rhetorical analysis of elle woods speech

The Rhetorical Effectiveness of Legally Blond Elle Woods (Reese Witherspoon) delivers the student address at Harvard Law School’s 2004 graduation ceremony in the movie Legally Blond. In the film Elle is a misguided student who gets accepted into law school upon false pretenses, merely to get back with her ex-boyfriend. He broke up with her because she was not suitable to be a future Senators wife, he claimed she lacked intelligence and only had her looks to depend on. Everyone’s doubt pushed her to stay determined, confident, and come to the conclusion that she does not need a man to justify her life. She also realizes that passion fuels the ability to become successful. This speech is very effective because of the rhetorical appeals of ethos, logos, and pathos used throughout. This scene is replete with ethos to the audience she is performing the speech to, because they are her fellow students who have watched her grow into a bright, respected, mature lawyer. Ethos simply means the appeal to the speaker’s own character or credibility, marking their words as believable and/or genuine. Professor Stomwell introduces Elle, “I am, personally, very honored to introduce this year’s class-elected speaker… I am sure we are going to see great things from her.” This introduction to the scene allows the audience to be aware of Elle’s outstanding achievements throughout her college career, as well as her respectable reputation from the professor and being class-elected, her fellow students. Her classmates know of her failures and successes, therefore she is credible to give a speech about passion, and the passion allows her to seem more sincere in her words. She must also be given a great deal of ethos for being chosen as the Harvard graduate who is selected to speak at the ceremony. However, when Elle ends the speech with “Congratulations Class of 2004 – We did it!” This self-reference of “we” allows the audience to trust Elle, in knowing they all did this together, and she is one of them despite being the one to give the speech. She gives the speech on behalf of the entire graduation class, which allows ethos to perceive her as likable and fair as well. This speech also includes the persuasive appeals of logos and pathos. Logo’s means persuading the reader by making one’s argument reasonable and logical. Elle begins her speech, “A very wise Professor quoted Aristotle “The law is reason free of passion.” Well no offense to Aristotle but in my three years at Harvard I have come to find that passion is a key ingredient to the study and practice of law -- and of life.” First with logos, she uses a very famous philosopher Aristotle’s historical analogic theory to illustrate her opinion. Next, her logic that Aristotle was wrong is backed up by her and the audiences shared experiences of law school, in that is involves a great deal of passion. Also, she denies the cliché of first impressions with a more logical argument “that first impressions are not always correct,” which appeals to the audience’s sense of rationality. Effectively twisted with the rhetorical appeal of logos is pathos: a running passion of courage and passion. “It is with passion, courage of conviction, and strong sense of self that we take our next steps into the world.” This choice of figurative language and loaded word usage conveys a strong sense of emotion out of Elle personally, as well as her audience she shared this enduring journey with. She then concludes the speech with, “You must always have faith in people. And most importantly, you must always have faith in yourself.” She is encouraging her fellow classmates to lead their lives and enter the law world with confidence in themselves and others.
These few words Elle says are meant to motivate the audience into believing in themselves, and leading a successful confident life; she grew with them and because of them and wishes the best for her class. This speech was very moving and emotional for the audience. Also, the speech has deliberative qualities because it is giving advice and hope for the future. It is rhetorically effective in persuading her class into leading their lives with confidence and passion successfully with the use of ethos, logos, and pathos.