A "modern" teacher of rhetoric

While reading Against the Sophists by Isocrates and John Poulakos’ Toward a Sophistic Definition I was struck by the condemnation of the Sophists. I likened Isocrates’ tirade about the immoral Sophists teaching men in the public eye the act of rhetoric  to the movie, The King’s Speech (2010). Colin Firth plays the Duke of York who must ascend to the throne as King George VI of England. However, he has a terrible stutter which does not allow him to address the public as has become popular with the growing popularity of radio and the eminent threat of war with Germany (clip 1:09). 

The changing of the ‘moment’ has caused the exigency needed to push the Duke to repair his speech pattern for the public eye, “The way a thing is said does affect its intelligibility.” (Aristotle) The importance of the Duke learning to speak correctly  is very similar to the explanation of rhetoric by John Poulakos, “rhetoric is the art which seeks to capture in opportune moments that which is appropriate…” (36)  In the film, the Duke says “they will call me Mad King George, the stammerer,”  with which he likens himself to the demented described the anonymous author in Dissoi Logoi,”only the wise say them at the right moment and the demented at moments when it is not proper.”  (53)

 He has had all methods of teachers which do not teach him to lose his stutter. This is similar to Isocrates in Against the Sophists claiming, “the student must not only have the requisite aptitude but he must learn the different kinds of discourse and practice himself in their use; and the teacher, for his part, must so expound the principles of the art with the utmost possible exactness as to leave out nothing that can be taught, and, for the rest, he must in himself set such an example of oratory that the students who have taken form under his instruction and are able to pattern after him will from the outset, show their speaking a degree of grace and charm which is not found in others.” (74)  In the clip, at :30 the Duke is receiving commonly condoned speech therapy. In this, the speech therapists are like Isocrates’ interpretation of the Sophists- “I observe these men setting themselves up as instructors of youth who cannot see that they are applying the analogy of an art with hard and fast rules to a creative process.”(73) Through my interpretation Geoffrey Rush’s character, Lionel Logue, is the ‘master rhetorician’ described by Poulakos in his instruction to the future king. “What is said must be said somehow and that is how is a matter of the speaker’s choice, then style betrays the speaker’s unique grasp of language and becomes the peculiar expression of his personality.” (38) (Clip 1:30)

Nearly every portion of the movie can be drawn to the arguments in favor and against the Sophists' practices of rhetoric. By the end of the movie the King’s stutter has not been resolved entirely but he has learned the art of speech.  Isocrates may argue, “it cannot fully fashion men who are without natural aptitude into good debaters or writers, although it is capable of leading the on to self-improvement and to a greater degree of intelligence on many subjects.”  (74) or perhaps Lionel has succeeded in transforming an undiscovered, stuttering man into a master orator who possessed the  ‘requisite aptitude’ for speech but had never had a teacher with enough skill to teach him.