The Queen’s Many Crowns: Different Motives in the Construction of Different Personas

Image by Chris Emerson from Pixabay.

The British monarchy has long been shrouded in mystery — their personal lives hidden behind the gates of palaces and castles, their public lives a choreographed sequence of tradition and ceremonial protocol. The highly intentional nature of their public appearances, however, makes for an interesting study — how do the varying motives of the Crown translate to the Queen’s different personas — the masks she wears that are presented to the world?

Figure 1. Clusters on ‘We’, ‘Britain’/’United Kingdom’/’British nation’, and ‘My’ (Associated Press, 2015; UK Parliament, 2013)

For this purpose, Queen Elizabeth II’s 1997 tribute to Princess Diana on the eve of her funeral (Associated Press, 2015) will be compared to the Queen’s Speech at the State Opening of Parliament in 2013 (UK Parliament, 2013). The former, through a highly personal broadcast, sought to mend relations between the Crown and the people after public outcry about the royals’ silence after Princess Diana’s death. In contrast, the latter deals with state affairs, marking the start of the parliamentary year with the Queen setting out the laws that the government wants approved. The speech is symbolic of the ‘Crown in parliament’ — a reminder that the United Kingdom’s (UK) central political authority remains with the powers of the sovereign.

These two speeches will be analysed using cluster criticism. Burke (as cited in Foss, 2009) explains that an artefact’s key terms and the terms that cluster around them can be used to observe how the rhetor associates different concepts through lexical choice and the framing of their message, thus constructing the terministic screens that reveal a rhetor’s view of reality and hence, their personas. The key terms we, my and Britain/UK have been selected based on their frequency of appearance to analyse the Queen’s constructed personas in both speeches, along with terms that cluster around them. Both discursive and non-discursive elements will be analysed.

Figure 2. The simple outfit and close-up field size expressing the Queen’s unity with the British public

In her tribute to Princess Diana, the Queen’s persona is constructed as an average human through the frequent use of the key term we to refer to herself and her audience, the British public. In order to evince her humanity, the Queen verbally mirrors the public’s emotions of grief and respect in a display of empathy, showing that she can relate to and is united in their grief. This display of vulnerability is “key to [helping her appear] personable and in touch” (Langer, 2010 p.66), especially in being a shift away from the monarch’s usual impassiveness in times of crisis. Furthermore, this is a “key strategy to gain ‘soft’ media coverage” (p.61) to quell negative media attention by highlighting the grieving of the royals alongside the people. Combined with the simplicity of the black blouse she wears and the utilisation of a close-up shot with people mourning outside Buckingham Palace (see Figure 2), this cluster serves to construct the Queen’s human persona.

Figure 3. Queen Elizabeth’s regalia and the recording’s wide-shot field size alienating the Queen from the public

In contrast, the Queen’s Speech in 2013 portrays a very different persona — one of a monarch. The key term my is repeatedly used with government, lords, and ministers to establish the Queen’s sovereignty over state affairs. Her monarch persona is also promoted by her being dressed in regalia and the usage of wide shots in recording her speech (see Figure 3), separating her from the people both spatially and by social status. The distinct emphasis of Queen Elizabeth II’s status as head of state likely alienates her from the British public — after all, her resultant persona is not just that of a leader but that of a monarch, ruling alone from the throne.

Lastly, the key terms Britain, British nation, or UK are used by the Queen in both artefacts but with different motives, resulting in the construction of different personas. In her tribute to Princess Diana, she calls for the British nation to move away from the divisiveness of negative sentiment to be united in show[ing] the whole world the unity of the British nation even in mourning. This is achieved by the creation of an ‘us-versus-them’ situation — Britain against the “the whole world” (Associated Press, 2015, 2:49–2:50) — providing a “distraction” (Triandafyllidou, 2010, p.603) from public outcry against the Crown and “reasserting the positive identity of the nation against the odds” (p.603). Using the inclusive we to define herself as part of the in-group, her human persona is strengthened, achieving the motive of bridging the gap between Crown and country by identifying herself as part of the people (Burke as cited in Foss, 2009). On the other hand, several verbs with positive associations cluster around Britain in the Queen’s Speech (see Figure 1), enforcing the idea of an active government under her rule constantly taking action to improve the lives of the people, increasing Britain’s competitiveness and growth. This builds upon her monarch persona, specifically as one dedicated to lead her nation to greater heights.

Using cluster analysis, one observes that differences in motive do result in the construction of different personas. This implies that for statespersons, public rhetoric should be crafted with one’s intention in mind in order to construct one’s intended public persona. The Queen has been successful so far — after her tribute to Princess Diana, public sentiment eased (Mahboob, 2017); the Queen’s Speech has also been said to represent “continuity [of the monarchy] in a changing world” (Telegraph View, 2013). It is important that this continues to be so — otherwise, with growing public opinion that the monarchy should be abolished, future monarchs may end up like Jack in the titular nursery rhyme Jack and Jill — fallen and with a broken crown.

Endnote

• A close-up shot in filmmaking or television production is a type of shot that tightly frames a person or object, resulting in a close-up field size.
• In filmmaking and video production, a wide shot (sometimes referred to as a full shot or long shot) typically shows the entire object or human figure and is usually intended to place it in some relation to its surroundings, resulting in a wide-shot field size.

References

Associated Press. [AP Archive]. (2015, July 21). UK: London: Queen Addresses Nation on Death of Princess Diana [Video File]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=heLTBaLGNQs

Foss, S. K. (2009). Rhetorical criticism: Exploration and practice. Long Grove, Ill. : Waveland Press.

Langer, A. I. (2010). The Politicization of Private Persona: Exceptional Leaders or the New Rule? The Case of the United Kingdom and the Blair Effect. The International Journal of Press/Politics, 15(1), 60–76. doi: 10.1177/1940161209351003

Mahboob, T. (2017, September 6). How The Queen Healed The Rift With Her People After Princess Diana’s Death [Web Article]. Retrieved from https://www.cbc.ca/passionateeye/features/how-the-queen-healed-the-rift with-her-people-after-princess-dianas-death

Telegraph View. (2013, May 8). The Queen’s message? That continuity reigns. The Telegraph. Retrieved from https://www.telegraph.co.uk/comment/telegraph -view/10044293/The-Queens-message-That-continuity-reigns.html

Triandafyllidou, A. (1998). National identity and the ‘other’. Ethnic and Racial Studies, 21(4), 593–612. doi: 10.1080/014198798329784

UK Parliament. [UK Parliament]. (2013, May 8). State Opening of Parliament 2013 [Video File]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cVRGeQjrfL0