Eulogy - Grade: A PDF

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It is a eulogy paper with the analysis of all elements...

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EULOGY PAPER ‘Diana Spencer, Princess of Wales’ Eulogy presented by her brother Charles Spencer, 9th Earl Spencer Diana was born on 1 July 1961 into the Spencer family, a family of British nobility. She was the youngest daughter of Viscount and Viscountess Althorp. She grew up in Park House, situated on the Sandringham estate, and was educated in England and Switzerland. In 1975, after her father inherited the title of Earl Spencer, she became known as Lady Diana Spencer. Diana became a part of the royal family in February 1981, after her engagement to Prince Charles, the eldest son of Queen Elizabeth II. After a short time of their engagement, Diana and Prince Charles decided to get married and their wedding took place at St Paul’s Cathedral on 29 July 1981. After the wedding to Prince Charles, she got the title of “Princess of Wales”, “Duchess of Cornwall”, “Duchess of Rothesay” and “Countess of Chester”. Among all the title, she got famous by the title Princess Diana. The marriage produced two sons named, Prince William and Prince Harry, who were then respectively second and third in the line of succession to the British throne. As Princess of Wales, Diana undertook royal duties on behalf of the Queen and represented her at functions overseas. She was celebrated for her charity work and for her support of the International Campaign to Ban Landmines. Diana was involved with dozens of charities including London's Great Ormond Street Hospital for children, of which she was president from 1989. She also raised awareness and advocated ways to help people affected with HIV/AIDS , cancer, and mental illness. Diana remained the object of worldwide media scrutiny during and after her marriage. Her marriage with Prince Charles ended in divorce on 28 August 1996 following well-publicized extramarital affairs by both parties. The news of their separation stayed viral in media all around the world. In 1992 Andrew Morton published a book on the life of Princess Diana, the title of the book was “Diana: Her True Story.” This book revealed many life secrets about Diana which brought storm in the world media and news.

Charles Spencer Spencer was born in London on 20 May 1964 and named Charles Edward Maurice, with Queen Elizabeth II as his godmother. His parents were called Viscount and Viscountess Althorp, as his paternal grandfather, Albert Spencer, 7th Earl Spencer, was still alive at the time of his birth. Spencer had three elder sisters: Sarah, Jane, and Diana. He and Diana were very close to each other in their childhood. After his Parent’s divorce when he was four years old, Spencer was educated at Eton and Magdalen College, Oxford, where he read Modern History. Spencer and Diana were even close to each other after Princess Diana’s wedding with Prince Charles, Charles Spencer was also a member of well-known Media channel NBC NEWS. Upon his father's death on 29 March 1992, 27-year-old Spencer succeeded as 9th Earl Spencer, 9th Viscount Althorp, 9th Viscount Spencer of Althorp, 9th Baron Spencer of Althorp, and 4th Viscount Althorp. On 31 August 1997, his older sister Diana died after a car crash in Paris and Spencer delivered the eulogy at her funeral service held at Westminster Abbey six days later. In his eulogy, he rebuked both Britain’s royal family and the press for their treatment of his sister. Spencer has ruled out the conspiracy theories regarding his sister's death and called the alleged letter she wrote 10 months before her death in which she discussed her fears of a planned accident "just a bizarre coincidence rather than tied in with reality." Diana was eventually buried on Spencer's ancestral estate, Althorp, where he built a garden temple memorial and a museum to her memory, displaying her wedding dress and other personal effects. The museum was opened to the public in 1998 with all profits going to Diana's Memorial Fund, also set up by Spencer.

Elements Commonly Found in Eulogies There are some elements or common parts of a speech which can be considered as a Eulogy. A eulogy has most or few of these elements but its not necessary to have all the elements, it can be one or all. Some common elements are; Credibility: A eulogizer should establish his/her credibility to give the speech about the deceased, this can be about his/her relation to the person or how strong they both were connected. Praise: It should be the expression of approval or admiration for someone who died and the deceased has done during his/her whole life. Self-disclosure of emotion: Eulogizer should admit his/her loss by losing the person and the effect of that in their life. Problem-focused coping: It is an advice or suggested action by the eulogizer to focus on other problems instead of being upset about the loss, to continue the work what they have been doing and solving problem with positive things. Positive reappraisal: Talk about time spent with, lessons learned from the deceased, good life of the deceased or after life of the deceased. Emotion-focused coping: An advice by the eulogizer to remember the good memories spent with the deceased and not to think more about the loss. Affirmation of vivid past relationship: This is the part of speech when eulogizer express his/her strong relationship with the deceased. Continuation of Interactive bonds with deceased: This part of the speech addresses the deceased directly in present tense and assure him/her about his or her part in your life.

