Saint Crispian's Day in World War II

Shakespeare's Saint Crispian's Day speech in Henry V is one of the most powerful and inspiring speeches in literature. The patriotic tone in the speech encourages King Henry V's men to join in the honor of winning the battle as brothers.

One example of just how inspirational this speech is occurs during World War II. Laurence Olivier used this scene in Henry V as a kind of wartime propaganda. Laurence Olivier's film Henry V was a contribution to the British wartime propaganda in the 1940s. The idea was to get a patriotic rise out of Britain against Nazi Germany during the war. The British government requested the film to be made and the cost of production of the movie actually turned out to be the highest costing film to at the time. Unfortunately, by the time the movie was released in late 1944, World War II was coming to a close. Still, it invigorated the British with nationalism at the end of the war.

I find that this usage of the Saint Crispian's Day speech is extremely clever and certainly pushed the British as the war was finishing up. Though propaganda has acquired a strong negative connotation, this shows that propaganda can be used in a positive and effective way as well, which I found to be intriguing. The speech is very encouraging and patriotic and it's very easy to see how it would be sure to promote fighting for your country in a time of war.