In the time of the Romans Oratory was considered to be one of the highest skills a person could have. He uses the arguments Brutus has provided against him, like that Caesar was ambitious, that Brutus is an honorable man. As he gradually uses these terms again and again, the mob comes to realize that the contrary is true, without Antony having to say it openly. He stirs the curiosity of the mob by producing a will that is supposedly by Caesar, knowing that the romans will insist on knowing its contents, and then says about it " which, pardon me, I do not mean to read",which arouses the Romans even more. He asks them to make a ring around the body of Caesar and in a way forces them to feel guilty about their lack of respect towards the dead
All throughout Rome, Brutus is known as being nobleman, yet, in his funeral speech to Caesar, he purposely talks in prose, a way of speaking or writing that is not formal. Brutus’ ethos of nobility is so strong that patricians, noblemen, and plebeians, commoners, directly address Brutus as “the noble Brutus” (III.ii.11) Being as noble as he his, the commoners have a difficult time relating to him; yes, they may respect him, but believing or being convincing in what he says is more difficult for Brutus than Antony. In contrast, Antony can relate to the commoners and is not seen to have an overruling ethos; so, this is why Antony ultimately has a more persuasive speech. At the beginning of his speech, he is presented as not being at all against the conspirators, the group Brutus was apart of. He repeatedly kept reassuring the crowd that the conspirators were "all honorable men" (III.ii.81). By reassuring that the conspirators are honorable, the commoners believe in Antony's statement, which increases his authority power. Noticing that his authority is becoming more powerful, Antony decides to secretly turn against the conspirators. He questions on Brutus’ statement, again, on his reasoning for killing Caesar; yes, Antony is well aware that “[Brutus] is an honorable
In William Shakespeare's Julius Caesar, although Marc Antony is allowed to make a speech at Caesar's funeral, he must not speak ill of either the conspirators or Caesar. Antony was infuriated with Caesar's assassination, and wants to seek revenge on his killers as well as gain power for himself in Rome's government. He must persuade the crowd that has gathered that Caesar's murder was unjust, and turn them against Brutus and Cassius. He tries to stir his listeners' anger, rousing them into action and yet say nothing bad about his enemies. Marc Antony uses several persuasive devices in his speech, which allows him to successfully convince the citizens of Rome to turn
He does all of this while talking innocently, so there is no way any blame could go on him. This shows how great of an orator he is and how flawlessly he uses rhetoric devices to support his argument for Caesar. Antony takes advantage of the holes that Brutus left in the arguments behind Caesar’s death, and his rhetoric makes it so that everyone knows each and every reason that Brutus was wrong and why they should revere
By keeping his listeners thoroughly engaged, Antony is able to further develop on his purpose by utilizing diverse rhetorical devices. Near the beginning, he makes effective use of parallelism to list Caesar’s selfless deeds, like “when that the poor have cried, Caesar hath wept”, which gives the effect that the list is so long that Antony cannot describe it in unique detail. Additionally, his parallel repetition of “Brutus says he was ambitious and Brutus is an honorable man” serves as sarcasm. By repeating each good action with these two lines, Antony is getting the audience to contrast Caesar’s endless good deeds with Brutus’s repetitive and conflicting argument. Further on in the speech, Antony uses proslepsis somewhat obviously to reveal Caesar’s will to the people. He tells them that he found “a parchment with the seal of Caesar...tis his will”, yet quickly stops himself from telling anymore. Therefore, the audience is intrigued by the will and its mention reengages any listeners who
Furthermore Antony's counterclaim against Brutus's oration is backed by “you all did love him once not without cause what withholds you then to morn for him". He is able to evoke pity on the people of Rome by guilt tripping them through showing them that Caesar did nothing for them to lose their affection for him. Therefore Antony's sympathetic part of Caesar oration is
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.
