The Moral Question in Will's Draft
Plot Beats
The narrative micro-steps within this event
Bartlet picks up Will's speech draft and acknowledges its bold stance on foreign policy.
Bartlet reflects on the moral dilemma posed by the speech, questioning the value of a Khundunese life versus an American life.
Who Was There
Characters present in this moment
Not present physically; inferred as amused/teased by being invoked in jest and rhetorical framing.
Referenced by both Will and Bartlet as the butt and author of colloquial jokes and a rhetorical style; not physically present but present as a stylistic and interpersonal reference in the banter.
- • Serves as a rhetorical shorthand for colloquial, human-sized phrasing that the President and staff know.
- • Represents the communications style that the administration either leans on or teases about.
- • Plainspoken language can make high policy accessible; tone matters as much as content.
- • Ribbing and informality are part of internal staff culture and can surface in high-stakes moments.
Controlled seriousness with a sardonic surface — using humor to disarm, then shifting into direct moral outrage and interrogation.
Enters Will's office, knocks on the doorframe, picks up the speech from Will's desk, reads aloud key lines, converts teasing banter into a pointed moral interrogation, then exits after testing Will's motives.
- • To probe the moral clarity and implications of the draft's interventionist language.
- • To gauge Will's conviction and willingness to risk his job for the doctrine.
- • To force an admission that reveals whether the language reflects character, politics, or personal motive.
- • The President must interrogate the ethical basis of policy, not just its rhetorical flourish.
- • Language in an inaugural address reveals the administration's moral priorities and must be defensible.
- • Personal lineage or ambition can distort policy and therefore must be exposed.
Not physically present; invoked to imply prestige and possible inheritance of worldview or status.
Referenced directly by Bartlet as Will's father — the mention functions as a targeted, personal probe into Will's pedigree and possible motivations for the speech.
- • As invoked, to function as a yardstick for Will's motives and background.
- • To bring questions of lineage and influence into the moral assessment of policy language.
- • Family pedigree can shape a staffer's instincts and risk tolerance.
- • Military legacy can be read as both honorific and explanatory in political behavior.
Objects Involved
Significant items in this scene
The speech draft sits on Will's desk as the catalytic prop. Bartlet seizes it, reads aloud the doctrine language, and uses its phrasing to press Will on the ethical consequences of valuing lives unequally. The paper turns private composition into public moral provocation.
Will's desk functions as the physical stage for the exchange — the place where the draft sits, where Will is stationed, and from which Bartlet removes the pages to turn private work into an object of scrutiny.
Location Details
Places and their significance in this event
Although not the physical scene, the Republic of Equatorial Khundu is the moral and narrative focus of the exchange — the distant locus of suffering that gives emotional force to Bartlet's question and to Will's provocation in the draft.
Organizations Involved
Institutional presence and influence
The Khundunese — as the population under threat — are the ethical object of the debate. Their presumed diminished political value is named by Will's draft and challenged by Bartlet, turning them into the human measure for policy choices in this moment.
Americans are invoked as the comparative moral reference — their lives used rhetorically to calibrate the administration's willingness to act. The comparison frames the speech's ethical stakes and the political calculus behind intervention.
Narrative Connections
How this event relates to others in the story
"Will's reading of the old Bartlet speech directly influences Bartlet's reflection on the moral dilemma of valuing Khundunese lives."
"Will's reading of the old Bartlet speech directly influences Bartlet's reflection on the moral dilemma of valuing Khundunese lives."
"Zake's question about racial bias echoes in Bartlet's later reflection on why a Khundunese life is valued less than an American life."
Key Dialogue
"BARTLET: "Why is a Khundunese life worth less to me than an American life?""
"WILL: "I don't know, sir, but it is.""
"WILL: "I won't be working here long." BARTLET: "You Tom Bailey's son?""