Many people know that Julius Caesar was betrayed and killed by many people who he had thought to be his friends. Some less common knowledge is that he did still have friends and others who stayed loyal to him. One man named Mark Antony was the most loyal of them all, even after Caesar’s death. When he found out Caesar had been killed, he began plotting to get on the traitor’s good sides and make it seem as if he had joined them so that he could convince the citizens to fight against them with him. He deceived the traitors and convinced them to let him speak at Caesar’s funeral, and in this speech he turned the citizens against them using very powerful rhetorical skills. After he had drove the traitors from the city, he took control of the city and led them to victory in a war against the conspirator’s armies. These are three telling examples that prove Antony’s skill and potential as a leader. Antony and Caesar were good friends, and when Antony learned of Caesar’s murder, he began plotting to dethrone the conspirators who had planned his death. He sent a citizen to the palace where the traitors were and told him to relay a message; “If Brutus will vouchsafe that Antony may safely come to him and be resolved how Caesar hath deserved to lie in death, Mark Antony shall not love Caesar dead so well as Brutus living, but will follow the fortunes and affairs of noble Brutus through the hazards of this untrod state with all true faith.” What Antony is saying to Brutus is that if
In Shakespeare's tragedy Julius Caesar, Portia uses repetition, rhetorical questions, and parallelism in order to persuade Brutus to tell his secret. Portia uses repetition to get Brutus’ attention and to show him how much she wants to know the secret. Pleading, Portia urges, “I should not need, if you were gentle Brutus. / Within the bond of marriage, tell me, Brutus” (2.1.301,302). By using repetition she gets Brutus’ attention so he knows she is talking to him. If Portia did not repeat his name, Brutus would not be as inclined to listen to her. With Portia stating his name more than once he is focused on her and knows that what she is saying is vital. In this part of Portia’s speech she uses pathos. She persuades Brutus by bringing up their
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.
In Julius Caesar, one of William Shakespeare’s more well-known plays, Marc Antony finds himself persuading a crowd who believe Caesar’s death was for the benefit of the Roman people. Antony had implored “Friends, Romans, Countrymen, lend me your ears” in an attempt to sway the crowd to give credence to his belief that Caesar’s death is a tragedy to the Roman folk and create a mutual bond between him and the crowd. This bond created by Antony is one of the very few times his speech dips into the realm of ethical appeals. The crowd of Romans had been originally convinced by the three main conspirators, mainly by Brutus, that Caesar’s death was to the benefit of all the Romans by portraying Caesar as a tyrant. Robert P. Yagelski had stated in chapter 8 of his book “rhetoric is the art of identifying the available means of persuasion. Antony had found which avenue to take and predominantly used pathos to manipulate the simple-minded folk to seek revenge and give the same sentence to the conspirators and Caesar had received.
“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.
Antony was looked down upon by all the conspirators except for Brutus. They wanted to kill Antony as well as Caesar because they feared that he would become as powerful as him and possibly a dictator. Brutus persuaded the others not to add to the assassination by saying, "And for Mark Antony, think not of him: for he can do no more than Caesar's arm when Caesar's head is off"(2.1.181-183). Brutus underestimated Antony and perceived him as a person who didn't always take life seriously, couldn't have a serious nature and therefore, not a thinker. Brutus continued to argue with Cassius who did not believe him. "Alas, good Cassius, do not think of him. If he love Caesar, all that he can do is to himself -- take thought and die for Caesar. And that were much he should, for he is given to sports, to wildness, and much company (2.1.185-189). Brutus judged him as being frivolous, and simply liking sport and partying, with a reputation for womanizing. Unfortunately for Brutus and the conspirators he was respected by Caesar and so simply couldn't be ignored.