Analysis of the elements found in the eulogy for the deceased.

In the beginning of his eulogy speech Charles Spencer showed his credibility by addressing the reason for him self by saying that “I stand before you today the representative of a family in grief, in a country in mourning before a world in shock. We are all united not only in our desire to pay our respects to Diana, but rather in our need to do so.” In this speech spencer mentioned about the audience from all around the world and their emotions, which shows another element of a eulogy speech called ‘self-disclosure of emotion’, it is in the third paragraph, “For such was her extraordinary appeal that the tens of millions of people taking part in this service all over the world via television and radio who never actually met her, feel that they, too, lost someone close to them in the early hours of Sunday morning. It is a more remarkable tribute to Diana than I can ever hope to offer her today.” I also found the element of praise in his speech while he said “Diana was the very essence of compassion, of duty, of style, of beauty. All over the world she was a symbol of selfless humanity, a standard-bearer for the rights of the truly downtrodden, a truly British girl who transcended nationality, someone with a natural nobility who was classless, who proved in the last year that she needed no royal title to continue to generate her particular brand of magic.” During his speech he also said that “Only now you are gone do we truly appreciate what we are now without and we want you to know that life without you is very, very difficult.” This shows the Continuation of interactive bond with the deceased. In lines 22-24 Charles talked about the message they learned from Princess Diana which helped them to move forward. In these lines he said, “We have all despaired at our loss over the past week and only the strength of the message you gave us through your years of giving has afforded us the strength to move forward.” This shows the element of Positive reappraisal. Charles Spencer also mentioned some private insights of Princess Diana in which he said, “And here we come to another truth about her. For all the status, the glamour, the applause, Diana remained throughout a very insecure person at heart, almost childlike in her desire to do good for others so she could release herself from deep feelings of unworthiness of which her eating disorders were merely a symptom.” This represents the element called ‘Affirmation of vivid past relationship.’

An example of positive reappraisal in the speech is the line when Charles said “The last time I saw Diana was on July the first, her birthday, in London,” which shows the personal relationship and strong bond of Charles with Diana. Also, in this speech he mentioned the time he spent with Diana in March, when she visited him and his children at their home in South Africa. During his speech, Charles talked about the time he spent with Diana during their childhood, which shows the use of ‘positive reappraisal’. This element is in paragraph number 14, which is “These are days I will always treasure. It was as if we’d been transported back to our childhood, when we spent such an enormous amount of time together, the two youngest in the family. Fundamentally she hadn’t changed at all from the big sister who mothered me as a baby, fought with me at school and endured those long train journeys between our parents’ homes with me at weekends. It is a tribute to her level-headedness and strength that despite the most bizarre life imaginable after her childhood, she remained intact, true to herself.” At the last Charles showed a positive reappraisal by showing good life of Diana in which he said, “I would like to end by thanking God for the small mercies he has shown us at this dreadful time; for taking Diana at her most beautiful and radiant and when she had so much joy in her private life.”

In the eulogy speech, given by Charles spencer for his younger sister Princess Diana, I did not find any example that represents the element of Problem-Focused Coping, as he hasn’t addressed the audience and suggested to go back to their normal life and he hasn’t advised the audience to do something which helps them to get relief. Also I did not find any line in which Charles talked about the afterlife of Diana.

Conclusion about the major purpose of the eulogizer.

I believe that the eulogy speech given by Charles Spencer was based on the relationship and Image of Princess Diana with her family and the people all around the world. The speech was to accept the truth about the loss for other people, to express their feelings about her, it was to show who Diana was before she became a princess, that she did not need any royal title to be who she was. I also found that the speech was given to show the good works of Diana, as in lines 37-40 Charles Spencer mention the connection of Diana with AIDS and HIV sufferers, and the time when she attended a charity fund-raising function instead of staying with her family and friends to celebrate her birthday. The speech also contained the main reason why she wanted to get away from England and was looking for a new direction in her life. The speech was also given to let Princess Diana, and her children William and Harry know that the world and their family are with them in this hard time and they will get through this together. The overall intention of the speech was to pay respect to Princess Diana.

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