Throughout William Shakespeare’s Antony and Cleopatra, the titular characters are not often painted in the best of lights. Quite often seen as selfish, overbearing, lazy, arrogant or obsessive, one nevertheless feels drawn to them on the stage and much of that is to do with the grandeur of their language where grandeur in this sense meaning eloquent and poetic language that utilises an abundance of metaphors and hyperboles This essay will be examining the difference in speech between the principal characters characters (that being Antony, Cleopatra, and Caesar) and how that affects the audience’s view of them, how the grandeur of the language of the principal characters changes over the course of the play and if grandeur of language does indeed make up for a lack of other types of greatness. Throughout the play, the audience can hear how both Antony’s and Cleopatra’s conception of themselves is expressed through the hyperbolic language when talking about themselves and each other and also when other characters are talking about them. From the very outset of the play, the audience gets a grasp on the perceived greatness of Antony from Philo’s speech about his transformation from the ‘triple pillar of the world’ to the ‘strumpet’s fool’. In belittling Antony, Philo also causes him to seem greater as he uses great hyperboles and heroic metaphors such as describing Antony’s ‘captain’s heart…burst[ing]/The buckles on his breast’ and using over complicated language to describe a
In comparison to the perceptions both Cassius and Brutus have towards Caesar, is the perspectives of Antony and Caesar of himself. Antony looked at Caesar as a friend, a role model as well as a kind and deserving leader. This notion is exemplified through the use of emotive language “O mighty Caesar! /most noble blood of all this world/ the noblest man/ That ever lived in the tide of times”. Furthermore, the use of descriptive and connotative language throughout Antony’s
Humanity has become the most dominant species on Earth due to our high intelligence and communication skills but our communication can also be used to easily manipulate and convince. This manipulation is shown when, Mark Antony delivered a deeply passionate and articulate speech at Caesar’s funeral, altering the political dynamics of the Rome in William Shakespeare’s play Julius Caesar. Antony uses his words to influence the Roman people. He effectively uses rhetorical devices to prove his point and gain the support of the citizens. Antony also uses the rhetorical device of Pathos to invoke emotion in the crowd and Ethos to use Brutus’ and the conspirator’s reputation against them.
How did Cleopatra rise to and maintain her power? Not much is known about her life since she lived so long ago, but what is known is enough to piece together some of her life story. Cleopatra was a strong and intelligent woman who made it through all the struggle and strife of the ancient world until it became too much for her. Cleopatra’s reign began and ended with tragedy, but was maintained by exploited love connections.
I have recently read an amazing biography called, Cleopatra: A Life by Stacy Schiff. The book, written by a well-known author of biographies, tells the story of Cleopatra, the most powerful woman in history, who ruled Egypt in 70 BC. She is also the beauty, with whom Caesar and Mark Anthony fell hopelessly in love. Written in a unique way, trying to abolish stereotypes about Cleopatra, it is a fascinating novel, about power and love. It shows how these two mix and matched, while creating history.
In William Shakespeare's play The Tragedy of Julius Caesar, two speeches are given to the people of Rome about Caesar's death. In Act 3, Scene 2 of this play Brutus and Antony both try to sway the minds of the Romans toward their views. Brutus tried to make the people believe he killed Caesar for a noble cause. Antony tried to persuade the people that the conspirators committed an act of brutality toward Caesar and were traitors. The effectiveness and ineffectiveness of both Antony's and Brutus's speech to the people are conveyed through tone and rhetorical devices.
Cleopatra, Greek queen of Egypt, was born at the beginning of 69 B.C and one of the few women rulers in ancient Egypt. Her father was Ptolemy XII And Cleopatra was the last pharaoh in Egypt. She is known as clever, covetous, skilled, beguiling and manipulative. Cleopatra’s physical features are not certain and there is not enough information about her profile. “The colour of her eyes and of her hair is not known; nor can it be said whether her skin was white as alabaster, like that of many of her Macedonian fellow countrywomen, or whether it had that olive tone so often observed amongst the Greeks. Even her beauty, or rather the degree of her beauty, is not clearly defined.” Cleopatra was born at the finish of the Ptolemaic dynasty, because,
Julius Caesar, a play by William Shakespeare, has many instances of great rhetoric in the speech of its characters. Marc Antony, a main character and a pupil of the great Julius Caesar, has a speech that shows many uses of rhetorical appeal and devices. He is able to sway the citizens easily because of how strong his rhetoric is and how persuasive he is. Antony uses devices like dramatic irony, appeals (ethos, logos, pathos), and repetition to make the citizens believe in him and Caesar to disregard the conspirators argument.
