Essay, Research Paper: Braveheart

This movie is about war between the English and the scotch rebellion people. A scotch
brave knight (William Wallace) comes to lead his people of Scotland to victory in a few
battles with the English, which makes a threat to the king of England. The English king
sends his French daughter in law to negotiate peace with the savage warier.

The scene begins as the warier approaches the beautiful princess with worn out
clothes. The princess, have a look of anxiety in her eyes as she recognizes Wallace as
a savage person. The princess invites Wallace to her tent to discuss the king's
proposals of peace. In the tent she describes Wallace's actions of killing her husband's
cousin of being savage. Consequently he defends his actions by revealing the crimes
that the noble man committed to the poor women and innocent children of Scotland.
The princess seems surprised, as she knew nothing about it. Wallace adds to her
information that the king has done things worst than just hanging women and children
on the walls of the city, when it comes to killing innocent people. The princess's
bodyguard interfers by telling her that Wallace is a lier in some other language so
Wallace will not understand, which lead Wallace to reply at the bodyguard in the same
language that he spoke. Also demonstrating to the princess that he is capable of
speaking other languages as well. The princess looks more surprised and dismisses her
bodyguard.

The two talk about the peace and the king's bribe to Wallace, which would make him
one of the wealthy nobles. Wallace refuses the offer and tells the princess about the
king's false word of peace by exposing the past of the king when he hung the villagers
after giving them his word of peace. Wallace also shares with the princess his secret of
his marriage to his beloved, and how the English murdered her. The princess shows
affection. In conclusion, the princess has nothing more to say, because she now knows
the truth about the situation. Consequently she returns persuaded of what Wallace told
her about the king's wrongful doings.

The Yale theory deals with the learning approach of the message, hence, the more
person learns about the message, the more he becomes persuaded by it. From the
text, Carl Covland at Yale University conducted the first systematic, comprehensive
research projects that dealt with attitude change. (Page 63 persuasive COM.). The
research started with a question "how are people persuaded?" the research program
investigated and came up with the Factors, underlying Process, and Persuasion
outcome based on message learning approach. There are Independent Variables such
as, the message, source, recipient, and the channel. Each of these variables has it's
own characteristics that affects the Internal Mediating Process, which are the
attention where the receivers attention is drown. The comprehension understanding
the message. Yielding accepting and being persuaded by the message, and retention
something the receiver takes with him so he can remember the message. Followed by
the Consequent Communication Effect that changes the attitude, belief and the
behavior of the receiver. The research concluded that the receivers must retain the
information in order to be persuaded. And when persuasion occurs, they will fell
rewarded by getting persuaded by that message.

In this scene we can use Yale's model of attitude change. The source is William Wallace
and the receiver is the princess. The channel is a strong media, which was a direct
face to face conversation. The first message, which was delivered by the princess, is
that the actions of Wallace by killing the noble man are barbaric.

The other message by Wallace (sender) to the princess (receiver) is that the innocent
people of Scotland are being massacred and slaved in horrible ways, which makes it
emotional. In addition, the scotch people are only fighting for their freedom, which is a
rational behavior. Hence, Wallace's message is repeated many times throughout the
scene, which gave his situation a positive aspect and made the princess stops in being
bias towards the English. Consequently, Wallace got the princess's attention. Wallace
has helpful persuasive characteristics. He has a worm voice with handsome face and
innocent eyes that made the princess trust him. In addition, Wallace has rational
reasons of defending his people. Wallace was an expert of war issue as well as a leader
to his army. Consequently, the princess knew that if he says that he want's to invade
England, then he is series. So she was careful to listen to his words. Again we can
observe the yielding of the princess to Wallace's expertise. Wallace was well educated,
as the princess realized after she knew that speaks different languages, which got her
attention more, in the degree that she dismissed her bodyguard to be alone with
Wallace, which also shows that she trusted him. The princess comprehended Wallace's
point of view and his situation. Wallace's strong character and the rationality of his
message persuade the princess. In being a female receiver, which would make her
perceive the message more emotionally than men do, the princess seemed to agree
with Wallace especially after he shared with her what happened to his wife. Again she
is affected emotionally by the message. Obviously, the princess was intelligent and well
educated woman. As a result, it made her understand the message faster than a
normal person would. Finally the princess changes her attitude and believes about the
scotch warier to the positive side, as well as the change of believes, attitude and
behavior towards the king and her husband. Furthermore, the princess falls in love with
Wallace and becomes a trusted source for him, as we in the rest scenes of the movie.