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The Power of Language
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The Power of Language is a common theme focused on the concept of language itself and how it can be used. Language as a construct is an essential part of human culture. In primitive forms, it predates our species, and many other sentient creatures have been documented using verbal communication. This means that it's also probably the oldest medium of fiction, and almost all forms of fiction today rely on it. As such, in the same way Most Writers Are Writers, fiction is often extremely interested in language and its capabilities. Just how powerful are words? Answers to this question vary by universe and by story. In some, language is so unnecessary that none is used at all, at least not by background characters. In ours, you'll notice we have phrases like "they're all talk" and "actions speak louder than words", yet we also have many tropes based on the idea that you should Be Careful What You Say because words do have power, as well as the pervasive idea that Language Equals Thought. And certain settings take this idea much farther, resulting in tropes like Weapons-Grade Vocabulary or its magical counterpart, Words Can Break My Bones. Any one of these conclusions can be drawn by a work using this theme. It's quite common to find exploration of this theme in High Fantasy settings, where magic is often based on or at least invoked by language. It's also fairly common in Dystopian Fiction, where language can be used for public mind control and literacy is frequently banned. While this is most often a Central Theme running throughout a work, it can appear briefly as a Discussed Trope. Sister Trope to The Power of Creation, The Power of Acting, and In Defence Of Storytelling, as well as New Media Are Evil if books are what is portrayed as powerful. A common focus of Meta Fiction, especially in poetry. Frequently found in Speech-Centric Works. A favorite tool of the Cunning Linguist and The Philosopher, as well as the Manipulative Bastard prone to delivering Breaking Speeches and Hannibal Lectures. Related to the concept that "the pen is mightier than the sword", though not to the trope, which is about stabbing people with pens. Not to Be Confused With Word Power, an index of phrases used to activate/accentuate powers and attacks. See the Index of Prayer and Meditation, about communication with divine beings, See also Language Tropes, Dialogue, Narrator Tropes. Compare Formulaic Magic, where math and numbers have power. |
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The Power of Language / int_35bceb50 | type |
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This is one of Hamlet's many Central Themes. Language is Hamlet's weapon, used to pen incriminating plays and run punny rings around his enemies, and he is deeply interested in its power and limitations. He is famously verbose, with the greatest line count of any character in a Shakespeare play, yet frequently expresses frustration with his apparent ability to talk about the murder he has been told to avenge (to the audience, at least) but not to do anything about it. | |
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This idea is central to the Earthsea series. It starts out fairly simply, as a world with a Language of Truth that doubles as a Language of Magic reliant on the memorization of things' True Names, but as the story progresses, it questions the origins of this magic and reveals that words only have so much power—language-based magic is a relatively shallow, masculine form of magic, and there are deeper forms of magic and understanding that do not rely on the imperfect medium of speech. | |
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Terry Pratchett's Discworld series has the power of words, stories, and even literal books and letters as literal centers of supernatural influence on the disc. | |
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Nineteen Eighty-Four seeks to show how language can be used politically to deceive and manipulate people. "The Party" has mandated Newspeak be used as a way to further control the thoughts of the populace, and writing has been banned altogether. Winston's job involves going through old documents and periodicals and carefully replacing words to suit whatever new narrative is being constructed by the Party, and one of his first acts of rebellion is to hide a notebook he finds and begin recording his thoughts in it. | |
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Dear Evan Hansen: A major theme of the play is how Evan thinks he has nothing to offer the world, but his words end up making him the most powerful character in the show, for better or for worse. (This is played with from the very beginning, where Evan's letters to himself are joked about as a therapeutic tool and a sad kind of thing to have to do, and yet his one stray letter kicks off the whole plot and ends up changing thousands of lives.) | |
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Animal Farm: The pigs, especially Squealer, become skilled at reading and writing and use this power of literacy to exert control over the other animals on the farm. One of the most obvious ways is that the farm's laws are recorded in writing on the side of the barn: only the pigs can read them, so only the pigs can interpret them—or know when they have been subtly changed. | |
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Voices from Chernobyl: Many of the survivors interviewed claim they have difficulty putting their experiences into words at all, as though there were no language to capture what they had seen in the wake of a catastrophe the like of which had never occurred in history. One particularly philosophical subject expresses this explicitly: | |
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Typoman is all about words and language. The hero is literally made of the letters H.E.R.O. and traverses a landscape where many objects are constructed from the letters that describe them. Moving these letters around to create and altar physical space is a central gameplay mechanic, and the game's narrative revolves around the effect of words on reality—there are even Book Burnings and a literal "PROPAGANDA" machine piloted by a creature made from "LIE." | |