Historically, the action of Antony and Cleopatra takes place over a ten-year span, whereas in the play the story is compressed to fit the needs of the stage. Antony is clearly much older than he was in Julius Caesar, and his political instincts
“Friends, countrymen, lend me your ears.” This line is said by Mark Antony to garner the attention of his countrymen in arguably one of Shakespeare’s more popular plays, Julius Caesar. The iconic line is one of Shakespeare’s better known addresses. In his plays repetition functions as an indicator of something to which the audience should pay particular attention. Specifically, in the play Othello, the repetition of the word “friend” is relevant and draws the audience’s attention to relationships of a superficial or forced nature, as the relationship between Othello and Iago, Cassio and Bianca, and as a rhetorical device. Through close reading of the play, one sees that “friend” functions as a versatile device used for manipulation.
The most predominate and important aspect In the play Julius Caesar, by William Shakespeare are the speeches given to the Roman citizens by Brutus and Antony, the two main charaters, following the death of Caesar. Brutus and Antony both spoke to the crowd,using the same rhetorical devices to express their thoughts. Both speakers used the three classical appeals employed in the speeches: ethos, which is an appeal to credibility; pathos, which is an appeal to the emotion of the audience; and logos, which is an appeal to the content and arrangement of the argument itself. Even though both speeches have the same structure Antony’s speech is significantly more effective than Brutus’s.
After reading Shakespeare's Julius Caesar, it points out that using pathos is more effective than ethos and logos. The purpose of pathos is to evoke an emotional response from an audience in which makes them use action at times. In the play, characters like Antony and Cassius appeal to pathos to prompt the Roman citizens to take action which led to significant event that alter the plot of the play. This essay's purpose is to present multiple explanations on why pathos is the dominant mode of rhetoric in the play Julius Caesar.
Examining how Brutus and Mark Anthony Utilise Language to Manipulate the Audience in Act 3 Scene 2 of Julius Caesar
Cleopatra VII was the last Pharaoh of Egypt. Cleopatra reigned over Egypt in 51BC after the death of her father Ptolemy XII Auletes. Cleopatra’s mother was Cleopatra VI and she came to power at the age of 17. Cleopatra ruled over Egypt with her two brothers Ptolemy XIII and Ptolemy VIX and her son Ptolemy XV Caesar. She was born in 69 BC in Alexandria and ruled from 51 BC to 30 BC. Cleopatra was Macedonian, but even though her ancestry was Macedonian, she was still an Egyptian queen and worshipped as a god. She was remembered for in history as the last Queen of Egypt and her relationships to Julius Caesar and Mark Antony.
The queen of Egypt Cleopatra, as represented in the Shakespearean tragedy, embodies a deceiving and controlling nature. This is the cause of conflicts between herself and Antony, concocted for selfish, personal gain. Cleopatra twists the mind of Antony, fabricating a lie to get his attention onto her. “-If you find him sad, - say I am dancing. If in mirth, report - That I am sudden sick.” (Cleopatra: 1, 3, 3-5). Shakespeare’s use of dialogue is there to express Cleopatra’s jealousy of his wife Fulvia and how she wishes for Antony to feel longing for her and regret that he went back to Rome leaving a ‘sick’ queen alone. She reiterates her feigning spell over Antony to distort his emotions. “-Mardian go tell him that I have slain myself. -Say that the last I spoke was “Antony”, piteously” (Cleopatra: 4, 13, 6-8). She fakes her death accomplishing her goal of Antony forgetting about his anger towards her and instead to feel endearing sadness. The Egyptian queen manipulates Antony to believe that her love for him is real, yet he is blind to her performance. Here she showcases the power she holds above Antony, unusual in both Shakespeare’s time and the
Shakespeare’s Presentation of Rome and Egypt in Antony and Cleopatra As the title clearly suggests, Shakespeare’s Antony and Cleopatra is based around the extraordinary relationship among two distinctive individuals, one a Roman general and the other an Egyptian queen. Along with Caesar who is also a Roman general, these entities dominate the play’s tragic storyline progression. However whilst Antony and Cleopatra centres around a provocative love affair, Shakespeare makes it evident that there is a good deal larger tensions involved, a collision course between two worlds. Antony and Cleopatra details the conflict between Rome and Egypt, it demonstrates the differences between Eastern and Western