10) Dwight Schrute, The Office: Because the entire episode revolves around his fear of speaking at the Northeastern Pennsylvania Salesman of the Year Awards, Dwight’s speech is very much a speech about speeches. He brings the speaking style of the totalitarian regimes of the thirties into the modern, eastern Pennsylvanian workplace.
9) Klaatu, The Day the Earth Stood Still: SPOILERS Klaatu offers an ultimatum to Earth: Exist in peace with the other inhabitants of the universe, or be destroyed by robots.
8) Daniel Plainview, There Will Be Blood: Daniel delivers a “simple blessing” to his oil derrick. This speech is notable for what it does not contain, subjection to Eli Sunday’s church. The look on Eli’s face as he realizes Daniel has screwed him over is priceless.
http://americanrhetoric.com/MovieSpeeches/moviespeechtherewillbebloodmaryswell.html
7) Roy, Blade Runner: SPOILERS At the end of the movie, Roy chases Deckard to the edge of a rooftop. However, instead of killing him Roy laments the tragedy of his own impending death. Roy has had experiences that humans cannot comprehend, experiences that have made him superior to humans. Yet, he is the one who is persecuted by the Blade Runners.
6) (TIE) Bill, Kill Bill Vol. 2; The Joker, The Dark Knight: I put these together because they are both very much about comic books, and I love comic books. Bill gives a lecture on Superman worthy of a scholarly paper. With the Joker, this is the closest we get to seeing what makes him tick. He declares himself an agent of chaos on a mission to disrupt the “plans” that people take as everyday fact.
http://www.monkeybriefs.com/view/video/Dark-Knight-clip-|-Harvey-Dent-&-Joker-|-Hospital-Scene_2595.html
5) (TIE) President Whitmore, Independence Day; Aragorn, The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King: These two speeches show leaders rallying their troops for battle. Both of these battles are fought against terrible evils, and the survival of all mankind hangs in the balance. Aragorn and President Whitmore rise to the challenge with their inspirational rhetoric.
4) Quint, Jaws: Quint’s story about sharks attacking survivors of the USS Indianapolis is the scariest thing in the whole movie. I think his monologue makes sharks more frightening then the mechanical one ever did.
3) Atticus Finch, To Kill a Mockingbird: Atticus (Gregory Peck) gives an impassioned argument for the rights of the black defendant and the duty of the courts to provide justice in regard to fact, rather than skin color.
2) Lady Macbeth, Macbeth (I.v.36-52): This monologue shows the determination Lady Macbeth has for the crown. Whereas her husband is weak and vacillating, the Lady is willing to do whatever it takes. She even rejects her womanhood in order to perform the necessary violence.
The raven himself is hoarse
That croaks the fatal entrance of Duncan
Under my battlements. Come, you spirits
That tend on mortal thoughts! unsex me here,
And fill me from the crown to the toe top full
Of direst cruelty; make thick my blood,
Stop up the access and passage to remorse,
That no compunctious visitings of nature
Shake my fell purpose, nor keep peace between
The effect and it! Come to my woman’s breasts,
And take my milk for gall, you murdering ministers,
Wherever in your sightless substances
You wait on nature’s mischief! Come, thick night,
And pall thee in the dunnest smoke of hell,
That my keen knife see not the wound it makes,
Nor heaven peep through the blanket of the dark,
To cry, ‘Hold, hold!’
1) Satan, Book IV Paradise Lost: Here Milton shows the psychological depth that he has created for the character of Satan. He portrays Satan as a tormented genius, alone among the fallen angels in being able to understand fully what their banishment means. He knows that Hell is actually a place within himself, and that his pride would never allow him to reclaim his spot at God’s side. Milton presents a complicated view of free will: Satan wishes that God had not given him the ability to choose between evil and good. This is great stuff!
O thou that with surpassing Glory crownd,
Look'st from thy sole Dominion like the God
Of this new World; at whose sight all the Starrs
Hide thir diminisht heads; to thee I call, [ 35 ]
But with no friendly voice, and add thy name
O Sun, to tell thee how I hate thy beams
That bring to my remembrance from what state
I fell, how glorious once above thy Spheare;
Till Pride and worse Ambition threw me down [ 40 ]
Warring in Heav'n against Heav'ns matchless King:
Ah wherefore! he deservd no such return
From me, whom he created what I was
In that bright eminence, and with his good
Upbraided none; nor was his service hard. [ 45 ]
What could be less then to afford him praise,
The easiest recompence, and pay him thanks,
How due! yet all his good prov'd ill in me,
And wrought but malice; lifted up so high
I sdeind subjection, and thought one step higher [ 50 ]
Would set me highest, and in a moment quit
The debt immense of endless gratitude,
So burthensome, still paying, still to ow;
Forgetful what from him I still receivd,
And understood not that a grateful mind [ 55 ]
By owing owes not, but still pays, at once
Indebted and dischargd; what burden then?
O had his powerful Destiny ordaind
Me some inferiour Angel, I had stood
Then happie; no unbounded hope had rais'd [ 60 ]
Ambition. Yet why not? som other Power
As great might have aspir'd, and me though mean
Drawn to his part; but other Powers as great
Fell not, but stand unshak'n, from within
Or from without, to all temptations arm'd. [ 65 ]
Hadst thou the same free Will and Power to stand?
Thou hadst: whom hast thou then or what to accuse,
But Heav'ns free Love dealt equally to all?
Be then his Love accurst, since love or hate,
To me alike, it deals eternal woe. [ 70 ]
Nay curs'd be thou; since against his thy will
Chose freely what it now so justly rues.
Me miserable! which way shall I flie
Infinite wrauth, and infinite despaire?
Which way I flie is Hell; my self am Hell; [ 75 ]
And in the lowest deep a lower deep
Still threatning to devour me opens wide,
To which the Hell I suffer seems a Heav'n.
O then at last relent: is there no place
Left for Repentance, none for Pardon left? [ 80 ]
None left but by submission; and that word
Disdain forbids me, and my dread of shame
Among the Spirits beneath, whom I seduc'd
With other promises and other vaunts
Then to submit, boasting I could subdue [ 85 ]
Th' Omnipotent. Ay me, they little know
How dearly I abide that boast so vaine,
Under what torments inwardly I groane:
While they adore me on the Throne of Hell,
With Diadem and Sceptre high advanc'd [ 90 ]
The lower still I fall, onely Supream
In miserie; such joy Ambition findes.
But say I could repent and could obtaine
By Act of Grace my former state; how soon
Would higth recall high thoughts, how soon unsay [ 95 ]
What feign'd submission swore: ease would recant
Vows made in pain, as violent and void.
For never can true reconcilement grow
Where wounds of deadly hate have peirc'd so deep:
Which would but lead me to a worse relapse [ 100 ]
And heavier fall: so should I purchase deare
Short intermission bought with double smart.
This knows my punisher; therefore as farr
From granting hee, as I from begging peace:
All hope excluded thus, behold in stead [ 105 ]
Of us out-cast, exil'd, his new delight,
Mankind created, and for him this World.
So farewel Hope, and with Hope farewel Fear,
Farewel Remorse: all Good to me is lost;
Evil be thou my Good; by thee at least [ 110 ]
Divided Empire with Heav'ns King I hold
By thee, and more then half perhaps will reigne;
As Man ere long, and this new World shall know.
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