{"id":922,"date":"2015-06-29T10:39:57","date_gmt":"2015-06-29T09:39:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.iese.edu\/leggett\/?p=922"},"modified":"2015-06-29T10:39:57","modified_gmt":"2015-06-29T09:39:57","slug":"how-shakespeare-can-help-you-write-a-really-relevant-speech","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.iese.edu\/leggett\/2015\/06\/29\/how-shakespeare-can-help-you-write-a-really-relevant-speech\/","title":{"rendered":"How Shakespeare can help you write a really relevant speech"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure id=\"attachment_927\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-927\" style=\"width: 744px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/ell-r-brown\/4039919194\/\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-927\" src=\"https:\/\/blog.iese.edu\/leggett\/files\/2015\/06\/William-Shakespeare.jpg\" alt=\"Statue of William Shakespeare at the centre of Leicester Square Gardens, London. Source: Flickr\/Elliott Brown\" width=\"744\" height=\"558\" srcset=\"https:\/\/blog.iese.edu\/leggett\/files\/2015\/06\/William-Shakespeare.jpg 744w, https:\/\/blog.iese.edu\/leggett\/files\/2015\/06\/William-Shakespeare-300x225.jpg 300w, https:\/\/blog.iese.edu\/leggett\/files\/2015\/06\/William-Shakespeare-500x375.jpg 500w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 744px) 100vw, 744px\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-927\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Statue of William Shakespeare at the centre of Leicester Square Gardens, London. Source: Flickr\/Elliott Brown<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<blockquote><p><strong><em>\u201cMy words fly up, my thoughts remain below: words without thoughts,<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong><em>never to heaven go\u201d <\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<p><em>(Shakespeare, Hamlet, \u00a0Act lll , Sc.1)<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>President <strong>Bill Clinton<\/strong> was certainly a charismatic speaker. He attracted huge audiences and <strong>will be remembered as one of the most popular U.S. presidents since John F. Kennedy<\/strong>. <strong>But can any of us really remember the content of any of President Bill Clinton\u2019s speeches<\/strong>, even though Clinton addressed the major themes of the day? The answer for many of us is probably no we don\u2019t.<\/p>\n<p>On the other hand,<strong> most of us remember the themes of Martin Luther King, especially his speech at the Lincoln Memorial in 1963<\/strong>. Indeed, it would be fair to say that many people across the globe still take inspiration from that speech. <strong>Clinton addressed the themes of the day, while King went further<\/strong> and addressed the essence of the human predicament.<\/p>\n<div class=\"su-youtube su-u-responsive-media-yes\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"740\" height=\"400\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/jYyXshCm2JE?autohide=2&amp;autoplay=0&amp;mute=0&amp;controls=1&amp;fs=1&amp;loop=0&amp;modestbranding=1&amp;rel=0&amp;showinfo=0&amp;theme=dark&amp;wmode=&amp;playsinline=0\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen allow=\"autoplay; encrypted-media; picture-in-picture\" title=\"\"><\/iframe><\/div>\n<p>Obviously <a class=\"inline-twitter-link inline-tweet-click\" href=\"#\" onclick=\"inline_tweet_sharer_open_win('https:\\\/\\\/twitter.com\\\/intent\\\/tweet?url=https%3A%2F%2Fblog.iese.edu%2Fleggett%2Fwp-json%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fposts%2F922%2F&text=We+in+our+speeches+should+not+only+address+the+themes+of+the+day%2C+but+also+place+these+themes+within+this+human+predicament+');\" title=\"Tweet This!\">we in our speeches should not only address the themes of the day, but also place these themes within this human predicament <span class=\"dashicons dashicons-twitter dashicons-inline-tweet-sharer\"><\/span><\/a>. Perhaps <strong>William Shakespeare can help us<\/strong> in dealing with the human aspect when drafting our future speeches and <strong>ensuring that they are meaningful and lasting in our audiences\u2019 memories<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Shakespeare<\/strong>, who wrote thirty-seven plays between 1588 and 1613, <strong>possessed a genius in that we, some four hundred years later,<\/strong> <strong>still feel as much part of his audiences as were the people who crowded into the Globe Theatre in London<\/strong>. Indeed, by 1600, London theatres like the Globe could take up to <a href=\"http:\/\/www.shakespearesglobe.com\/uploads\/files\/2014\/01\/audiences.pdf\">3,000 people<\/a> for the most popular plays. This reflective writer understood his immediate and future audiences, and <strong>wrote for them in a way that his messages are still as relevant to us today<\/strong>. Why this should be was summed up as follows:<\/p>\n<p><em>\u00a0\u201cShakespeare reminds us of the line between good and evil running down the centre of all human hearts. And in showing us that the line is always there, easily and disastrously crossed, Shakespeare destroys the utopian illusion that social arrangements can be made so perfect that men will no longer have to strive to be good.