“ We Shall Fight on the Beaches” Winston Churchill Speech Presentation by Morgan Trotter

Speaker The speaker is Winston Churchill, a British politician who the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1940-1945. He was widely known as one of the greatest wartime leaders of the 20th century. This speech along with "Blood, Toil, Tears and Sweat," and "This Was Their Finest Hour," are some of the most well known-speeches in history.

Occasion Churchill gave this speech on June 4th, 1940 to the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. This was the second of the 3 major speeches he gave around the period of time involving the Battle of France.

Audience The audience in this case was the members of the House of Commons, this speech, unlike his others, was not a live radio broad cast.

Purpose The purpose of this speech was to tell of a great military disaster, and to warn of the possible invasion of Britain by Nazi Germany. However, in delivering this speech, he did not cast doubt on Britain that they wouldn't have an eventual victory. He instilled hope and confidence in them, and basically said throughout the speech that they are a nation, they are one, they battle and face these struggles together and won't give up through that.

Subject The subject of the speech was mainly on the warnings that Nazi Germany was planning on invading Britain, and how they plan on dealing with this potential catastrophe. He was also to tell of the previous military disaster to the House of Commons. “When, a week ago today, I asked the House to fix this afternoon as the occasion for a statement, I feared it would be my hard lot to announce the greatest military disaster in our long history.”

Ethos, Pathos, and Logos Ethos- Churchill builds up credibility by talking about what he is going to do regarding the invasion. Churchill is a highly respected man in the United Kingdom, so he uses that to his advantage by appealing to ethos. Logos- Churchill appeals to logos through his heavy use of factual details, especially in the first part of his speech where he is explaining the military strategies and how the battle itself played out. Pathos- Churchill uses pathos particular in the part of his speech where he continues to say “We shall fight,” he is trying to make the country feel unified and like they have something great to fight and stand up for. He is trying to make them believe that they will persevere.

Literary Devices Some literary devices that Churchill uses in this speech is allusion, through telling the House of Commons about the military disaster with the Germans. He also uses anaphora, by repeating “we shall,” 10 times. “We shall go on to the end, we shall fight in France…we shall never surrender.” His reasoning for this was to make everyone feel unified and show the passion he has for Great Britain.

Conclusion In conclusion, “We Shall Fight on the Beaches,” along with Churchill’s other 2 speeches in this series, left a huge impact on not only the House of Commons, but on the British community as well. They gained a new sense of hope and a feeling of unification. They started to believe in themselves that they would defeat Nazi Germany.

Video