In Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar, Brutus and Antony attempt to persuade the audience of their position on the death of Caesar. While Brutus explains that his death was necessary, Antony claims that Caesar was not deserving of his demise. However, though Brutus does have ample credibility and taps into the emotional link with his audience to some extent, he does not convey as powerful of an argument as Antony, as he fails to provide sufficient factual evidence. Antony, on the other hand, utilizes logical argumentation with solid evidence, creates an emotional connection with his audience, and maintains credibility in order to support his own argument. Through this, it can be seen that Antony’s use of rhetorical appeals and devices is superior
In Brutus’s speech he talked about how he loved Rome more than Caesar. Brutus was very gullible, stoic, and also easily persuaded. Throughout his speech he uses fallacies. One example of a fallacy he uses is the either/or. “Had you rather Caesar were living and die all slaves, than that Caesar were dead, to live all free men“ (III, i, 22-24). This makes the Roman people believe that either they going to be slaves or free men. One other thing Brutus uses are logos and ethos. He says, “As Caesar loved me, I weep for him; as he was fortunate, I rejoice at it; as he was valiant, I honor him; but, as he was ambitious, I slew him” (III, i, 24-27). In that quote he tries to
By keeping his listeners thoroughly engaged, Antony is able to further develop on his purpose by utilizing diverse rhetorical devices. Near the beginning, he makes effective use of parallelism to list Caesar’s selfless deeds, like “when that the poor have cried, Caesar hath wept”, which gives the effect that the list is so long that Antony cannot describe it in unique detail. Additionally, his parallel repetition of “Brutus says he was ambitious and Brutus is an honorable man” serves as sarcasm. By repeating each good action with these two lines, Antony is getting the audience to contrast Caesar’s endless good deeds with Brutus’s repetitive and conflicting argument. Further on in the speech, Antony uses proslepsis somewhat obviously to reveal Caesar’s will to the people. He tells them that he found “a parchment with the seal of Caesar...tis his will”, yet quickly stops himself from telling anymore. Therefore, the audience is intrigued by the will and its mention reengages any listeners who
In Julius Caesar, Mark Antony is given the opportunity to speak at Caesar’s funeral by the conspirators the murdered him. Through his words, Antony seeks to cause dissent and let mischief reign over his audience, the plebeians of Rome. Antony uses rhetorical questioning to provoke the crowd into a fit of rage over Brutus’ words. Antony disguises his true intents in his speech, putting him at a moral high ground over Brutus. He finally uses ambiguous meanings in his words to hide his feelings about both Caesar and Brutus.
Brutus's speech was ineffective in giving them reasons for Caesar's ambition. This gave Antony a large gap to turn the people against Brutus. Brutus told the people to believe him for his honor , and to respect him for his honor, so that they may believe. He is telling them to believe him for his honor and not for the reasons he gives. Brutus repeated many times that Caesar was ambitious but never once said how or why. This left the people with a question in their mind.
Brutus speaks to the citizens of Rome to tell them why he killed Caesar, so that they will not turn on him. He talks about how he killed Caesar, not for his personal wants, but for the good of Rome. He tells the people that allowing Caesar to rule and fulfill his
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
He wanted the crowd to turn away from Brutus and Cassius. In Antony’s Eulogy speech, Mark Antony attempts to undermine the conspirators by persuading the citizens of Rome to join his side by showing that Caesar was not ambitious but a great leader through the use of rhetorical appeals like pathos and ethos, repetition, and rhetorical questions.
Here, under leave of Brutus and the rest (for Brutus is an honorable man, so they are all, all honorable men." (Act III, Scene ii, 82-85) Antony is simply paying his respects to Brutus, to show (to the crowd) that he is truly a noble and honorable man. That helps the crowd to sense Antony's honesty. It also creates the illusion that Antony is on Brutus's side, because his tone sounds as if Caesar's death was for the better. "I speak not to disprove what Brutus spoke, but here I am to speak what I do know." (Act III, Scene ii, 102-103) Here Antony goes again, respecting what Brutus said before he took his stand. He tells the crowd that he does not mean to steal the support, but to deliver the cold, hard facts. Those words sound honest and unselfish, and that wins the undivided attention of the crowd. Acknowledging the opposing argument is a persuasive technique that lays a foundation for a speaker to build on, and Antony took advantage of this crowd-winning method.
First, he carries out Caesar’s body triggering an emotional response in the crowd. Then he goes on to state to the crowd that “when the poor have cried, Caesar hath wept; Ambition should be made of sterner stuff. Yet Brutus says he was ambitious…” (Shakespear 56). This causes another emotional response from the crowd to Caesar, making them sympathize with him and feeling loved by their deceased leader. It also is logo for he explains that Brutus did say Caesar was ambitious even though he cried for the poor. To furthermore disprove Brutus’s claim that Caesar was ambition he declares, “I thrice presented him a kingly crown, which he did thrice refuse. Was this ambition?” (56). Here he uses rhetorical questioning, directed toward the crowd, to show the obvious answer as well disprove Brutus’s claim. Antony goes on to repeat “yet Brutus says he was ambitious” (Shakespear 56) and “and Brutus is an honorable man” (Shakespear 56) throughout his speech, using repetition to mock as well as retaliate against him.
He uses Caesar’s dead body to appeal to the emotions of the crowd and convince them that Caesar’s death was unjustified. Antony appeals to the citizens’ emotions, when he states, “If you have tears, prepare to shed them now…Here is himself, marred, as you see, with traitors” (III.ii.163-192). In this passage Antony focuses the crowd’s attention on Caesar’s body and tells them how his murder was a product of treason. In telling the romans that Caesar was killed by his friends, whom he trusted, Antony appeals to the emotions of the crowd. The citizens of Rome are clearly affected by Antony’s use of pathos when they respond with “O piteous spectacle” (III.ii.192), “O Woeful day” (III.ii.193) and “We will be revenged” (III.ii.195). The citizens realize it is a sad day and feel pity for Caesar indicating an effective appeal of pathos. Antony effectively appeals to the Roman’s emotions because they are starting to want revenge for Caesar’s unjustified
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’
First, Antony continually uses dramatic irony all throughout his speech to make people question how easily they believed Brutus’ speech a few minutes earlier. He does this in a subtle manner to seem like he is innocently questions Brutus, shown in the speech when Antony states, “I thrice presented him a kingly crown, Which he did thrice refuse. Was this ambition? Yet Brutus says he was ambitious (Julius Caesar, 3.2.24-26)”. This directly contrasts Brutus’ statements that Caesar was ambitious and deserved to die for the good of Rome. Antony is using dramatic irony to make the citizens think that Brutus was wrong with evidence that Caesar was not ambitious. J.M. Pressley supports how Antony uses dramatic irony to sway the citizens by saying “Antony’s prime weapons at the beginning are his conspicuous ambiguity regarding Caesar and Brutus, and feigned intent “(Pressley).
Mark Antony was one of Caesars greatest friends, that he could always count on even after he is brutally murdered. At his funeral he proves many points with just one speech. He get an uproar of anger and pride from the Roman people as he delivers his speech.
In contrast, during the funeral speech of Antony, Brutus honor is respected: ‘Brutus is an honorable man’ (Act III Sc. ii), ‘Sure, he is an honorable man’ (Act III Sc. ii). Therefore, as Antony continually repeats these words, Brutus’ honor grasp another situation which then turns the people against him. This reflects , though he is a respected person but, on the other hand, he gives more importance towards his honor.