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Brutus Vs Mark Anthony Essay

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William Shakespeare is a master at literature, drama, and even poetry. In his 1599 play Julius Caesar, he shows his literary talents and they shine exceptionally well in Act 3, Scene 2-3 in which he has both Brutus and Mark Anthony speak to the people of Rome about the murder of Caesar. Brutus goes up first and sways the people into his favor by mentioning that he killed Caesar for the safety of Rome but then Mark Anthony with great oratorical skills brings the people into his side with appealing to certain feelings such as pity and other skills such as praeteritio and therefore leads the people into riot and mutiny against Brutus. With this scene, Shakespeare shows many of his intentions. First of all, he shows his mistrust of mobs and mob …show more content…

First of all, Marlon Brando who portrays Anthony in the 1953 version was an extremely accurate depiction of Anthony. The way he moved and talked throughout the speech was what I felt Shakespeare intended for it to be. The way that the scene was shot was perfect, with Anthony high above the people unlike in the BBC and 1970 version where they were only slightly above the people. The 1953 version created that huge height difference to show how more important Anthony is then the people but it also had an even bigger impact for when he walked down the steps to be within the people. In the 1970 and BBC version, Anthony was only slighter higher and therefore only required to walk a little to become within the crowd but in the 1953 version he had to walk a bigger flight of stairs to stand with the people. I believe this is better because it shows the effort that Anthony makes to be within the people and it gives a sense of himself lowering his high status to be one with the people and being a regular Roman instead of someone with influence. Secondly, just the way Brando talked I felt was much more human than Charlton Heston who was Mark Anthony in the 1970 version and Keith Mitchell who played Mark Anthony in the BBC version. Brando started much stronger and with a fiery passion when he began, he asked for their ears and he expected them to listen. He also seems to …show more content…

The people are irrational and angry for they go rioting in the streets and want to hurt all the conspirators. Once they are on the street and they find Cinna the Poet and ask him his name and what he is doing. Once he answers truthfully the mob wants to kill him because he is named Cinna to which he replies he is Cinna the poet but the people reply “Tear him for his bad verses! Tear him for his bad verses!” (3,3,30-31). And this perfectly shows what Anthony has done to the people, he has angered them to the point that they will kill anyone for simple reasons such as just having the same name as a conspirator and this is extremely important because it shows that even though Brutus and the conspirators killed Caesar to make Rome a better place, in the end they made it so dangerous that even a poet is not safe anymore. And in this only the BBC version was able to truly capture that

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