Mark Antony's Speech

       In William Shakespeare's Julius Caesar, although Marc Antony is allowed to make a speech at Caesar's funeral, he must not speak ill of either the conspirators or Caesar.  Antony was infuriated with Caesar's assassination, and wants to seek revenge on his killers as well as gain power for himself in Rome's government.  He must persuade the crowd that has gathered that Caesar's murder was unjust, and turn them against Brutus and Cassius.  He tries to stir his listeners' anger, rousing them into action and yet say nothing bad about his enemies.  Marc Antony uses several persuasive devices in his speech, which allows him to successfully convince the citizens of Rome to turn

Similarly, by not destroying Mark Antony along with Caesar, let alone allowing him to speak in Caesar’s funeral, Brutus engineers his future’s demise. “‘. . . Antony is but a limb of Caesar. Let’s be sacrificers, but not butchers . . . let’s kill him boldly, but not wrathfully . . . and for Mark Antony, think not of him; for he can do no more than Caesar’s arm when Caesar’s head is off’”(916). This is an even greater fallacy than the first. Antony’s rage and passion is enough force alone to drive him and the Roman army to kill every last conspirator, gossiper, and senator who was set against his great Caesar. The fiery drive behind Antony was an imminent threat to Brutus and the conspirators, yet because of Brutus’s flawed logic, Antony lived and they died. Another illustration of this is when Brutus makes the decision to allow the silver tongued Antony to speak in Caesar’s funeral. After a weak, unconvincing speech given by Brutus to the public, Antony takes center stage, capturing the hearts, minds, and attention of the people, essentially turning them on their former leader. “‘Oh most bloody sight!’ ‘We will be revenged.’ ‘Revenge! About! Seek! Burn! Fire! Kill! Slay! Let not a traitor live!’”(954). Brutus’s most prominent, fatal flaw is his lack of sound judgment.

As noble and great as Brutus might be, all tragic heroes have some tragic flaws and make some errors of judgment, which leads them to their downfall. In this case Brutus's great flaw is that he is too honorable, and he's too naïve when he is dealing with people. An example of an error of judgment is when Brutus underestimates Antony, and thinks him incapable of being dangerous after Caesar's death, "For Antony is but a limb of Caesar...he can do no more than Caesar's arm When Caesar's head is off."  This turns out not to be the case. One example of Brutus's excessive honor being damaging to him, is when he decides that only Caesar should die and no one else even if they seem to threaten his cause, as Cassius warns repeatedly that Antony does.

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.

I thrice presented him a kingly crown, which he did thrice refuse. Was this ambition?" (Shakespeare Act 3 Scene 2 Lines 86-89, ). Every time Antony is able to counteract something Brutus says with facts he repeats the same few words, "Yet Brutus says he was ambitious, and Brutus is an honorable man." (Shakespeare Act 3 Scene 2 Lines 80-81, 84-85, 92-93). Antony makes sure to never directly say that Brutus is not an honorable man, but as he continuously states that Brutus is honorable it begins to lose meaning and worth. Antony indirectly shows that Brutus is not as honorable as he proves to be and deteriorates Brutus' justification for Caesar's death, his ambition, "I speak not to disprove what Brutus spoke, but here I am to speak what I do know." (Shakespeare Act 3 Scene 2 99-100). Antony then closes his speech by showing a vulnerable side of himself in which he mourns for his friend, "Bear with me. My heart is in the coffin there with Caesar, and I must pause till it come back to me." (Shakespeare 103-105). He gets the last word and successfully wins over the

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.

William Shakespeare focuses the play on Brutus’s choices even after the assassination of Caesar. The first bad decision of Brutus was trusting the conspirators, which shows his bad judge of character. This was bad because their intentions for killing Caesar were not for justice. It was only because they were jealous of Caesar and his leadership. They did not like the possibility of Caesar becoming the ruler of Rome. Brutus was the only one who did not kill him out of jealousy, which Antony realizes towards the end of the play when he states, “ This was the noblest Roman of them all. All the rest of the conspirators acted out of jealousy of great Caesar.” (5.5.73-75) Another bad choice Brutus made was letting Antony speak at Caesar’s funeral. Antony was going to tell the truth about everything. Before the funeral Antony tells Octavius’s servant, “There I’ll use my speech to test what the people think of these bloody men’s cruel action..” (3.1.307-309) Antony must have been the most angry about Caesar being gone. It’s not surprising for him to be wanting to tell everyone the

