Monarchical Power In The King's Speech

Abstract

This study examines the construction of monarchical power through language in The King’s Speech (2010) and identifies the legitimation strategies used to construct and reinforce royal authority. The study employs a qualitative descriptive approach using Teun A. van Dijk’s Critical Discourse Analysis, Antonio Gramsci’s concept of hegemony, and Theo van Leeuwen’s model of legitimation. The data consist of selected dialogues and public speeches delivered by King George VI in the film. Data were collected through repeated viewing, identification, transcription, classification, and interpretation of relevant utterances. The findings show that monarchical power is constructed through institutional authority, royal tradition, personal responsibility, communicative competence, and symbolic leadership. The discourse develops from inherited and formal authority toward authority performed and recognized through communication. Authorization is the most consistently identified legitimation strategy, occurring in all ten selected data, followed by rationalization and moral evaluation, each occurring in eight data. Mythopoesis appears only in the final wartime broadcast, where collective endurance, faith, and national unity are constructed through a shared narrative. The study concludes that the film represents monarchical power not merely as hereditary authority but as symbolic leadership strengthened through communication, recognition, moral values, tradition, and collective identification