The Power of Language Proved by Antony As Pearl Strachan Hurd states, “Handle them carefully, for words have more power than atom bombs.”People often overlook the importance and impact that words and language can make. Throughout Julius Caesar there are many examples where words can make a big impact. In the play Julius Caesar by William Shakespeare, the character Antony uses his skillful talent of rhetoric and language to manipulate others. Antony displays his power of language from the beginning of the book. Antony states,” I do beseech ye, if you bear me hard,/Now, whilst your purpled hands do reek and smoke,/ fulfill your pleasure. L e a thousand years,/ I shal not find myself so apt to die;/ No place will please me so, no mean of …show more content…
This was a very bad move by Brutus which is going to create a big problem. Antony’s speech at the funeral was jam-packed with rhetorical and literary devices which created a big divide in Rome. Antony starts of his speech with “Friends, Romans, countrymen, lend me your ears” (3.2.81). This word choice makes the Pomans feel like Antony is there friend and should trust what he says. This is an example of ethos because Antony is trying to convince the crowd that he is reliable. As Antony moves along with his speech he keeps repeat the phrases “Brutus is an honorable man” and did Caesar seem ambitious? By repeating these phrases over and over Antony starts to create doubt among the crowd if Brutus’ words can be trusted. Another rhetorical device that Antony uses is pathos. Pathos which is emotional appeal is shown in Antony's speech “ I thrice presented him a kingly crown,/Which he did thrice refuse. Was this ambition?” (3.1.104-105) and “Methinks there is much reason in his sayings./ “If thou consider rightly of the matter,/Caesar has had great wrong.” (3.1.116-117). Antony is playing with the emotions of the plebeians by giving counterexamples for what Brutus said and making them double think if what Brutus said is true. Antony carefully structured his speech in a way that slowly makes the plebeians change their opinion without them even realizing. Antony’s funeral speech creates great chaos among the city of Rome which will leads to the civil
Mark Antony uses imagery, rhetorical structure, and tone all throughout his speech to turn the Roman citizens against the conspirators who killed Caesar. Antony opens his speech using imagery saying, “If you have tears, prepare to shed them now.” Not only is Antony using imagery in this section of his speech, but he is also using the rhetorical structure of pathos by telling the plebeians they should prepare to cry about a man that when Brutus was just talking they were resenting Caesar. Through the speech Antony uses a very sorrow tone. He also attacks Brutus and the other conspirators by calling them “traitors” at the end. Antony uses ethos when saying, “For Brutus,
Antony uses an abundance of pathos in his speech. One example is: “Caesar was my friend and just to me” (III, ii, 86). Using pathos helps the audience make connections with him. He also reads Caesar’s will which makes the people feel guilty about turning against Caesar during Brutus’ speech. He shows them the stabs wounds on Caesar’s coat and names which conspirator stabbed him. The Roman people now feel pity and anger towards the conspirators. Overall, Antony was smart with his words and won over the Roman people better than
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
To start his speech, Antony opens with some kind words about Caesar. Antony uses ethos by speaking kindly of Caesar and saying, “He was my friend, he was faithful and just to me” (line 81). Antony appears to be a honest and humble man mourning for his friend. By saying “Brutus is an honorable man” (line 83), Antony places himself on the crowd’s side because up to this point the crowd is in favor of Brutus. Antony has made himself seem more trustworthy which also utilizes ethos. He then continues to speak of Caesar’s great deeds that do not support Brutus’s claim of Caesar’s ambition. For example, Antony tells of Caesar saying, “He brought many captives home to Rome whose ransoms brought wealth to the city” (line 83). This is all Brutus wants Antony to say but Antony continues and asks the crowd, “Is this the work of an ambitious man” (line 89)? Antony is using logos to influence the Roman people because he provides a counterexample to the claims of Caesar’s ambition. Furthermore, Antony places doubt in Brutus by saying, “Yet Brutus says he was ambitious, and Brutus is an honorable man” (lines 91-92). This use of logos allows Antony to prove Brutus wrong, even if he does not say it out loud.
In the play The Tragedy of Julius Caesar, an honorable man, Brutus, is planning to overthrow the soon to be king, Julius Caesar. Brutus is persuaded by Cassius that Caesar is a liar, too ambitious, weak, and not fit to be Rome’s king. Brutus soon believed Cassius, and they and the conspirators made a plan to kill Caesar. After Caesar’s death, Brutus planned to justify his actions of killing Caesar at his funeral in his speech to the people. After Brutus’s speech, the citizens of Rome were all in agreement that Brutus did the right thing for Rome. Brutus then decides to allow Caesar’s best friend, Antony, to speak in honor of Caesar. Antony speaks, and he convinces the citizens that Brutus’s actions were unjust and turned the people against Brutus.
