preview

Effective Use Of Rhetoric In Shakespeare's Julius Caesar

Decent Essays

Rhetoric is a word that when said many understand what you are talking about but not necessarily what the word truly means. Rhetoric is simply defined as the art of speech to persuade. Using the three fold process of rhetoric, you can easily sway someone to think something is right even though it may not be. As well, using rhetoric can cause people to act upon something you say. This three headed dragon is ethos, logos, and pathos. All ingeniously thought up by the great Greek philosopher Aristotle. William Shakespeare took Aristotle’s idea and put it in a form that today we can cipher through his famous play Julius Caesar. Shakespeare intelligently used the speeches of both Brutus and Mark Anthony to better explain ethos, logos, and pathos to the modern world. To begin, ethos is the Greek word for character. If …show more content…

Once you prove that you are a credible and trustworthy person, you must put the icing on the cake by sympathetically relating to your audience. Mark Antony nails pathos right on the head throughout his speech. Shakespeare helps pathos along in Antony’s speech in that it is written in prose. When Shakespeare wrote he used iambic pentameter when most of the characters are talking. The only time he does not use iambic pentameter is when a slave or someone of no worth is talking, but in this case Shakespeare shows how much Antony cared for the people by speaking in prose which they would understand. As well, Antony uses a pathos device repeating that Brutus was an honorable man. The repetition of this statement causes the people to second guess their feelings about the honor of Brutus. Lastly, he says, “Bear with me./My heart is in the coffin there with Caesar,/ And I must pause till it come back to me.”(Shakespeare 3.2.104-106) Antony ends his speech with an appeal to the feelings of the people which drive them to go on an emotional rampage. Pathos drove Antony’s point home, but also to a point of

Get Access