By Dr Oliver Tearle (Loughborough University)
‘I Have a Dream’ is one of the greatest speeches in American history. Delivered by Martin Luther King, Jr. (1929-68) in Washington D.C. in 1963, the speech is a powerful rallying cry for racial equality and for a fairer and equal world in which African Americans will be as free as white Americans.
By Dr Oliver Tearle (Loughborough University)
Here’s a question for you. Who was the main speaker at the event which became known as the Gettysburg Address? If you answered ‘Abraham Lincoln’, this post is for you. For the facts of what took place on the afternoon of November 19, 1863, four and a half months after the Union armies defeated Confederate forces in the Battle of Gettysburg, have become shrouded in myth. And one of the most famous speeches in all of American history was not exactly a resounding success when it was first spoken.
By Dr Oliver Tearle (Loughborough University)
Hamlet’s ‘What a piece of work is a man’ speech is among the most famous prose speeches from Shakespeare’s play. It has become well-known, and is sometimes used in television and radio adverts; it was also memorably recited by Richard E. Grant’s character Withnail at the end of the British cult film Withnail and I (1987).
By Dr Oliver Tearle (Loughborough University)
‘And what’s he then that says I play the villain?’ is one of a number of major soliloquies spoken by Iago, the villain and chief architect of William Shakespeare’s Othello. We’ve previously analysed Othello here, but now let’s take a closer look at the speech which begins ‘And what’s he then that says I play the villain?’, which is found near the end of Act 2 Scene 3.