Manipulation In Julius Caesar Speech Analysis

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.

He states that Brutus is just as noble and worthy as Caesar. (Act 1, scene ii). He says that Brutus cannot see what everyone else does and recognize his worthiness. Cassius and the other senators do not want Caesar to be king because they would lose all their power. Cassius is slowly luring Brutus in to do his dirty work. He builds Brutus’s confidence up to make him thing that killing Caesar is the right thing to do. Cassius is basically playing with Brutus’s head because he knows Brutus will listen. So, Brutus joins the conspirators in killing Caesar. Cassius tells Brutus that it is for the good of Rome, and that he is saving them from a dictatorship. Cassius is going for Brutus’s weakest point, his care and concern for Rome. He knows that if Brutus believes the people distrust Caesar, then he will be convinced that Caesar must be thwarted. Brutus knew that if Caesar was crowned, he would never have a chance, and he was power hungry. This is what ultimately leads to the tragedy of Julius Caesar. After Brutus kills Caesar off, he starts to feel guilty for killing his friend, thus creating an internal conflict. Brutus was so confident that the plan would go exactly as planned that he fell apart when they encountered problems. If Brutus and the other conspirators had taken more time to think things through, they probably would have been more prepared for the situation that was handed to them.

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.

During the play of The Tragedy of Julius Caesar we see Brutus conspire with other conspirators in order to assassinate Caesar. Brutus felt he was doing it for the good of Rome. Mark Antony was a friend of Caesar he was more of a party person than the others. Caesar was in a parade and a person came to him and stated "Beware the Ides of March". The person was warning him about his demise. He simply didn't care to listen and this eventually led to his assassination. After his death Brutus gave a speech to discuss why this had happened to Caesar. Brutus said the he loved Caesar but his ambitions were going to lead to a dictatorship. The people were convinced after Brutus spoke but as Mark Antony spoke things changed. He used heart wrenching pathos of carrying Caesars body and spoke as a friend of the people and how he disagreed with the conspirators plans and thoughts about the future. The two speeches both used pathos, but Brutus used ideas that appealed to the pathos of the people and Mark Antony just appealed using pathos.

He compares Caesar to a serpent in an egg which he must kill before it hatches. Brutus knows that Caesar is gaining too much power too quickly and it must come to an end. He shows his belief in a republic government by saying, “We all stand up against the spirit of Caesar / And in the spirit of men there is no blood" (II.i. 180-181). Cassius is a character who is jealous of Caesar’s power and also wants it to end. He forms a group of conspirators who are against Julius Caesar. He persuades Brutus to help him and the other conspirators to kill Caesar during the ides of March. Brutus joins but only due to his love for Rome and its people. He proves this by saying "Let us be sacrificers, but not butchers, Caius." (II.i. 179). This also proves his love for Caesar because he wants to kill him with some sort of honor. Brutus wants the citizens to look at him not as a murderer but for someone who cares for his country. He expresses his ideas toward the stabbing by saying , “If then that friend demand why Brutus rose against Caesar, this is my answer-not that I loved Caesar less, but that I loved Rome more" (III, ii, 17-19).

In the tragic play Julius Caesar by William Shakespeare, the ruler of Rome, Julius Caesar, is stabbed to death by some of his so-called friends. Brutus, one of Caesar's best friends, is approached by some of the other senators to join the conspiracy to kill Caesar. Brutus weighs his options and decides to join the conspirators for the good of Rome. At Caesars's funeral, Brutus gives a speech to convince the citizens that the conspirators were right to kill Caesar. In contrast, Antony gives a speech to convince the Romans that there was no real reason to kill Caesar. Both characters try to persuade the audience, but they achieve different tones using literary and rhetorical devices. The tone of Brutus' speech is prideful, while the tone of Antony's speech is dramatic and inflammatory.

