The Oratory of Robert F. Kennedy

Abstract

All political speakers develop their oratorical techniques. Robert Francis Kennedy’s (RFK’s) style evolved in such a way that by the end of his short career his oratorical appeal was inseparable from his charisma and the interaction between them was strengthened by the themes which he focused upon in the circumstances of a divided country in the late 1960s. It was his charisma which ultimately became the main characteristic of his oratory. If some of the charisma was inherited from the aura of the family name, and reflected a time when, as the main chronicler of presidential elections of the time expressed it, there was — craving for heroes’ (White, 1969: 151) he nevertheless enhanced his oratory as his career progressed.