Their Finest Hour - Winston Churchill

_ Who is speaking? 

Winston Churchill

_ Why was/is the speech important to society? 

The speech was  given just over a month after Churchill took over as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom at the head of an all-party coalition government. It was the third of three speeches he gave during the period of The Battle of France.

_ Why do you feel it is important or interesting?

The speech is equally interesting and important. The speech was meant to empower the troops and to express the gravity of the situation. 

_ What is the emotion, mood, tone, personality, feeling of the speech?

The emotion is intense. Powerful. The mood is almost solemn. Churchill understands the gravity of the situation. The tone is impactful and even. The personality is almost quiet. he emphasizes interesting words. 

_ What is intonation, emphasis, what is loud, stressed, or soft. Where are there pauses... 

When Churchill speaks he pauses between every three or four words. He gets louder as he speaks emphasizing the last of three or four words. Other than that he speaks relatively softly. 

_ What do you FEEL should be loud or soft, long pause or rushed?

Sometimes in the speech I feel as though Churchill emphasizes the wrong words. For instance, at the end of the speech I feel like the word that should be emphasized is the FINEST hour but instead he emphasized the word this before "their finest hour". 

_ Is there a call to action? When listening to it what are key/emphasized words? 

The call to action is essentially don't give up. "Brace ourselves to our duty". Don't stop fighting. 

_ How does it make you feel? 

It kind of gives me a mixed feeling of sadness, solemn but also firmness and an unwillingness to give up. 

_ How do imagine that the audience felt? 

I imagine that the audience felt empowered. Churchill had to have a tone of solemness because of the bleak feeling of the war. However, if I was in the audience I feel like I would feel the gravity of the situation and feel almost like sadly empowered by what Churchill was saying. This is a moment that The war could go either way and he is inspiring the troops. 

_ Could there be another interpretation of the speech?

I don't think there is another interpretation of the speech. It could be representative of Churchill as a leader and he is almost inspiring himself to lead his country through the tough time. 

_ Write/find a short bio, of the person giving the speech. 

was a British statesman who was the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1940 to 1945 and again from 1951 to 1955. Churchill was also an officer in the British Army, a historian, a writer (as Winston S. Churchill), and an artist. He won the Nobel Prize in Literature, and was the first person to be made an honorary citizen of the United States.