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Kill Six Billion Demons: Existence itself is a lie spoken into being by an omniscient, omnipresent narrator (YISUN) using language to convince Themselves that anything exists that is Not YISUN. 'Magic' in the setting is known as the Art of Lying to the Face of God (and is subdivided into the Black, White and Red arts) and involves using a combination of words and willpower to similarly convince reality that you - and not God - know how things work right at the moment and that's why, say, you are holding a fruit when a moment ago your hand was empty, or why that house is actually a rose bush. YISUN Themselves illustrate this in the Lie of the Iron Plum, by speaking an otherwise indestructible object into a regular plum. | |
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Fahrenheit 451: The government has banned books and literacy so that it can keep the public complacent and misinformed via television. Language is thematically tied to thought throughout the book, as various individuals rebel by hiding or even memorizing books. | |
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The Bible: The creation narrative in the very beginning of Genesis describes God creating the world by speaking it to life, word by word, beginning with "Let there be light". (The variant narrative in the second chapter instead describes God "fashioning" creation, like an artisan, then delegates authority to Adam and Eve to name everything.) The Gospel of John similarly opens with "in the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God and the Word was God", emphasising the divine creative power of language and then connecting Jesus to it by declaring him its physical incarnation — "the Word made flesh". In most versions of the Jesus story, much is made of Jesus's ability to gain followers after they simply hear him talk. In a meta example, many people believe the Bible to be the word of God, and irrefutable because of that. |
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In the world of The Madness Dossier, the horrific Anunnakku can use language to control human beings. They made us that way; we’re supposed to be a Slave Race. The heroes of the setting, Project SANDMAN, can and do borrow some of that power to fight back. Human free will is sometimes collateral damage. | |
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"Mean": Following the album's theme, the bully's words are "knives and swords" to torment the narrator, and the song is her retaliation against the guy. | |
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The power of language/writing is a motif throughout Hamilton, closely tied to the concept of stories and who tells them. Alexander Hamilton's superpower is writing, and the play chronicles how he uses his persuasive words to help and harm himself throughout his life. The song "Hurricane" discusses this: | |
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The Division Bell is a Concept Album with this as the central theme. The album's tracks alternate between instrumentals and lyric songs, and most of the tracks with words explore the motif of speech vs silence—especially "Keep Talking", which features the voice of Stephen Hawking, who can only speak with the help of a computer: | |
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The Book of Mormon: Language is powerful when speaking on God's behalf. Nephi the son of Helaman is commended by God and told that for his faithfulness, "all things shall be done unto thee according to thy word, for thou shalt not ask that which is contrary to my will." That is to say, Nephi can now command anything to happen—famines, plagues, casting down mountains, you name it—and the Earth will obey him as it would obey God. He uses it to stop a war, and to preach repentance without being killed. Moroni mentions that the Brother of Jared once commanded a mountain to move. |
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A central theme throughout The Case Files of Jeweler Richard, although the anime touches on it a bit less. The novels even have long descriptions of the a sea of words a person can drown in when they're fluent in too many languages. | |
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Arrival: The central conflict of the film involves humans attempting to understand the Heptapods' language and establish communications with them. The two main characters, scientists on the front-line of the American effort, have differing opinions on whether language is a mere extension of thought or, as the Sapir–Whorf hypothesis posits, thought itself is actually influenced by language. As it turns out the latter is proven true, to the point that learning the Heptapod language allows one to experience time itself in an entirely different manner. In a more mundane example, the Chinese attempts at communication failed because they used mahjong as a basis for their 'language' with the Heptapods, and since it is a zero-sum game the Heptapods' responses to the Chinese queries took on a more aggressive tone than the Heptapods intended. | |
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The creation narrative in the very beginning of Genesis describes God creating the world by speaking it to life, word by word, beginning with "Let there be light". (The variant narrative in the second chapter instead describes God "fashioning" creation, like an artisan, then delegates authority to Adam and Eve to name everything.) | |
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In a meta example, many people believe the Bible to be the word of God, and irrefutable because of that. | |
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The theme of "Say It Right" by Nelly Furtado is this, as the attraction between the singer and the listener remains in limbo until the listener makes a move and speaks out about what they want. | |
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