Brutus misjudges and underestimates Antony’s abilities and his audience. When giving his speech, Brutus makes the subject on honor and abstract ideas using logos and ethos but no pathos. The mistake that Brutus makes is that he does not appeal to the crowd’s strong feelings over the death of Julius Caesar. Meanwhile, Antony easily overmatches Brutus because he does not overestimate his audience. Understanding the people, Antony begins in his eulogy appealing to the citizen’s feelings. Because of the lack of emotion in Brutus’s speech, Antony’s highly emotional and extemporaneous speech captures the minds and hearts of the crowd through use of pathos and causes them to become an angry mob that sought to scorn those that took part in the murder of

The speeches presented by Brutus and Mark Antony are meant to persuade the people of Rome to conform with their point of observation in regaurds to Caesar's death. Both speaches given use rhetorical divices in an attempt to appeal to the people of Rome. The purpose of Brutus' speech is to justify his reasons for killing Caesar. Brutus uses pathos when appealing to the people's love for Rome and convinces them using logos that Ceasar's death was for the better of Rome.

Emperor Julius Caesar was just killed by Brutus and other conspirators who believed Caesar would be a bad leader for Rome in the future. Mark Antony, one of Caesar’s advisors plans to take down the conspirators as punishment for Caesar’s death. In Antony's funeral speech, Antony uses rhetorical devices and appeals to show his discontent about the conspirators killing Caesar. Antony’s speech at Caesar’s funeral persuades the people of Rome that the killing of Caesar by the conspirators was unjustly in order to seek revenge against the conspirators.

Brutus used repetition the most to influence the crowd. He states about Caesar’s “tears, love, and ambition.” Brutus also asked the audience rhetorical questions that they could not answer, and he would take their silence as if they were agreeing when in reality they were probably too scared to answer. Antony also used repetition to sway the crowd. He often pointed out that “Brutus was an honorable man” and he said it with more and more sarcasm each time. Antony also took advantage of the crowd and used reverse psychology on them. He used Caesar’s will as a tool to accomplish this. He told the crowd about Caesar’s will, telling them that they would think twice if they heard what was in the will, but he doesn’t read it to them. That made them beg for him to read it to them. Not only does this get them to do what he wants, it also give the crowd a false sense of authority over Antony. Also, he asks the crowd if he can come down and join them, saying they give him permission, again giving them that sense of authority. Antony, in addition to the will, used Caesar’s body as a prop in his speech. He created a sympathetic attitude towards Caesar. The other pathos appeal Antony used was the contrast that he showed between the beginning and end of his speech. He opened, saying he was only to “bury Caesar, not to praise him” yet towards the end he had accomplished his goal in making the crowd feel sorry for Caesar and wanting to

Brutus gave a more formal speech which appealed to reasoning. In his speech, he repeated constantly that Caesar had too much ambition. Brutus informed the crowd the main reason for killing Caesar. In ACT III, scene II, lines 20 to 21, Brutus announces, “It’s not that I loved Caesar less, but that I loved Rome more.” This quote helped the crowd clarify another reason behind Caesar another reason behind Caesar’s death. His words also made the Romans feel cared about. Therefore, not only did Brutus defend himself, but he also showed the Romans that he is a good leader. Although Brutus had a few negative views toward Caesar, he did add some positive comments about Caesar. In Act III, scene II, line 25, Brutus said that he “honored him for being brave.” His reasoning for adding this comment was to show the crowd that he respected Caesar. Whereas Brutus’s speech appealed to reasoning, Antony’s speech appealed to emotion. Overall, Antony’s speech was sad. In Act 3, Scene 2, line 83, Antony said, “He was my friend, he was faithful.” This shows the crowd how much much Antony trusted Caesar. Throughout his speech he spoke highly of Caesar. In Act 3, scene 2, lines 86 to 87, Antony said “[Caesar] brought many captives home to Rome whose ransoms brought wealth to the city.” Antony follows that with asking, “Is that the work of an ambitious man.” Antony gave the audience a reason for being on his side. He

Brutus uses a proud tone conveyed by many literary devices to convince the audience that Caesar's murder was justified. Brutus asks, "Would you rather, Caesar were living, and you all die slaves, than that Caesar were dead, so you all live freeman" (Shakespeare 3.2.20-22). Brutus tries to persuade the audience that Caesar's murder was justified through the use of a rhetorical question and a hyperbole. He tells the audience if Caesar was not killed, Caesar could have become a dictator, and the people would have been oppressed. This persuasive question gives the Roman citizens time to contemplate what Brutus is saying, and prompts them to visualize the

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