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Julius Caesar Ethos Pathos Logos

Decent Essays

Shawna Swann Mr. Beasley English 10 – 2nd 4 November 2015 Julius Caesar “Persuasion is often more effectual than force.”-Aesop. In the play Julius Caesar, by Shakespeare, Brutus and a group of senators have recently killed Caesar, and Marc Antony is furious about it. He seeks revenge, so when Brutus allows Antony to speak at the funeral, he thinks of a plan to avenge his closest friend. (Define logos, pathos, and ethos). In this play, Marc Antony delivers a more convincing speech than Marcus Brutus through his use of pathos, logos, and ethos. First, Antony utilizes pathos when he states, “You all did love him once, not without cause: what cause withholds you then, to mourn for him?” (III.ii.30-31) Here he is stating that Caesar was loved by …show more content…

It is important when making a speech that one considers all sides of a case. Brutus does not know how Antony truly feels. He also depends on his own integrity and honor as his way to justify his actions. While Brutus asks the audience questions, the way he asks them does not allow the crowd to truly think and reflect. When Antony asks questions, he asks them in a manner that provokes deeper thinking in the audience. When Brutus is making his case, he does not give any room for the crowd to consider that if Caesar had been made king, good could have come out of it instead of all of the bad possibilities mentioned. Antony knows why Brutus and the Senates kill Caesar and plays that to his advantage when he mocks them in his speech. While he continuously states as promised that Brutus and the others are all honorable men, he manipulates the situation by throwing in examples of acts that Caesar has done that were enriching and compassionate. He then continues to ask the crowd if what Caesar did was ambitious. One of the examples that he states asking about Caesar is, “You all did see that on the Lupercal I thrice presented him a kingly crown, which he did thrice refuse: was this ambition?”

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