Queen Elizabeth Address
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Queen Elizabeth II addressed England in her coronavirus speech on April 5, 2020. Read and annotate the speech, adding comments related to how the Queen invokes a message of hope to her nation.
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I am speaking to you at what I know is an increasingly challenging time. A time of disruption in the life of our country: a disruption that has brought grief to some, financial difficulties to many, and enormous changes to the daily lives of us all.
I want to thank everyone on the NHS front line, as well as care workers and those carrying out essential roles, who selflessly continue their day-to-day duties outside the home in support of us all. I am sure the nation will join me in assuring you that what you do is appreciated and every hour of your hard work brings us closer to a return to more normal times.
By saying this it gives everyone a great sense of gratitude towards the people who are going out and helping their country move towards the end of this everyday.
I also want to thank those of you who are staying at home, thereby helping to protect the vulnerable and sparing many families the pain already felt by those who have lost loved ones. Together we are tackling this disease, and I want to reassure you that if we remain united and resolute, then we will overcome it.
By talking about what everyone is doing, she lets everyone know that they are all doing the best they can. It gives people hope and makes them want to keep doing whatever they can to help get through it.
In both paragraph 4 and 5 the queen says she wants to thank the people. By thanking the people she shows her gratefulness to the people who are helping as well as shows the people that they are being useful and helping the cause whether they are at home or on the front line. This also gives hope to the people.
The Queen acknowledges the fact that it’s everyone’s duty in this situation to take part the best ways they can: whether that is the care and essential workers on the front lines or the families at home refraining from spreading the disease. By this, she is joining everyone together for a sense of unity and stating that everyone is dealing with this difficulty in their own way. This is comforting to the audience (Britons).
I think she uses these words throughout her speech to make it seem like she’s just another person. She puts her power aside to be more relatable. The use of these words is also to remind people that whatever happens they are all in it together, including her. Her power doesn’t exempt her from anything, everyone’s human, anyone can get it, and they will all get through it.
I hope in the years to come everyone will be able to take pride in how they responded to this challenge. And those who come after us will say the Britons of this generation were as strong as any. That the attributes of self-discipline, of quiet good-humoured resolve and of fellow-feeling still characterise this country. The pride in who we are is not a part of our past, it defines our present and our future.
In the later paragraph she says that generations that come after will say that this generation was strong and that "the attributes of self-discipline helped them overcome the pandemic
The Queen is complimenting her audience for all they’ve done to help overcome this. She does this to show emotion and care for her people, making the speech more personal.
The moments when the United Kingdom has come together to applaud its care and essential workers will be remembered as an expression of our national spirit; and its symbol will be the rainbows drawn by children.
She does this to show that after the coronavirus pandemic is over the UK and the rest of the world will rise up like a rainbow showing hope
Across the Commonwealth and around the world, we have seen heart-warming stories of people coming together to help others, be it through delivering food parcels and medicines, checking on neighbours, or converting businesses to help the relief effort.
And though self-isolating may at times be hard, many people of all faiths, and of none, are discovering that it presents an opportunity to slow down, pause and reflect, in prayer or meditation.
It reminds me of the very first broadcast I made, in 1940, helped by my sister. We, as children, spoke from here at Windsor to children who had been evacuated from their homes and sent away for their own safety. Today, once again, many will feel a painful sense of separation from their loved ones. But now, as then, we know, deep down, that it is the right thing to do.
While we have faced challenges before, this one is different. This time we join with all nations across the globe in a common endeavour, using the great advances of science and our instinctive compassion to heal. We will succeed - and that success will belong to every one of us.
We should take comfort that while we may have more still to endure, better days will return: we will be with our friends again; we will be with our families again; we will meet again.
But for now, I send my thanks and warmest good wishes to you all.
In the previous paragraph she states that they “may have more to endure”, and so in the finishing sentence she keeps it short and sweet to gives off a hopeful tone, even though there is still more to bad times to come. While saying “I send my thanks” to make it more personal.
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