Julius Caesar Rhetorical Analysis Essay

Antony, another Julius Caesar character, employs three Machiavellian skills: using fickleness to his advantage,“...while you treat them well, they are yours” (Prince 3), and ruling by fear. Antony’s objective was revenge toward the conspirators for killing Caesar. Antony also successfully used the fickleness of the Roman people to his advantage. After Brutus explained why the conspirators had killed Caesar, the crowd was understanding and agreed with the conspirator’s actions. The Roman peasants are convinced; they even want Brutus as their new emperor, with better qualities than Caesar. The plebians say, “Caesar’s better parts / Shall be crowned in Brutus” (3.2.54-55). But the level of the masses’ support for Brutus did not deter Antony’s opinion of the wrongdoing of the conspirators. In Antony’s speech, he spoke both confidently and assertively, which led to Antony convincing the crowd to support his cause and fight against the conspirators. Additionally, in Machiavellian style, Antony understands the crowd’s perspective; they need praise to believe in Antony’s cause. Antony appeased the Roman masses when Antony

Unable to see that Antony has plans to criticize him, Brutus uses ethos to show that the act of killing Caesar is honorable. He even starts his speech off by saying, “believe me for mine honor, and have respect to mine honor, that you may believe”(3.2.15-17). Being a well respected man, Brutus rests on his laurels. He shows that he loves Caesar and kills him with a heavy heart. While not impressive, his ethos does build credibility for his actions, and this can be seen with the plebeians not bursting out into a riot. However, Brutus’s mistake of letting Antony speak is seen in full force. Antony begins by calling Brutus “a honorable man”(3.2.91). He repeatedly uses this line throughout his speech but in a increasingly sarcastic manner. Antony sprinkles in the good deeds of Caesar before using the line. He makes Brutus seem like a liar and a dishonorable man. As Caesar’s ethos grows among the plebeians, Brutus becomes more and more hated by the plebeians. Antony next brings up Caesar’s will. He shows that Caesar cares for his people even in death. He uses this time to sarcastically say once again that the men are honorable for killing such a great man. At this point, the crowd is in a fervor. Brutus has lost all credibility, and Antony has succeeded in making Caesar a god in the minds of the people. Brutus’s mistake is plain to see

His manner in the way he manipulated the crowd was much cunning than Brutus’s speech. The way he is able to read the crowd and state information that will connect with the audiences emotions. His speech is also much longer than Brutus’, and more effective. Initially, Antony says, “I have to come to bury Caesar, not to praise him” (III.ii.33) which is not true; he basically came to fault the conspirators and tell the crowd to do something about it. Antony also says that he came not to counteract any of Brutus’s words…. but thats exactly what he does. Antony uses reason in his speech when saying that Brutus is ambitious: “I thrice presented him a kingly crown, which he did thrice refuse. Was this ambition” (III.ii.105-106). This ultimately shows Antony’s use of words in his speech are full of irony, acting like he is supporting Brutus by saying, “Brutus is an honorable man” (III.ii.108) which is actually not what he means. His speech is filled with notions and suggestions that is meant to undermine the audiences belief in Brutus. By the time Antony mentions the fourth “honorable man”- the audiences catches on and Brutus and the conspirators are traitors in their eyes. Antony’s use of sarcasm allows for the crowd to fill in the blank of what Antony’s trying to say without breaking the agreement with the conspirators. Antony’s able to manipulate the crowd in such a way that he is able to tell

In the play Julius Caesar, rhetoric plays an important role in the decision of the people of Rome on who to support. The decision they would make would affect Rome forever. Both of the speeches were well composed. Antony and Brutus both make very convincing arguments using logos, ethos, and pathos. Although their speeches have many similarities, they had drastically different outcomes.

In The Tragedy of Julius Caesar, Mark Antony was known to be a noble man, but soon after he conveyed the speech to the plebians it all changed from there. Brutus and the conspirators killed Caesar because they felt if Caesar stayed leader he would bring Rome to a down fall. During Caesar’s funeral, Brutus made a mistake of letting Mark Antony speak at Caesar’s funeral. At this point, his mistake allowed Antony to turn on him and the conspirators and get the plebeians to turn on the conspirators. Mark Antony uses the word ¨honorable¨, the will, and the body of Caesar as a way to persuade the plebeians to turn against the conspirators.

Mark Antony - the guy is a genius.  He gives the most powerful and emotional speech ever conjured up by a human mind.  He gets this powerful emotion from the pain of the loss of his friend, Julius Caesar.  In Shakespeare's play about the ill-fated Roman ruler, a band of conspirators plot to kill Julius Caesar.  They succeed in doing so, and Caesar's best friend Antony is infuriated.  However, he manages to keep his cool, until he is allowed to speak at Caesar's funeral.  Brutus, the leader of the conspiracy, attempts to win the popularity and support of the crowd, and he does so with a speech full of glittering generalities.  His speech sounded good, but really meant nothing.  The people

Immediately after Caesar’s assassination, Antony is invited to visit the body and to listen to the conspirators rationale for Caesar’s death. Concealing his emotions before the senators, Antony appears to understand their motives; however, when the senators depart, Antony furiously declares, “Woe to the hand that shed this costly blood! / […] / A curse shall light upon the limbs of men” (III.i.273,277). Antony’s devout loyalty means he is willing to wage war to avenge Caesar’s death. His intention to engulf Rome in chaos is further expressed when Antony declares, “Now let it work. Mischief, thou art afoot, / Take thou what course thou wilt” (III.ii.249-250)! Caesar’s death has ultimately rocked Antony’s world, catapulting Antony into a state of frenzy. Antony’s cunning mentality gains him more overall support then the conspirators, resulting in his eventual victory against the

Mark Antony was speaking to a vast crowd of distressed people all attending Julius Caesar’s funeral, and were already believing everything Caesar's killers had told them . One of the killers named Brutus, a once trusted friend of the recently deceased Caesar, had allowed Antony to speak to the people as long as he, “... come to bury Caesar, not to praise him” (I.ii. 71) and remind them that he had been permitted by Brutus to speak. Antony had hoped that by making this speech, he may be able to convince the crowd that their slain ruler was a good man who had died for no true reason other than other men’s fear. The crowd begins slightly hostile, but is easily persuaded in Antony’s favor.

