Julius Caesar's Use Of Persuasion

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.

The qualities that make humans different from other species are collectively called human nature. Part of human nature is how individuals see themselves and others. Shakespeare uses human nature in many of his plays, including Julius Caesar, which has many examples of persuasion. He shows that how humans perceive themselves allows them to be persuaded or persuasive. The way Brutus feels about himself, and how he acts, is what allows Cassius, and later Brutus himself, to convince him to assassinate Caesar. Later, after the death of Caesar, both Brutus and Antony try to convince the crowd of Romans to join them, using different forms of rhetoric. There are many other smaller instances of persuasion, most of which include Caesar, Brutus, or Antony.

In Act III of Julius Caesar, both Brutus and Mark Antony deliver speeches with Rome’s future in mind. Brutus must justify his reasons behind Caesar’s assassination whereas Mark Antony must convince Rome of the conspirators’ offence. While the use of logos and ethos is apparent in Brutus’ speech, it is Mark Antony’s use of pathos that moves the audience to take action.

When Antony says, “ My heart is in the coffin there with Caesar, and I must pause till it comes back to me”(Shakespeare) he wants the citizens to believe that Caesar was a noble and trustworthy man. This makes the citizens question Brutus when he said, “ Censure me in your wisdom, and awake your senses that you may be the better judge… not that I loved Caesar less, but I loved Rome more (Shakespeare)”. Brutus underestimated how powerful of a speech that Antony was able to deliver without breaking his

re was lots of safety in numbers and the conspirators needed to find a way to convince them that Julius Caesar was a bad emperor. So the conspirators used persuasion. Persuasion is one of the easiest ways to convince people to do the wrong thing. The conspirators went to each civilian one by one and persuaded them saying that Caesar is a bad ruler.

In Act III, Scene ii of The Tragedy of Julius Caesar are two speeches given by Marcus Brutus and Mark Antony at the funeral. Each speech is used to persuade the commoners by containing rhetorical devices such as logos, ethos, and pathos. Although one of the two speeches clearly results in a higher amount of success, Brutus and Antony both support their beliefs with substantial information. Numerous differences are identified in each expression when using compare and contrast techniques. However, quite a few similarities have additionally been found as well.

In The Tragedy of Julius Caesar, Brutus and Antony both give speeches to the people of Rome about Caesar's death. Brutus tells the people that Caesar was dearly loved but too ambitious and dangerous to the government. Afterwards Antony approaches talking about wonderful characteristics of Julius Caesar. By examining Brutus's and Antony's speeches using ethos, pathos, and logos, Antony's speech is the more persuasive.

He thought Antony would not speak out against Brutus since Caesar is dead, so he lets him live. Brutus said Antony “ For Antony is but a limb of Caesar….for he can do no more than Caesar's arm when Caesar's head is off.” (2.1.165-182). He believed that they should only kill Caesar for justice and there would be no reason to kill Antony also. “He insisted in the first place that they should act only with strict justice.” (Simmons, 64). Brutus also made a massive mistake when he let Antony speak at Caesar's funeral. Brutus convinced all the plebeians that Caesar's assassination would benefit them and Rome, but he let Antony speak. Antony was able to convince them that Brutus and the conspirators were wrong and no more than low down bloody backstabbers. Brutus and the conspirators had to flee, because Antony was so effective at convincing the crowd they were evil. The third choice Brutus made that lead to his demise was his declaration of victory before the battle was won. His troops quit fighting and started to plunder and raid the countryside before the battle was really over. Also Cassius was losing his battle, but Brutus did not go help him.

In William Shakespeare’s play, Julius Caesar is killed by his friend Brutus. Antony also gives a speech also to the people. In brutus’ speech he is trying to calm the people and explain why he had Caesar killed. Antony’s speech was more of the opposite, he tried getting people worked up and upset. Antony was very close with Caesar.

The power of persuasion is important because when someone’s persuaded to do something that gives them clarity to go ahead and attempt that action that someone’s instilled in their mind to try. Throughout Julius Caesar the power of persuasion was important because the conspirators help to overthrow Caesar. There are many reasons for why the conspirators helped to overthrow. They thought that he was too prideful, too ambitious and to arrogant.

Antony first bids the crowd, “‘You all do know this mantle; I remember the first time ever Caesar put it on’” (3.2.171-172). Using a semblance of mourning and by telling the story of Caesar’s mantle, Antony portrays his and Caesar’s deep friendship; the flashback to the past serves to move the reader to sympathize with Antony. Therefore, the pathos Antony creates serves to demonstrate that one simply needs the personable connection to Caesar and Antony in order to sympathize with them. Finishing his oration, Antony describes himself as “a plain, blunt man, that love my friend;” showing his devotion to Caesar, Antony declares, “‘Here was a Caesar! When comes such another?’” (3.2.220,253). By this, Antony officiates his friendship and the deep love he felt for Caesar; this ultimately gives Antony the advantage of the listener’s sympathies. While Brutus first employed logic to win over his listener, this passage demonstrates how Antony’s expression of friendship becomes the defining trait of his speech that makes it more believable than Brutus’s. Antony, with his charge that no one greater than Caesar will come soon, at this point wins over his listeners using his simple expression of friendship. Therefore, logic, as seen in Brutus’s speech, cannot overcome the persuasive power of

In Julius Caesar By William Shakespeare persuasion is central to the plot of the play. Throughout the play the conspirators try to persuade as many people as possible to agree with there cause.

In the novel Julius Caesar there is a very different variety of characters, some are good at heart while others are plain evil. There are various characters with different opinions and personalities that get into many arguments, where in some cases the outcome is one of them dying. Two characters that are very different from each other are Brutus and Marc Antony. At Caesar’s funeral Marc Antony and Brutus were both asked to say a few words about Caesar and how they felt about the whole situation of him being murdered.

Speeches are Worth a Thousand Words Antony and Brutus both give speeches to the crowd at caesar’s funeral. Antony speech was an appeal to the emotions of the crowd. While Brutus speech was more of an appeal to logic than emotion he also appeals to the audiences since of expertise. While both speeches appealed to different people in the crowd Antony speech in like Brutus was able to rally the crowd into a frenzy of emotional citizens. Although the two speeches had many differences they also had some similarities .

Brutus’ speech justifies Caesar’s assassination. To draw the audience's attention and persuade them that the murder was just, he established emotional appeal. This emotion is used when Brutus states, “As Caesar loved me, I weep for him;/as he was fortunate, I rejoice at it; as he was/valiant, I honour him/: but, as he was ambitious, I/slew him.” He wants the people of Rome to know how good of a friend Caesar was to him, and for Rome to mourn with him. Even though Brutus murdered Caesar he establishes that Caesar is still honored, but did it for the benefit of Rome. Emotion was also used when Brutus stated, “ With this/I depart,--that, as I slew my best lover for the/good of Rome, I have the same dagger for myself,/when it shall please my country to need my death.” Brutus makes it known if he was to take Caesar’s place that he would want his people to kill him if it was ever needed.