Mark Antony's Use Of Persuasion In Julius Caesar

William Shakespeare’s famous play Julius Caesar utilizes the literary element of rhetoric multiple times throughout to show the true power that words can hold. The rhetoric in Caesar accompanies the play’s themes of betrayal, deception, and exaggeration. Brutus uses rhetoric to persuade the crowd of plebeians that the murdering of Caesar was positive and beneficial to all of Rome, winning their support and causing them to join his cause. Soon after, Mark Antony gives a terrifically-persuasive speech that he claims to be a funeral oration for Caesar, but is truly a cleverly-shrouded undermining to Brutus’s speech. Antony’s speech is able to not only gain him the crowd’s support, but causes the crowd to completely disregard what Brutus had

Because Antony cannot speak negatively about the conspirators, he uses verbal irony and repetition in his speech to say one thing, but make the audience believe the opposite.  The tone of voice he uses in his speech is one indication that he does not mean what he says.  When Antony calls Brutus and Cassius "honorable men," he uses a sarcastic tone to show that they were actually not very honorable.  Again and again he repeats the phrase "honorable men," and each time the irony is more powerful.  Antony connects the audience's new belief that Cassius and Brutus were not honorable to his message that they should not mutiny.  He says, "O masters, if I were disposed to stir/Your hearts and minds to mutiny and rage,/I should do Brutus wrong and Cassius wrong,/Who (you all know) are honorable men" (III.ii.133-136).  The crowd thinks that the conspirators were not honorable, therefore they believe that mutiny would be acceptable.  To gain the full effect, Antony repeats that the crowd should not mutiny five times, so they lose the main point of his message, and only remember from the indignation in his voice that mutiny is a possible solution.

　　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

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.

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’

Antony says about how Brutus is an honourable man, and how Brutus said that Caesar was ambitious, but Antony talks about all the wonderful things he had done, which don’t seem very ambitious. Antony talks about how even when presented with the crown, the crown of Rome, he had refused three times. ( THREE? I couldn’t even last one, but alright.) and how this was not

Antony uses his speech as a way to counteract everything Brutus states and to win over the people. Antony's credibility is being Caesar's friend and not once backstabbing him in the back like Brutus did. Antony is able to prove to the people that he is an honorable man as he did not go against Caesar and was a true friend to him. He relies on repetition as a way to get his point across and facts to counteract Brutus' claims. He states how although Brutus claims that Caesar was ambitious his actions do not prove that to be so as he cared for the poor and treated them with kindness, paid for the ransoms of prisoners, and declined the crown three times in a row, "He hath brought many captives home to Rome/ Whose ransom did the general coffers fill: Did this in Caesar seem ambitious?

The concept of persuasion through rhetoric and oratory has been used throughout history to manipulate the poor and disenfranchised. In Act Three, Scene Two of Julius Caesar, Shakespeare used Brutus and Marc Anthony to emphasize the power that properly used words have on the uneducated. When Brutus spoke to the crowd of plebeians, he used

Mark Antony claims Caesar is not ambitious through the use of rhetorical questions, where Brutus rhetorically argues that Caesar's rule would leave Rome as slaves. " He hath brought many captives home to Rome/ whose ransoms did the general coffers fill:/ Did this in Caesar seem ambitious?" (16-18 IIIii). Antony rhetorically appeals to the logic of the audience by reminding them that Caesar sought to ensure the freedom and wellbeing of his people showing he was not ambitious. " Had you rather Caesar were living and die all slaves" (12-13 IIIii).

One of Brutus’s main weakness’s is that he is easily controlled and fails to see the true intentions of others as exhibited in Act three and is the start of Brutus’s ultimate downfall. It is Antony’s funeral speech for Caesar that Brutus mindlessly allows him the privilege of making, believing that the boost in image that he and the conspirators will receive for this act of apparent magnanimity will outweigh any damage that Antony’s words might do, is Brutus’s greatest downfall and Antony’s greatest power-play. Shakespeare uses repetition and sarcastic tone in the quote, “But Brutus says he was too

Antony repeats the word “honorable” several times in his speech. He is doing this in order to emphasize Brutus’ honorability, and make the citizens question it. Antony also repeats the word “ambitious” a signifacant amount of times. Through the repition of “ambitious”, Antony mocks Brutus trying to justify his actions by saying that Caesar was too ambitious. Every time he was that word, he describes an honorable trait of Caesar that contradicts Brutus’ accusation. For example, he mentions that Caesar refused the crown three times , and asks the citizens whether if that would be considered ambitious. “My heart is in the coffin there with Caesar, and I must pause till it come back to me,”[He weeps](Shakspeare, III,ii 116-117). Antony uses pathos to draw emotions out of the citizens. This quote emphasizes how many Antony loved Caesar, and the sadness he is feeling now that he is dead. Antony’s grief makes the people of Rome sympathetic to him, which leads to them

Sarcasm and irony are evidenced throughout Antony's speech. He places Brutus in a negative light by saying that Brutus was an honorable man and that he (Brutus) considered Caesar to be ambitious. He continues on to relate the many ways that Caesar wasn't ambitious and says, " yet Brutus says he was ambitious:

Antony’s repetition, which states, “but Brutus says he was ambitious; and Brutus is an honorable man” (Mark Antony, Act III, S. II) is, in fact, verbal irony. His three repetitions create a sense of uncertainty in the crowd. The meaning of the quote changes for the Romans creating irony as a persuasive tool. His rhetorical question, “Did this in Caesar seem ambitious?” juxtaposes his previous line “He hath brought many captives home to Rome.” He states that he did noble actions for his country of Rome but still asks, was he

Brutus said that they had to kill Caesar because he was ambitious. Mark Antony used questions like “You all did see on the Lupercal, that I presented him thrice a kingly crown, which he did thrice refuse: Did this in Caesar seem ambitious?” and “When the poor have wept, Caesar hath cried: Did this in Caesar seem ambitious?” to imply that Caesar was not ambitious at all. Mark Antony also uses apostrophe, or the turn from an audience to a specific person that is either absent or present, real or imaginary. It is used in the line “O judgement! Thou art fled to brutish beasts, and men have lost their reason” to emphesize that the Romans were foolish to listen to Brutus’s reasoning as to why the conspirators killed Caesar. The reaction to Mark Antony’s speech was more than that of Brutus’s. The citizen’s began to rally together to take down the conpirators, and vowed to kill every last one of them.

Shakespeare uses the power of persuasion through Brutus and Antony. Brutus resolutely believes that the balance of power is back to the people of Rome. However, Antony uses pathos in his oration to take back the power that was forcibly taken from Caesar. He addresses the crowd at Caesar's eulogy and uses power of persuasion to rally against the conspirators and says, “Have patience, gentle friends, I must not read it. It is not meet you know how Caesar loved you.