Compare and Contrast the Funeral Speeches of Brutus and Mark Antony. Which Is More Effective and Why?

Brutus uses logic to persuade the audience to visualize why the conspirators had to kill Caesar. Brutus states to the people Belive me for mine honor, and have respected to mine honor, that you may believe me (III ii, 14-16). Brutus is saying the people should listen and believe him because of his reputation and as an honorable

Brutus's speech was ineffective in giving them reasons for Caesar's ambition. This gave Antony a large gap to turn the people against Brutus. Brutus told the people to believe him for his honor , and to respect him for his honor, so that they may believe. He is telling them to believe him for his honor and not for the reasons he gives. Brutus repeated many times that Caesar was ambitious but never once said how or why. This left the people with a question in their mind.

In the Tragedy Of Julius Caesar, Brutus and Anthony both presented a speech to the citizens of Rome. Brutus argued why his actions to kill Julius were acceptable while Antony contradicted Brutus’s views, arguing why Caesar should not have been murdered. Both speakers used ethos, logos, and pathos to persuade the people of Rome. Brutus’s speech was mainly based on logic, while Antony’s speech took more of an emotional approach . Overall, Antony had a sophistic style, he was much more artful and cunning than Brutus. He reeled in the crowd like a fish and captured them with his compelling diction.

    In Brutus’s speech, he uses ethos to get people to trust him. Brutus tells the crowd to believe him because of his honour and to keep his honour in mind during the speech. Brutus also mentions Caesar being ambitious but doesn’t explain how or what Caesar did that was ambitious, he just wants you to believe him beause he is honourable.

Brutus’s main goal in his speech was to justify his action of killing Caesar in hope that the citizens would be in agreement with him and understand that he had Rome’s best interests at heart. Brutus attempts to persuade the people through ethos, pathos, and logos. He mainly uses ethos. He continuously says that he is an honorable man who loved Caesar but loved his country more. He uses an example of ethos when he says, “Hear me for my cause, and be silent, that you may hear: believe me for mine honour, and have respect for mine honour, that you may believe.” In this quote, he uses restatement to show his credibility as an honorable man. Because he approached the people in this way, they think, “Why would an honorable man, such

Introducing his points, Marc Antony begins with the rhetorical appeal ethos, the appeal to ethics, convincing the crowd that Brutus and the conspirators are liars. In discrediting the conspirators, Antony calls upon his authority compared to that of the conspirators. Antony claims the right to speak because Caesar was his “friend, faithful and just to” (III.ii.84) him. Consequently, by calling

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

Compare and contrast Cassius’ and Brutus’ deaths in terms of the deed and their final words. What does the manner of their deaths reveal about their characters

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

Brutus says, “. . . believe me for mine honour, and have respect for mine honour . . .” to try to convince the people that because he is honorable, he can be trusted (Anderson 831). Antony, on the other hand, says that, “I come to bury Caesar, not to praise him . . .” so the people understand that he isn’t giving a biased speech (Anderson 834). An example of this would be in Barack Obama’s presidential speech, when he mentions that he is going to do all sorts of things to help America and give the people a better future (Clark “Ethos Examples”). And along with using Ethos, both Antony and Brutus offer things to the public.

The opinions of our conspirators on the main stage are highly varied as they both have two completely different ways of leading others. Brutus for one was a strong and honorable man, forcing himself to stand tall and do whatever the noble thing is no matter what the resulting consequence would be. If it was something that could have been deemed dishonorable then Brutus wouldn’t give it a second thought. Honor was Brutus’s selection of tactics, no matter which way the wind would blow. This is shown in the play when Brutus refuses the oath in act two, scene one. His honorable tactics were what paved his road when he said that they should head to Philippi to meet Octavius and Antony in act four scene three, rather than wait for them to wear themselves out. This shows his honorable nature by presenting us with the fact that he would rather meet his opponent half way and defeat them on equal grounds rather than wait for them to approach and to fight with them when they were at a

Antony repeats the word “honorable” several times in his speech. He is doing this in order to emphasize Brutus’ honorability, and make the citizens question it. Antony also repeats the word “ambitious” a signifacant amount of times. Through the repition of “ambitious”, Antony mocks Brutus trying to justify his actions by saying that Caesar was too ambitious. Every time he was that word, he describes an honorable trait of Caesar that contradicts Brutus’ accusation. For example, he mentions that Caesar refused the crown three times , and asks the citizens whether if that would be considered ambitious. “My heart is in the coffin there with Caesar, and I must pause till it come back to me,”[He weeps](Shakspeare, III,ii 116-117). Antony uses pathos to draw emotions out of the citizens. This quote emphasizes how many Antony loved Caesar, and the sadness he is feeling now that he is dead. Antony’s grief makes the people of Rome sympathetic to him, which leads to them

Brutus, a conflicted senator obsessed with his civic duty, convinces the people of Rome that his motives in killing Caesar were just and noble by rhetoric. Brutus is the only conspirator to have impersonal motives in killing Caesar. In fact, his motives are trying to find the best solution for Rome, and in the end, he must make the hard choice of killing his best friend for his homeland. As early as Brutus’ conversation with Cassius in Act I, Brutus exhibits this deep love and respect for Rome and how this love is conflicting with his love for his friend, Caesar: “[P]oor Brutus, with himself at war, / Forgets the shows of love to other men” (I.ii.51-52). Brutus brings up this internal conflict again when he tells the crowds that although he did love Caesar, he loved Rome and its people more. After Brutus’ murder of Caesar, he realizes that the issue of the public opinion of Rome is of the utmost importance. Because of this love for Rome, Brutus uses rhetoric to persuade these plebeians to approve of him and his cause. When Cassius warns Brutus about “how much the people will be moved / By that which [Marc Antony] will utter[!]” (III.i.252-253), Brutus tells Cassius that letting Marc Antony speak “shall advantage us more than do us wrong” (III.i.261). In these cases, Brutus demonstrates his awareness of

Mark Antony’s funeral speech incorporates the rhetorical devices of sarcasm, irony, and repetition to turn the people of Rome. The ironic use of repetition slowly displaced the conspirators. To exemplify, Mark Antony repeatedly calls the conspirators, “ honorable men” (3.2.79). The habit of repeating the word ‘honorable’ is extremely sarcastic, and Antony is purposefully overusing the word on account that it makes the citizens question the legitimacy of the murder. As a result, the crowd wonders if the conspirators are allowed to get away with the crime solely based on

At Caesar’s funeral, both Marcus Brutus and Mark Antony deliver their speeches to the Roman citizen. Although the two speeches discuss about Caesar’s death, the meaning and purpose of each speech totally differs from each other. Brutus abuses this opportunity to explain the reason why he assassinated Caesar and to enhance his honor. In contrast, Antony talks about how grief he was and what Rome had lost due to the death of Caesar.