Antony felt that Brutus should not have killed Caesar. He does not feel that he did anything wrong at all for Brutus to have killed him. Within him knowing how the people of Roman feels about Caesar and trying to get their full attention after Brutus speech he starts off by saying “Friends,Roman, Countrymen, lend me your ears; I come to bury Caesar,not to praise him. The evil that men do live after them; the good often interred with their bones; so let it be with Caesar.” That’s his way of saying I don’t expect you all to think about the good or at least all the good Caesar has did/done as much as you think about the bad. “He was my friend,faithful,and just to me: But Brutus says he was ambitious And Brutus is a honourable man”. Antony keeps saying over and over “Brutus says he was ambitious” but he does not feel Caesar was ambitious because “When that the poor have cried,Caesar hath wept:”. He then uses ethos and goes to try to discredit Brutus by saying “You all did see that on the Lupercal I thrice presented him a kingly crown,which he did thrice refuse: was this ambitious?”. Antony is saying why give a man credit for just now wanting to be king and do what is right for Roman now when he didn’t want to the first three times it was offered to him. He asks them a rhetorical question with logic to it “You all did love him once,not without cause: what cause withholds you then,to mourn for him?” I say the question has logic because how can you love someone
In the play Julius Caesar written by the whimsical, sophisticated William Shakespeare both beloved Brutus and noble Antony deliver their most thorough attempts to win over the delicate citizens of Rome into what they believed was correct. Brutus gave it a valiant effort in trying to convince the citizens that murdering the noble Caesar was the best thing to do for the people. In the end Brutus’ effort was not enough because Antony was able to turn every Roman against Brutus and the other deceitful conspirators during his speech with his extraordinary use of logos, pathos, and ethos.
The Roman senators all took part in betraying Caesar by murdering him. One of the main people involved, Brutus, held a funeral service for the deceased Caesar along with a brief speech. One of Julius Caesar's main companions who loved him dearly, Antony, also gave a speech that lasted much longer. After looking through the ethos, logos, and pathos mentioned in this story, it is obvious that Antony is more persuasive.
Some might say that the ability to effectively persuade people to do things is one of the most useful qualities a person can possess. However, it can also be one of the most dangerous. In Julius Caesar, a play by William Shakespeare, a group of conspirators were plotting to overthrow Julius Caesar, who was poised to become the leader of the Roman Empire. Because doing this was a mission that would require a larger group of people, the conspirators attempted to convince people to support their plan and join the group. In doing so, the conspirators used tactics that appealed to both the logic and emotion of others.
Antony states, “Caesar was my friend, he was faithful and just to me,” with much emotion although he is forced by the conspirators to say, “But Brutus says Caesar was ambitious, and Brutus is an honorable man,” multiple times because the conspirators fear the people of Rome will dislike them for killing Caesar (Shakespeare 3.2.84-86). Antony is Caesar's friend not an acquaintance; therefore, he is not a contributor to the conspirator’s reasoning for killing his friend, Caesar, and does not really mean what he says about
furthermore assisted through the use of pathos. Brutus is able to do this by saying “I slew my best lover for the good of Rome, I have the same dagger for myself when it shall please my
Brutus’s Use of Rhetorical Strategies in Julius Caesar In Julius Caesar, Shakespeare employs various rhetorical strategies such as paradox, direct address, and antithesis to portray Brutus as a reasonable and caring individual, thus justifying his actions to the audience and fellow conspirators. Brutus begins conspiring to end Caesar’s power, and he concludes that “Caesar must bleed,” and the conspirators must “kill him boldly, but not wrathfully” (2.1.184-185). Brutus’ desire to avoid killing with wrath inspires a paradox, which is intended to draw attention and thought to the subject. By emphasizing the difference between boldness and wrath, he appears more reasonable, compelling the conspirators to side with him. The paradox promotes the
Antony speech in front of Brutus’ audience proves how loyal and dedicated he was towards his king, Julius Caesar. This argument is a great piece of rhetoric. Mark Antony has successfully accomplish of convincing that Brutus is the traitor and his friend Caesar was innocent. Antony has mastered the use of emotion, logic, and subtlety. The emotions he puts into the audience by saying, “My heart is in the coffin there with Caesar” (3.2.105) and “Oh judgement, thou art fled to brutish beasts” (3.2.103).
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