Character Analysis
Understandably Shy
We'll admit it: we want to give Bertie a hug and a cookie. And a soft blanket. And maybe also a cup of cocoa for good measure.
This isn't the way you think you'd feel about one of the most powerful men in the world. You'd expect to feel admiration, or fear, or respect.. But affection tinged with pity?
And that's one of the reasons that The King's Speech is just so good—it makes you feel all sorts of cozy emotions towards an otherwise intimidating figure. It makes the dang King of England human.
From the first scene of this movie, we know that Bertie isn't going to be the most sociable person in the world. How could he be, when he can barely put two words together when speaking to people? His wife Elizabeth keeps trying to get him to see speech therapists, but Bertie eventually becomes so embarrassed and defeated by his stutter that he can't bear the thought of seeing another specialist. He makes this stance clear enough when he says to his wife,
BERTIE: Out of the question. I'm not having this conversation again. The matter's settled.
You can't blame Bertie for being defensive. As a member of the royal family, he feels as though all of his flaws are exposed to public ridicule and he fears what people will think of him. When Lionel Logue tries to delve into his deeper mental pain, Bertie slams the door shut by saying, "I'm not here to discuss personal matters." Any member of the royal family would be reluctant to discuss anything personal with a stranger, but Bertie is especially guarded because of his stutter.
Maybe the worst thing about Bertie's situation is the way he constantly feels like he's letting people down. When he fears that he'll fail as a king, he can't help but shout,
BERTIE: It'll be like mad King George the Third. There'll be Mad King George the Stammerer, who let his people down so badly in their hour of need!
He knows that his people need him, and unlike his brother he's not willing to walk away from his duty to his country… because he's a stand-up guy.
Family Guy
Bertie's stutter obviously gets way worse whenever he's in stressful situations or speaking to people that intimidate him. That's why his stutter is much less noticeable whenever he's speaking to his wife or his darling daughters. To be fair, he doesn't jump at the chance to tell his girls a story, but instead asks "Could I be a penguin instead?"
The fact remains though that telling his daughters a story is nowhere near as stressful as giving a speech, so he gets through it reasonable well by beginning, "There were once two princesses whose Papa had been turned into a penguin by the local witch."
But just because he speaks well around his wife and children doesn't mean that Bertie is always comfortable around his family, especially those who made him feel ashamed of his stutter growing up.
Bertie stutters constantly around his father and older brother David, which provokes Logue to ask, "Why do you stammer more with David than you do with me?" We can see that Logue is hitting a nerve by the way Bertie harshly answers, "Because you're bloody well paid to listen!" Logue is convinced that Bertie's stutter is connected to the family stresses he's felt since childhood, and he's probably right… judging by the stories Bertie tells about being starved by his nanny. (Hard truth: not all nannies are like Mary Poppins.)
Great Dude, Great Friend
With the problems and responsibilities that Bertie has personally, it'd be totally understandable if he didn't think much about people other than himself.
But the guy wasn't called "The Good King" for nothing. Bertie's very concerned about the lives of others—even of people he's never met. He shows this concern when he says to Logue,
BERTIE: Sometimes, when I ride through the streets and see, you know, the Common Man staring at me, I'm struck by how little I know of his life, and how little he knows of mine.
If he has one interpersonal fault, it's that he knows how isolated he is from other humans… and that makes him a tad pompous. Over the course of the movie, though, Logue helps Bertie connect with the fact that he's a human being just like everyone else. His humanity is the core of his dignity, not his royal status.
By the end of the movie, Bertie finally realizes that he deserves to be treated with respect because he's a man with self-respect. In the movie's climax, Logue asks him who he thinks he is, and Bertie yells back,
BERTIE: A man! I have a voice!
This is the moment Logue has been waiting for the whole movie, so he answers, "Yes you do." Bertie ends the movie with a new outlook on life: not only is a he a monarch, but he's also a human. A human with a new friend in Lionel Logue.
Bertie (King George VI)'s Timeline