Julius Caesar Rhetoric

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

Antony and Cassius, unlike Brutus, never separate their private affairs from their public actions while Brutus tries to prove himself by acting only with respect to honor and virtue, completely ignoring his personal concerns. For example, Cassius disliked the fact that Caesar became “godlike” in the eyes of the Romans, so he leads Brutus to believe that Caesar had become too powerful and must die by sending him forged letters claiming that the Roman people support the death of Caesar, ultimately converting Brutus to his cause. At last Brutus ends up murdering his good friend in an act he truly believed was honorable. Marc Antony, who also shares in Cassius’ selfish trait, persuaded the conspirators that he is on their side, therefore gaining their leniency. He proceeds to persuade the plebeians of the conspirators’ injustice and gains support of the masses.

In his soliloquy, Antony praised Caesar’s great personality but at the same time, he would keep saying positive things about Brutus. An example is when he says, “He was my friend, faithful and just to me; / But Brutus says he was ambitious, / And Brutus is an honorable man.” (3.2.85-87). The way in which he spoke and by telling the citizens the context of Caesar’s will, turned the mob against Brutus and the rest of the conspirators. The anger possessed by the countrymen can be shown when a plebeian says, “Most noble Caesar! We’ll revenge his death!” (2.2.244). This betrayal by Antony caused Brutus to break off their friendship.

Brutus attempts to use pathos to stir the crowd and develop empathy. In his speech, Brutus declares, “As Caesar loved me, I weep for him”. Brutus’ use of this strategy was less effective than Antony’s because he focuses too much on his own emotions than trying to manipulate his fellow Romans’ emotions. His lack of focus on the others’ emotions prevented him from using this device effectively. Though Brutus makes an attempt to gain his audience’s sympathy, he fails to do so.

Brutus first states, “[Would you rather Caesar] living, and die all slaves, than that Caesar were dead to live a freemen” Then Antony came back with “You all did love him once, not without cause. What cause withholds you, then, to mourn for him?” After Brutus’ speech, Antony was able to evoke the feeling of the audience and bring them back, before his death and see what they had loved within Caesar before his death. All of his accomplishments were able to evoke the emotions they had before his death and then wanted to actually kill Brutus. In the next Scene, it mentioned a major consequence of the words that Antony had spoken. The famous poet Cinna was killed. However, he wasn’t even involved in the assassination of Caesar. That was how much emotion he was able to evoke in the people in Rome. Although ethos could establish the cold, hard truth, pathos can get under peoples skin and effect them and draw them into your cause. In which case it is Antony's'

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’

One of the rhetorical appeals that Antony used to sway the crowd against the conspirators was pathos. Pathos is an appeal using emotion. In line 20 Antony begins to use pathos when he states, “Did this in Caesar seem ambitious? When that the poor have cried, Caesar hath wept: Ambition should be made of sterner stuff.” This quote is able to sway the crowd against Brutus and Cassius by showing what kind of good person Caesar was. He was compassionate to people. This quote shows what kind of good leader by helping out the poor. He knew what they were going through so he cried along with them. This quote is able to sway the citizens of Rome because it shows the opposite of what Brutus said about Caesar. If he would

Throughout the two men’s speeches, both try to invoke emotions in the people of Rome. Brutus attempts this first and is ultimately less effective than the pathos Antony uses throughout his speech. Brutus states, “ If there’s anyone in this assembly, any dear friend of Caesar’s, I say to him that my love for Caesar was no less than his. If, then, that friend demands to know why I rose up against Caesar, this is my answer: it’s not that I loved Caesar less, but that I loved Rome more.” In this statement, Brutus is directing the emotion towards himself instead of the people. He isn’t allowing the people to feel for themselves; this is not an compelling way of using pathos. Antony uses a different method that creates a bigger rise out of the crowd. He does this by saying,

During most areas of Brutus’ speech he wanted to be portrayed as an authority figure and more noble than Caesar was. When Brutus attempts to justify how ambitious Caesar was and why he had to be killed he questions the citizens by asking “Had you rather Caesar were living, and die all slaves, than Caesar were dead, to live all freemen”(45)? By saying this Brutus tried to prove Caesar's ambition, but this quote was based purely on the observations that Brutus had noticed about Caesar. He had no way of being absolutely sure Caesar would have done something this malicious. Antony began with a different approach and addressed the citizen as “Friends, romans, countrymen”(46). By starting out addressing them as “Friends” it confirms that Antony is trying to show them that he is one of them and cares for them as well as that he is trustworthy. Then in his speech he begins to challenge Brutus’ argument