By contrast Antony from Julius caesar heavily relies upon the power of language and its ability to exploit the human flaw that is emotion, and by doing so manipulate ones perception through a emotionally (pathos) driven argument. Antony has a greater understanding of the people and knows that they are passionate people who will be swayed by such talk. Also Antony unlike Brutus uses iambic pentameter this shows that he has a higher authority which would make the audience listen more carefully. After each argument Antony produces in Caesar’s defense, he uses irony through the lines “But Brutus says he was ambitious, and Brutus is an honorable man”. This line is repeated a number of times creating an anaphora. As well as slowly dismantling Brutus’
“The broad masses of a population are more amenable to the appeal of rhetoric than to any other force” according to Adolf Hitler, a master in rhetoric, who was able to sway the people of Germany into electing him as chancellor, and who was able to brain wash an army into creating the biggest mass genocide on the planet. This type of strategy is mimicked by Mark Antony in William Shakespeare’s The Tragedy of Julius Caesar. Mark Antony’s extensive knowledge of rhetorical strategies, such as appeal to the emotions of the commoners, knowledge of topic and reputation, and syntactical devices eclipse Brutus’ reasoning for killing Julius Caesar and wins over the Roman commoners.
When Antony tells the crowd about how much Caesar loved Brutus he was trying to change the crowds perspective of the type of leader Brutus actually is. In act three Antony says, “How dearly Caesar loved him.” , referencing Brutus the crowd began to get angry at Brutus. Why would someone kill their best friend when the best friend only loved them dearly. The crowd saw this and began to understand where Antony was coming from. Antony using ethos paid off because he was able to change the personnel image of Brutus. Antony uses logos when he brings out Caesar’s will.
He does not want Caesar to be crowned king. Power meant more to Brutus than being noble to Caesar. The actions of Brutus do not reflect his intentions of being a nobleman. Contemplating the assassination, Brutus invokes the familiar Elizabethan analogy between the body politic and the body natural. In so doing he invokes the symbolic framework which establishes the relationships among the diverse issues and actions of the play and provides, in this case, an implicit refutation of the position he is about to take. For Brutus' political miscalculations, rather than being the almost inexplicable mistakes of a supremely virtuous character, are the manifestations of a clearly defined moral failing. Brutus, of course, misses the point of his analogy. Sensible of the hideousness of the "Insurrection" within the "little Kingdome" to which he likens himself, he does not go on to deduce, as he might be expected to, that "Rebels [ought] by the Justice of the law to be suppressed, even as the
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.
The final demonstration of the theme is when Antony, a follower of Caesar, cleverly uses pleasant words against Brutus and the conspirators. In the scene where Antony speaks, Caesar is already dead and Antony could publicly speak only if he did not dirtied Brutus’s name or Caesar’s. He blatantly calls the conspirator honorable: “The noble Brutus/ Hath told you Caesar was ambitious. / If it were so, it was a grievous fault, / And grievously hath Caesar answered it. / Here, under leave of Brutus and the rest/ (For Brutus is an honorable man, / So are they all, all honorable men), / Come I to speak in Caesars’ funeral” (3.2. 912-13). The power of Antony’s speech and the manner her referred to his enemies was fabulous. He achieved the plebeians’ ultimate approval and will succeed in avenging Caesar’s death. He did so by using wise and well-chosen words.
Roman politician and popular figure in the Roman Republic, Mark Antony, uses the rhetorical devices of pathos, logos, and ethos in his funeral oration for Julius Caesar, in order to deem the assassination of Caesar by Cassius, Brutus, and their conspirators, wrong. The speech conducted by Mark Antony, a good friend of Caesar’s, has a sorrowful tone due to the fact that Mark Antony wants the crowds of Romans to agree with him. Antony conducts his speech in such a way to strike pity and regret in the assassinators and conspirators of Julius Caesar. Usage of pathos, ethos, and logos is essential in winning over the plebeians trust and respect.
Antony’s speech tells the citizens that they should not disapprove of Brutus and his actions, however they still should remember Caesar for the great leader and war hero that he was. He thought that Caesar had no wrongdoings and they didn’t give him a chance. The crowds reaction was to immediately go and kill the conspirators. Inside Antony’s speech, he uses three different examples of rhetorical devices. He uses repetition, pathos, and ethos.
William Shakespeare, one of the most profound writers in all of history, skillfully used the character of Mark Antony in his play, Julius Caesar, in order to verify true the theme that loyalty and respect are two of the most extremely convincing tactics. He demonstrates the power of speech as he is manipulating words in order to prove a certain point in the speaker’s favor, whoever that may be. Mark Antony was a man who enjoyed spending the majority of his time at extravagant parties and receiving everything he wanted at his sudden demand. Shakespeare created Antony to be an expert in speech manipulation, which ended up making Julius Caesar to be what