In his speech Antony asks, “ Did this in Caesar seem ambitious?”(Shakespeare. 3.2.18). Antony asks the people whether or not Caesar and Brutus’ definition of ambition are the same. He allows the audience to decide who was the real ambitious man in the situation and whether or not that man’s ambition was used for the good of the people. Antony questions the people, “You all did love him once, not without cause; What cause withholds you then to mourn for him?” (Shakespeare. 3.2.30-31). Antony tells the people that they all loved Caesar and now, after his murdered, they do not grieve for their leader. His real question in this quote is why the people allow the conspirators to feed them lies about Caesar and then turn their back on him after his death. Mark Antony’s questions in his speech allow the people to question themselves about the things they believed about Caesar and the

The plebeians were expressing how happy they were that Brutus killed Caesar, because he was a tyrant and bad for Rome. Antony then, goes on to say his first rhetorical phrase, “The evil that men do lives after them,/ The good is oft interred with their bones;” He starts off by making the people feel somewhat guilty, pathos, this way, they would pay more attention. The character proceeds on remembering some good things Caesar had done while alive, “He hath brought many captives home to Rome,” and asking if these things seemed too ambitious. But that is what honorable Brutus, as Antony describes, claims, therefore everybody should respect him. Antony does this during his entire speech, “I should do Brutus wrong and Cassius wrong,/ Who, you all know, are honorable men.” He makes sure the people do not realise he is, actually, talking bad things the entire speech about the conspirator. Following, Antony makes his sadness known by saying that his heart is in the coffin with Caesar. To emphasize his mournfulness he goes as far s to stop his speech and cry. Consequently, Antony is able to raise pity among the crowd. His main trick is the reading of the testament. He starts by vocalizing he has got Caesar’s testament but Antony does not read it. The plebeians get curious, therefore demand Antony to read the testament. Antony then ends their inquisitiveness and reads the testament. With the crowd on his side, he stops

Jealousy drove Cassius to have Julius Caesar killed. Cassius was Caesars closest advisor and used that as an advantage to convince Brutus to destroy the life of Julius Caesar because he felt as if Caesar wasn’t fit to be Roman King. Cassius was also motivated to kill Caesar because he believed that Caesar sought to subvert the republic into his own identity. He felt that is Caesar was Roman King, a dictatorship would form. Cassius’ main intention was to convince Brutus that removing Julius Caesar from power would be a good way to help the republic prosper.

Brutus is only one out of few that will not betray the Roman Empire. He wants to do what is right. Cassius tries to convince Brutus that Caesar is a bad ruler. Cassius is plotting a plan to convince Brutus that Caesar is a bad ruler and to help kill Caesar.

Cassius, a longtime acquaintance of Caesar did not like the Fact that Caesar was becoming too powerful, he then sent false letter to Brutus’ house tricking him into the assassination. Brutus felt that Caesars’s power would not be for the good of Rome so he went along with the assassination. This goes to show that Brutus felt Rome would be better off without him. Brutus also says,” it’s not that I loved Caesar less, but that I loved Rome more.” From this quote we can see that Brutus loved Caesar but not as much as did his home

People are not usually as they seem. Brutus “slew the best lover for Rome”(3.2.46-47) and he was genuine about this, Brutus had been played by Cassius into killing Caesar. “What men say and what they think”(Weber) are completely different things, Cassius knew that Caesar was an okay man, but lured in Brutus to kill him just in spite of Caesar’s power. Antony however, uses the pitiful soul card, he tells the crowd to give him a minute so that his “heart can come back to [him]”(3.2.108-109). The people of Rome feel sorry for Antony and they are becoming riled up over Brutus killing a good man.

In act 1 scene 2 Cassius says “well Brutus thou art noble, get I see. Thy honorable mettle may be brought from that it is disposed there…” Here he has manipulated Brutus to help murder Caesar. He does this by saying Caesar isn't worthy of being crowned emperor anymore than Brutus is. He's making it appear as if Caesar has bad intentions for Rome and the people of Rome which is why he told those lies about Caesar because he knows they

In William Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar, Cassius is the driving force behind the conspirators who wish to overthrow Caesar. He is insightful, jealous, and resentful of the power held by Julius Caesar. He uses his influence over the emotions of others to get them on his side. He knows that he can only get support to kill Caesar if he can convince others that his motives are for the benefit of Rome. It is with the rule of his emotions that he is able to convince others to help overthrow Caesar.

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