision that he agrees never to exercise such power. Though the class system elevates the King to a position of importance, it also functions as a delicate gilded cage: the moment the King should try to execute his power, his position becomes untenable. King Edward VIII, for example, is in a position of immense importance, but the fact that he loves a woman who has been twice-divorced poses an existential threat to the country. Such a minor issue has the power to bring down all of the class institutions that prop up the Empire. He chooses to leave the structures in place and abdicate, rather than challenging the structures themselves. The class system affects everyone in the text, even those at the top.
Love and Romantic Partnerships
Given that the book features three prominent examples of relationships that come to define the characters involved, it is easy to read love as a core theme. The three relationships are Bertie and Elizabeth (the future King and Queen), Lionel and Myrtle Logue (who travel together around the world), and Edward and Wallis Simpson (whose relationship demands that the King make an enormous sacrifice). Through the portrayal of all three relationships (as well as many examples of platonic relationships), love becomes one of the most important concepts in the story.
One of the most prominent relationships in the text is that between Bertie and Elizabeth. Their story seems simple: Bertie meets Elizabeth, proposes, and the two spend the rest of their lives together, raising a loving family. However, there are difficulties, many of which are brought about by Bertie’s speech impediment. As mentioned in the book, “his early attempts to woo her were not successful” (64). The problem seems to be his severe lack of self-confidence, exaggerated by the demands of his office. Life with a stammer has left Bertie quiet and reserved; he has difficult communicating with others. Furthermore, as a member of the royal family, he understands the expectations associated with his position. Though he quickly falls in love with Elizabeth, “he could not place himself in a position in which he might be refused” (64) and he lacks the self-confidence required to overcome this issue. Rather than approach Elizabeth directly, he has an intermediary approach her. Though she denies him at first, a friend encourages Bertie to try again, and by approaching Elizabeth directly she says yes. This demonstrates the significance of communication to forming social bonds. Indeed, “marriage was a turning point in the Duke’s life” (65). He becomes happier and more successful; it is even Elizabeth’s idea that he keep returning to Logue. She helps him and encourages him. The love that the two share helps the King overcome his lifelong affliction.
For Lionel and Myrtle Logue, love is expressed in a very different way. Lionel has none of the King’s reticence about communication, so early courting days are straightforward in comparison. Likewise, he has few expectations placed on him by his social position, so does not need to worry about being refused due to his title. This does mean, however, that they meet and fall in love as relative nobodies. Their love story is a story of shared struggle, of travelling around the world and arriving in a fortunate time and place, aided by one another along the way. They travel extensively—across Australia, America, and Europe—and make sure to expose themselves to new ideas. In this, they seem permanently in agreement. Even as they raise three successful children, they seem to be in possession of a fine and happy relationship. At the end of the book, Myrtle dies while Lionel is undergoing surgery. Though they have been together they entire lives, in the moment of death they are apart. The strength of their love is more evident in the time after Myrtle’s death; though they enjoyed relatively positive lives before, the loss shocks Lionel. The difference in his character before and after he loses Myrtle is pronounced and her absence is felt through his despair. The strength of their love is chiefly evident when it no longer has an earthly home.
The third and final relationship that interrogates the theme of love in the book is that between Edward and Wallis. Though their relationship is far less pronounced in the book and is only featured in relation to Bertie’s ascent to the throne, Edward makes the greatest visible sacrifice in the name of love. He throws away his Kingship in order to be with the woman he loves. In this respect, Edward and Wallis are star-crossed lovers, forced into an impossible position due to the circumstances of their birth. Edward is forced to choose between ruling the world’s largest Empire and being with the woman he loves. In the end, he chooses love. Once again, the strength of love dominates the narrative. Just as Bertie and Elizbeth support one another and just as Lionel is destroyed by his forced parting from Myrtle, the strength of love between Edward and Wallis is the fundamental aspect of their characters and a central theme in their story.
