Effects Of The Great Dictator

The Great Dictator was filmed, directed, and starred in by the famous actor, Charlie Chaplin. Charlie was most famously known for his role in” The Tramp”, where his famous image was founded. Despite his famous role, he was also widely known for his speech in “The Great Dictator”. The speech was themed inspiring, and a call to action as Charlie calls on for peace and love instead of chaos and hatred. This was a very huge impact at the time since during the 1940’s one of the biggest wars were being fought in the world; World War II. Adolf Hitler an influential leader in Germany, who’s goals were corrupt as they aimed to abolish all Jews in blaming them for Germany’s failure in the first World War. This caused massive genocide of the Jewish community,

Charlie states “More than machinery we need humanity. More than cleverness, we need kindness and gentleness. Without these qualities, life will be violent and all will be lost.” (Chaplin, 2), he speaks of the evidence he’s seen during the war. The creation of new weapons, such as machine guns, tanks, and eventually the atomic bomb, although making men more powerful, has also caused that they should be terrified of each other. Charlie’s goal was to end this fearing and to create harmony and kindness between all, despite their differences. Claiming that the goal of all humanity should be unity, as he approaches the climax of his speech, “Let us unite!” (Chaplin,

Beginning his speech in Ethos, progressing into Pathos, and eventually ending in Logos. This helps him lead his audience through his speech, to build up a foundation before delivering his call to action. One example of rhetorical devices that Chaplin uses is repetition as he asks mankind not to give up their lives to barbaric leaders who he recognizes as “unnatural men – machine men with machine minds and machine hearts” (3), the repetition of the word ‘machine’ attracts the interests of the human brain as a result of its capability to pick up patterns, this helps reel people in and inspires them for the coming call to action. Another example of a rhetorical device used in this speech is his reference to St. Luke. Chaplin uses this allusion to prove that all men are equal to each other as he points out the meaning of the verse, “… it is written the kingdom of God is within man not one man nor a group of men, but in all men! In you!” (3), the verse is familiar to majority of his audience, hitting a ‘soft spot’ for most, as they recall the verse. In the very end of his speech, he invites a woman named Hannah (who is not in his presence during the speech) to look up towards the sky and visualize ‘freedom’, “He is flying into the rainbow – into the light of hope, into the future, the glorious future that belongs to you, to me, and to all of us.” (Chaplin, 3). Using the rhetorical devise, parallelism, he gives