The plebeians loved Caesar before his murder and praised Brutus after it. Antony was trying to remind the citizens about the great accomplishments Caesar had done for Rome before he passed because the citizens turned on him. In (III,II,CI) Antony cries "What causes withholds you then to mourn for him?" The citizens seemed to forget how generous Caesar was and stopped praising him. Brutus's use of pathos was more of him trying to convince the citizens that Rome would go downhill if Caesar ruled. In (III,II,XXII) he says "Had you rather Caesar were living and die all slaves, than that Caesar were dead, to live all free men?" He wanted to make himself out as a hero by saying that killing Caesar was best for the community of Rome. Antony's use of pathos was more convincing that Brutus's because it sounded more as if it was coming from the

Brutus gave a more formal speech which appealed to reasoning. In his speech, he repeated constantly that Caesar had too much ambition. Brutus informed the crowd the main reason for killing Caesar. In ACT III, scene II, lines 20 to 21, Brutus announces, “It’s not that I loved Caesar less, but that I loved Rome more.” This quote helped the crowd clarify another reason behind Caesar another reason behind Caesar’s death. His words also made the Romans feel cared about. Therefore, not only did Brutus defend himself, but he also showed the Romans that he is a good leader. Although Brutus had a few negative views toward Caesar, he did add some positive comments about Caesar. In Act III, scene II, line 25, Brutus said that he “honored him for being brave.” His reasoning for adding this comment was to show the crowd that he respected Caesar. Whereas Brutus’s speech appealed to reasoning, Antony’s speech appealed to emotion. Overall, Antony’s speech was sad. In Act 3, Scene 2, line 83, Antony said, “He was my friend, he was faithful.” This shows the crowd how much much Antony trusted Caesar. Throughout his speech he spoke highly of Caesar. In Act 3, scene 2, lines 86 to 87, Antony said “[Caesar] brought many captives home to Rome whose ransoms brought wealth to the city.” Antony follows that with asking, “Is that the work of an ambitious man.” Antony gave the audience a reason for being on his side. He

Antony’s manipulation of the plebeians makes him stronger but it also makes Brutus, who had just as much of a chance as Antony did at latching them onto his army, weaker. Brutus’ speech is rather weak because he doesn’t go that extra mile when trying to engrave his points in the plebeian’s brain. His speech is very basic, and because the plebeians are so easy to sway, he is able to initially grab hold of their minds. After this, Antony comes up and uses many tactics for a more effective process of manipulation. First, he shoots down any positive points that Brutus made by counteracting them, and although Brutus went first, he could have tried to cover himself better, for he had to have some kind of idea where Antony would be coming from. For example, Antony mocks Brutus by saying “But Brutus says he was ambitious, and Brutus is an honorable man,” (Act III Scene II 95-96) and this, as well as his points counteracting Caesar’s ambitiousness, voids out Brutus’ idea of the common good in the plebeians’ minds. Antony also uses visualization as a tactic when he picks up Caesar’s mantle to show just how violent Caesar’s murder was, which again reiterates the fact that it couldn’t have been done completely for the common

The citizens of Rome begin to see Brutus’s way of thinking and they understand that he really did think of the good of the people while making his decision.  They also understand that Brutus was not thinking selfishly like they had assumed, but logically. This helps them to trust him more because he thought about the situation in an unbiased way.  The plebeians respond to Brutus’s explanation by saying, “Live, Brutus, live, live! / Bring him with triumph home unto his house… This Caesar was  tyrant. / Nay, that’s certain. / We are blessed that Rome is rid of him” (III.ii.49-50 and 75-77).  The Plebeians learn that Brutus had honest intentions and they respect and praise him for it.  The knowledge that Brutus was selfless enough to kill his friend in order to save them from tyranny, earns their respect.  A final situation where this theme is developed is during the events surrounding the death of Brutus.

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