Julius Caesar Funeral Speech Essay

The year was 44 B.C, when a group of Senators, feeling lowly, decided to murder the renowned almost-emperor , Julius Caesar. The motive behind this act of violence? Caesar’s prideful and ambitious nature. Immediately following the horrid act, two men gave vastly different funeral speeches. One, Marcus Brutus, used logic and charisma or logos and ethos, while the other, Marcus Antony, relied on the emotions of the people or pathos. Antony’s speech was also filled with rhetorical devices such as paralypsis and rhetorical questions. Brutus’ speech may have been more effective towards intellectuals; however, Antony’s speech resonated more with the general.

　　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

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.

The most predominate and important aspect In the play Julius Caesar, by William Shakespeare are the speeches given to the Roman citizens by Brutus and Antony, the two main charaters, following the death of Caesar. Brutus and Antony both spoke to the crowd,using the same rhetorical devices to express their thoughts. Both speakers used the three classical appeals employed in the speeches: ethos, which is an appeal to credibility; pathos, which is an appeal to the emotion of the audience; and logos, which is an appeal to the content and arrangement of the argument itself. Even though both speeches have the same structure Antony’s speech is significantly more effective than Brutus’s.

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 tragic play Julius Caesar by William Shakespeare, the ruler of Rome, Julius Caesar, is stabbed to death by some of his so-called friends. Brutus, one of Caesar's best friends, is approached by some of the other senators to join the conspiracy to kill Caesar. Brutus weighs his options and decides to join the conspirators for the good of Rome. At Caesars's funeral, Brutus gives a speech to convince the citizens that the conspirators were right to kill Caesar. In contrast, Antony gives a speech to convince the Romans that there was no real reason to kill Caesar. Both characters try to persuade the audience, but they achieve different tones using literary and rhetorical devices. The tone of Brutus' speech is prideful, while the tone of Antony's speech is dramatic and inflammatory.

William Shakespeare's Julius Caesar is a tragic story of the dog and the manger.  After Caesar is killed Mark Antony, a good friend of Caesar, plots to revenge his bloody death.  He knows there is strength in numbers, and through a speech at Caesar's funeral, Antony plans to win the crowd of Rome and turn them against Brutus and the other conspirators.  Cassius is one of the leading conspirators and is weary of Antony; Brutus is confident that there is nothing to fear, but he speaks before Antony at the funeral just to be safe.  These two speeches, vastly different in message but similar in delivery, move the emotions of the people.  Brutus's and Antony's

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

The first speech we hear is that of Brutus. In his speech he aims to

As Antony delivers his provoking speech, many impressions of major characters are depicted.The scene illustrates the craftiness of Antony, how gullible the plebeians are, and the nobility of Brutus. After Brutus’s oration the crowd is in heavy support of the crime and believe that Brutus indeed is a noble Roman. A plebeian even exclaims in support of Brutus, “Bring him with triumph home unto his house!” (3.2.46). However, moments later through literary techniques and devices, Antony is able to sway the commoners to love Caesar and doubt Brutus’s honor. In contrast after Antony’s speech, that same

    The play Julius Caesar written by William Shakespeare in 1599, is about the murder of Julius Caesar, a great Roman general who conjured many lands, and helped to form the Great Empire that we read about today. Caesar was to be crowned king of Rome, but he was savagely murdered by a group of conspirators before he received the crown. After Caesar's brutal murder, Brutus a very honourable Roman, who helped in in Caesar's death, and Mark Antony, one of Caesar's closest friends, gave speeches at Caesar's funeral, trying to convince the crowd to agree with them and turn against the other. Brutus and Antony both made convincing speeches, but Antony came out on top, because Antony let the people make up their own mind, by appealing to their emotions.

Caesar’s funeral is a key point in the play and is dominated by long speeches by Brutus and Antony. Because the speeches are long and challenging, it is best to view, re-view, read, and analyze.

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

In William Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar, both Brutus and Mark Antony provide moving funeral speeches in hopes to sway the crowd towards their opinion. Brutus makes an attempt to assure the Roman people of his own innocence and justify the murder of Julius Caesar. Adversely, Mark Antony offers a speech to counter that of Brutus and act as the defense for Julius Caesar. While both speeches are sufficient in swaying their audience, Antony is able to use both pathos and antithesis more effectively and his use of the devices enables him to provide a far more compelling speech.