Brutus tells Antony he will be announcing his crime to the public as a sign of his love for his country. Brutus speaks of Caesar at the funeral as ambitious, but too ambitious. Before Marc Antony spoke on Caesar’s behalf, the civillians of Rome agreed that Brutus’s actions were justified and not one spoke out against him. In Marc Antony’s speech, he questioned Brutus’s nobility, and reasoning for his actions. Antony tells the crowd that Caesar loved his country, and would not of been the tyrant Brutus suggested he’d be. Antony reads aloud Caesar’s will, promising land and money to the people. By the end of Caesar’s funeral, our source sees Cassius and Brutus fleeing, as the civillians become

Shakespeare's Julius Caesar is the story of the resulting conflicts from the assassination of perpetual dictator and Roman emperor, Julius Caesar. A great friend of Caesar, Mark Antony, comes to the senate to see the dead body of their dictator. He pretends to not be angry at those who took part in the assassination, and asks to speak at his funeral, a request which he is granted. However, after the men leave, he begins a soliloquy in which he suggests that Caesar's spirit will take revenge upon his murderers and invoke a war involving the entire country. Antony begins the revenge of his death by speaking at the funeral about the wrong done to Caesar, the man's generosity to the people, and how Brutus tried to persuade them to

Mark Antony’s motives for stirring up the crowd are clear, and were learned once he was next to Caesar’s corpse in the Senate (where Caesar was murdered.) Antony stated that ‘the violence’ would not stop in Rome until Caesar’s death is avenged. This bold-faced defamation of Rome’s safety immediately told us that Mark Antony had not been persuaded by the conspirators’ statements, and that he remained loyal to Caesar. He clearly did not believe that killing Julius Caesar was necessary for Rome to be freed from tyranny.

For instance, Antony utilizes strong persuasion skills while giving a speech defending Caesar after his assassination. Anthony appeals to the audience’s emotions, as well as informs them that Caesar has left fortune for all citizens. In an attempt to sway the audience against Brutus, Antony proclaims, “Why friends, you go to do you know not what / Wherein hath Caesar thus deserved your love? / Alas, you know not: I must tell you then. / You have forgotten the will I told you of” (Shakespeare 3.2.236-40). Ultimately, Antony gains political power, for he successfully persuades the Roman people. As literary critic E.A.J. Honigmann argues, “These are forensic speeches, moving from point to point with a professional expertise until they reach an irresistible conclusion, which is followed as often as not by a kind of surrender from the listener” (116). In addition to Antony's funeral speech, Anthony displays a general appetite for power. Although he remains loyal to Caesar, he pretends to befriend the assassins. This behavior, arranging ways to gain support from everyone, shows Antony’s strategic power gain. In contrast to the loyalty shown to Caesar, Antony does not show the same loyalty to the conspirators. Antony betrays Brutus by testifying against him for his own political gain. Antony’s powerful speaking skills prove as the key to his success, for without

Both Brutus and Mark Antony have two entirely different purposes and agendas in each of their speeches to the Roman citizens. Brutus' aim is to convince the throng of restless Romans that Rome has been saved thanks to the gallant conspirators for slaying the avaricious, power-hungry, Caesar. However, Antony, a loyal friend of Caesar's, wants to show Brutus and the conspirators for what they really are: nothing but savage murderers who killed Caesar out of spite and jealousy and not for the good of Rome. By doing this, Antony hopes the fickle mob will turn into a bunch of irate demagogues that will settle for nothing less than the revenge and deaths of the conspirators.

In conclusion, by using all these devices within his speech to enrage the crowd and to provoke their desire to seek revenge against the murders of their fallen leader. Brutus had underestimated Mark Antony by thinking that he could not speak so eloquently as to bring the crowds to their feet and send them on a hunt for the conspirators and Brutus himself. Mark Antony stayed within the restrictions of the stringent rules laid down by Brutus, but managed to twist his words enough to get his audience to understand his true feelings. Had Antony not made such an incredibly moving speech as he did, the whole course of the story may have been changed and perhaps Caesar's death would never have been

In Shakespeare's "Julius Caesar", Rhetorical devices are used in Brutus and Antony statements throughout the play. Brutus is one of the conspirator who assassinated Caesar since he fears that he will have too much power over Rome and its people. In comparison, Marc Antony is the closest friend and most loyal to Caesar, who persuades the people of Rome against Conspirators for killing Caesar. After Caesar’s death, the conspirators go to the people of Rome to explain why they killed Caesar. Brutus appeals to logos, to justify his actions in Caesar’s funeral, to free Rome from Caesar's ambition. Antony appeals to pathos, to persuade the feelings of the audience and seek justice upon the conspirators, and to show that Brutus and the others unjustly killed Caesar.