Before breaking down Marc Antony’s impressive speaking abilities, it is important to note the context. Brutus had previously convinced the Romans that Caesar was a tyrant that needed to be assassinated for the benefit of Rome. Thus, Antony is speaking to a hostile audience who doesn’t care what he has to say and don’t want listen to him speak, and he must use his rhetorical knowledge to persuade them
Brutus used repetition the most to influence the crowd. He states about Caesar’s “tears, love, and ambition.” Brutus also asked the audience rhetorical questions that they could not answer, and he would take their silence as if they were agreeing when in reality they were probably too scared to answer. Antony also used repetition to sway the crowd. He often pointed out that “Brutus was an honorable man” and he said it with more and more sarcasm each time. Antony also took advantage of the crowd and used reverse psychology on them. He used Caesar’s will as a tool to accomplish this. He told the crowd about Caesar’s will, telling them that they would think twice if they heard what was in the will, but he doesn’t read it to them. That made them beg for him to read it to them. Not only does this get them to do what he wants, it also give the crowd a false sense of authority over Antony. Also, he asks the crowd if he can come down and join them, saying they give him permission, again giving them that sense of authority. Antony, in addition to the will, used Caesar’s body as a prop in his speech. He created a sympathetic attitude towards Caesar. The other pathos appeal Antony used was the contrast that he showed between the beginning and end of his speech. He opened, saying he was only to “bury Caesar, not to praise him” yet towards the end he had accomplished his goal in making the crowd feel sorry for Caesar and wanting to
Antony uses an abundance of pathos in his speech. One example is: “Caesar was my friend and just to me” (III, ii, 86). Using pathos helps the audience make connections with him. He also reads Caesar’s will which makes the people feel guilty about turning against Caesar during Brutus’ speech. He shows them the stabs wounds on Caesar’s coat and names which conspirator stabbed him. The Roman people now feel pity and anger towards the conspirators. Overall, Antony was smart with his words and won over the Roman people better than
In his speech he uses the repetition of his sarcasm to make people think about what is really going on. While Antony is making the citizens of Rome think, they soon begin to catch on to his sarcasm. One thing Antony continuously repeats throughout his speech is how Brutus is an honorable man. Anotony would explain something Caesar did for the good of Rome and then say how even though Caesar did all this good, Brutus said he was ambitious, but Brutus is an honorable man. Antony mentions this about six times in his speech which lead citizens to question Brutus’s
He continues on to talk about how Caesar was his friend, how Caesar helped benefit Rome, and how Caesar was a war hero. He uses pathos to make the audience feel sorry for what happened to Caesar. Antony describes how Caesar refused the crown three times before and how Caesar wrote a will that left money and land to the common people of Rome, which shows that he was not ambitious. He uses logos to tell the audience that Julius Caesar was not avid and did not deserve to die. Antony uses repetition to make the audience pity him in way, by describing all the good things that Julius Caesar did, which contradicted everything that Brutus was saying about Julius Caesar being too
After Brutus finishes his speech, Antony speaks about his opinion on the issue; unlike Brutus, Antony acts slyly and communicates a very manipulative tone to persuade the Romans to rebel. Because of Antony's use of parallelism, he creates vivid reasoning for his speech. He states, “ I come here to bury Caesar, not to praise him” (III.ii.44). By using this device, he shows the people of Rome that he isn't praising Caesar, he is putting the leader to rest. This particular line creates a very manipulative tone, because his speech is all about what great this Caesar has done and how he wants to rebel against the conspirators. Further more, Antony uses a lot of irony to slyly get his point across. One example that he uses throughout the speech is “Yet Brutus says he was ambitious, and Brutus is a honorable man” (III.ii.44). Because of the repitition of this ironic statement, the meaning of it changes and intensifies. At first, his tone was sincere, but as the speech progresses, you can see his sarcastic tone increases. Antony does this because he has to use this device to surpass the regulations of Brutus, as well as make the romans listen. Lastly, he uses personification to give life and further meaning to a word. Early in the speech, Antony says, “The evil
When he says “Then make a ring about the corpse of Caesar” he wants to let this help manipulate others minds based on emotions. He also uses repetition as another way to turn others against the assassination. Antony says “Brutus is an honorable man” which suggests that he also admires Brutus, who the