\u201d (Theodore Dalrymple \u2013 \u2018<a href=\"http:\/\/www.catholiceducation.org\/en\/culture\/art\/why-shakespeare-is-for-all-time.html\" target=\"_blank\">Why Shakespeare is for all Time<\/a>\u2019)<\/em><\/p>\n<p>Shakespeare, who lived in an age which has been described as the \u2018Age of Humanism\u2019, was optimistic about human nature, although he obviously accepted that evil took place. But evil was the villain\u2019s role and was seen as unnatural.\u00a0 So in unravelling human nature we see virtue being attacked, so to speak, by greed and egotism. Perhaps <strong>his deepest analysis of human nature can be found in such plays as <em>Macbeth<\/em> and <em>Hamlet<\/em><\/strong>.<\/p>\n<p>But <strong>in these two plays <a class=\"inline-twitter-link inline-tweet-click\" href=\"#\" onclick=\"inline_tweet_sharer_open_win('https:\\\/\\\/twitter.com\\\/intent\\\/tweet?url=https%3A%2F%2Fblog.iese.edu%2Fleggett%2Fwp-json%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fposts%2F922%2F&text=Shakespeare+demonstrates+how+he+clearly+knows+and+understands+his+audiences+');\" title=\"Tweet This!\">Shakespeare demonstrates how he clearly knows and understands his audiences <span class=\"dashicons dashicons-twitter dashicons-inline-tweet-sharer\"><\/span><\/a><\/strong>. He knew that they sympathised with the <strong>truth<\/strong> and <strong>wisdom<\/strong>, while recognising the unwelcome existence of <strong>corruption<\/strong>. They accepted the existence of <strong>temptation<\/strong> and man\u2019s faulty character to deal with life in a <strong>virtuous<\/strong> way. When Macbeth is tempted, for example, he fails to live up to this expectation of virtue. Indeed, the audiences understood this failure of character in Macbeth very well.\u00a0 On the other hand, audiences also appreciated Hamlet\u2019s quest for truth, a quest to know the why.<\/p>\n<p>How many times have we heard speakers, no matter how polished, speaking in a way that little concerns us directly? \u00a0How many times have we sat through speeches that little concern us? Perhaps <strong>if we emulate that Shakespearean humanistic approach to his audiences, our speeches will have that impact that most of us desire<\/strong>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>\u201cMy words fly up, my thoughts remain below: words without thoughts, never to heaven go\u201d (Shakespeare, Hamlet, \u00a0Act lll , Sc.1) President Bill Clinton was certainly a charismatic speaker. He attracted huge audiences and will be remembered as one of the most popular U.S. presidents since John F. Kennedy. But can any of us really [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":313,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[60000,8089],"tags":[90215,78223,20433,41043],"class_list":["post-922","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-inspirational-speakers","category-personalities","tag-clinton","tag-martin-luther-king","tag-rhetoric","tag-shakespeare","megacategoria-mc-leadership-and-people-management"],"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.iese.edu\/leggett\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/922","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.iese.edu\/leggett\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.iese.edu\/leggett\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.iese.edu\/leggett\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/313"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.iese.edu\/leggett\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=922"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/blog.iese.edu\/leggett\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/922\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":933,"href":"https:\/\/blog.iese.edu\/leggett\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/922\/revisions\/933"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.iese.edu\/leggett\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=922"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.iese.edu\/leggett\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=922"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.iese.edu\/leggett\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=922"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}