Antony's Speech Persuasive Essay

            Antony appeals to his audience's emotions: horror, sadness and anger, to persuade them to his view.  Antony enters with Caesar's body and shows his lamentation over his death, which reminds the plebeians what a horrible deed Brutus committed.

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.

In his soliloquy, Antony praised Caesar’s great personality but at the same time, he would keep saying positive things about Brutus. An example is when he says, “He was my friend, faithful and just to me; / But Brutus says he was ambitious, / And Brutus is an honorable man.” (3.2.85-87). The way in which he spoke and by telling the citizens the context of Caesar’s will, turned the mob against Brutus and the rest of the conspirators. The anger possessed by the countrymen can be shown when a plebeian says, “Most noble Caesar! We’ll revenge his death!” (2.2.244). This betrayal by Antony caused Brutus to break off their friendship.

As Julius Caesar once said, “Men are nearly always willing to believe what they wish.” Many people believed that if Caesar became a ruler, he would be a brutal dictator. The conspiracy did not have concrete reasons to murder Julius Caesar. They just assumed that he would be a tyrant. Considering that Caesar and Brutus were such close friends, Brutus should have attempted to talk to Caesar instead of agreeing to murder him. Also, Brutus claims to be such an honorable man, but killing someone isn’t a very honorable deed, regardless of the circumstances.

Brutus first states, “[Would you rather Caesar] living, and die all slaves, than that Caesar were dead to live a freemen” Then Antony came back with “You all did love him once, not without cause. What cause withholds you, then, to mourn for him?” After Brutus’ speech, Antony was able to evoke the feeling of the audience and bring them back, before his death and see what they had loved within Caesar before his death. All of his accomplishments were able to evoke the emotions they had before his death and then wanted to actually kill Brutus. In the next Scene, it mentioned a major consequence of the words that Antony had spoken. The famous poet Cinna was killed. However, he wasn’t even involved in the assassination of Caesar. That was how much emotion he was able to evoke in the people in Rome. Although ethos could establish the cold, hard truth, pathos can get under peoples skin and effect them and draw them into your cause. In which case it is Antony's'

In the play, Julius Caesar, Caear has recently been betrayed and killed by his Bestfriend Brutus and conspirators. Antony (a friend of Caesar’s) is distraught by his friends death and promises to him in private that he will avenge his killers. Brutus allows for Ceasar to have a funeral arrangement and Antony asks Brutus about speaking in front of the capitol during the ceremony. Brutus allows for this to take place but he tells Antony to promise not to say anything bad about him or any of the conspirators and to only speak about Caesar. Antony accepts this arrangement and heads to the stage of the capitol to give his speech. Brutus also says that he will speak at Caesar’s funeral arrangement so that he can tell the citizens he and the conspirators killed Caesar and explain to them why they did it.

In the play The Tragedy of Julius Caesar, an honorable man, Brutus, is planning to overthrow the soon to be king, Julius Caesar. Brutus is persuaded by Cassius that Caesar is a liar, too ambitious, weak, and not fit to be Rome’s king. Brutus soon believed Cassius, and they and the conspirators made a plan to kill Caesar. After Caesar’s death, Brutus planned to justify his actions of killing Caesar at his funeral in his speech to the people. After Brutus’s speech, the citizens of Rome were all in agreement that Brutus did the right thing for Rome. Brutus then decides to allow Caesar’s best friend, Antony, to speak in honor of Caesar. Antony speaks, and he convinces the citizens that Brutus’s actions were unjust and turned the people against Brutus.

First, he carries out Caesar’s body triggering an emotional response in the crowd. Then he goes on to state to the crowd that “when the poor have cried, Caesar hath wept; Ambition should be made of sterner stuff. Yet Brutus says he was ambitious…” (Shakespear 56). This causes another emotional response from the crowd to Caesar, making them sympathize with him and feeling loved by their deceased leader. It also is logo for he explains that Brutus did say Caesar was ambitious even though he cried for the poor. To furthermore disprove Brutus’s claim that Caesar was ambition he declares, “I thrice presented him a kingly crown, which he did thrice refuse. Was this ambition?” (56). Here he uses rhetorical questioning, directed toward the crowd, to show the obvious answer as well disprove Brutus’s claim. Antony goes on to repeat “yet Brutus says he was ambitious” (Shakespear 56) and “and Brutus is an honorable man” (Shakespear 56) throughout his speech, using repetition to mock as well as retaliate against him.

Brutus misjudges and underestimates Antony’s abilities and his audience. When giving his speech, Brutus makes the subject on honor and abstract ideas using logos and ethos but no pathos. The mistake that Brutus makes is that he does not appeal to the crowd’s strong feelings over the death of Julius Caesar. Meanwhile, Antony easily overmatches Brutus because he does not overestimate his audience. Understanding the people, Antony begins in his eulogy appealing to the citizen’s feelings. Because of the lack of emotion in Brutus’s speech, Antony’s highly emotional and extemporaneous speech captures the minds and hearts of the crowd through use of pathos and causes them to become an angry mob that sought to scorn those that took part in the murder of

After Julius Caesar’s death, the roman citizens were not sure what to think about his assassination. Mark Antony and Brutus took advantage of this at Caesar’s funeral by trying to persuade the citizens how each of them perceived the reason of Julius’s death. While Brutus is successful in instituting fear into the roman citizens, Antony appeals to the citizens and has a better argument. Throughout his speech, Antony persuades the audience that Brutus and the other senators were wrong in killing Caesar, by using pathos, repetition and rhetorical questions.

Antony uses pathos in his speech to make the people of Rome angry, furious, and sad, because Caesar did not deserve to die and he was an innocent man. Throughout his entire speech he uses verbal irony and repetition to get his point across. Antony tells the crowd that he is coming to give a speech about his beloved friend Caesar. As he continues with his speech he get more and more sarcastic. Before Anthony's speech, Anthony enters with Caesar's body so show how sad he is because of his death. Which makes the people of Rome realize what horrible thing Brutus did. In his speech he talks about how Caesar was a great leader. He tells them that Caesar cared about Rome and its citizens very deeply.

In the tragic play Julius Caesar by William Shakespeare, the ruler of Rome, Julius Caesar, is stabbed to death by some of his so-called friends. Brutus, one of Caesar's best friends, is approached by some of the other senators to join the conspiracy to kill Caesar. Brutus weighs his options and decides to join the conspirators for the good of Rome. At Caesars's funeral, Brutus gives a speech to convince the citizens that the conspirators were right to kill Caesar. In contrast, Antony gives a speech to convince the Romans that there was no real reason to kill Caesar. Both characters try to persuade the audience, but they achieve different tones using literary and rhetorical devices. The tone of Brutus' speech is prideful, while the tone of Antony's speech is dramatic and inflammatory.

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The speech that was most persuasive was Antony’s. There are many thing that he did that made his speech persuasive. He kept stating facts. His used actions to convince the people that Caesar was not ambitious, and he made the people turn against Brutus. Therefore his speech worked to move the audience.