Rhetoric and Betrayal in Julius Caeser Play

Humanity has become the most dominant species on Earth due to our high intelligence and communication skills but our communication can also be used to easily manipulate and convince. This manipulation is shown when, Mark Antony delivered a deeply passionate and articulate speech at Caesar’s funeral, altering the political dynamics of the Rome in William Shakespeare’s play Julius Caesar. Antony uses his words to influence the Roman people. He effectively uses rhetorical devices to prove his point and gain the support of the citizens. Antony also uses the rhetorical device of Pathos to invoke emotion in the crowd and Ethos to use Brutus’ and the conspirator’s reputation against them.

Antony uses an abundance of pathos in his speech. One example is: “Caesar was my friend and just to me” (III, ii, 86). Using pathos helps the audience make connections with him. He also reads Caesar’s will which makes the people feel guilty about turning against Caesar during Brutus’ speech. He shows them the stabs wounds on Caesar’s coat and names which conspirator stabbed him. The Roman people now feel pity and anger towards the conspirators. Overall, Antony was smart with his words and won over the Roman people better than

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

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 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 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?

One of the rhetorical appeals that Antony used to sway the crowd against the conspirators was pathos. Pathos is an appeal using emotion. In line 20 Antony begins to use pathos when he states, “Did this in Caesar seem ambitious? When that the poor have cried, Caesar hath wept: Ambition should be made of sterner stuff.” This quote is able to sway the crowd against Brutus and Cassius by showing what kind of good person Caesar was. He was compassionate to people. This quote shows what kind of good leader by helping out the poor. He knew what they were going through so he cried along with them. This quote is able to sway the citizens of Rome because it shows the opposite of what Brutus said about Caesar. If he would

Mark Antony’s use of emotional appeal is one of his strongest uses of rhetoric. First, he puts himself on the same level as the commoners and then begins to attack the sentiments of the Roman people. Antony uses a plain folks appeal to put himself on common ground with the commoners, “Friends, Romans, Countrymen, lend me your ears;” (3.2. 74). This is an important strategy because in this period of time aristocrats would not dare speak to commoners yet alone call them a friend. To show the commoners how much Antony actually adored Caesar he says, “My heart is in the coffin there with Caesar” (3.2. 107). This makes the commoners have a

In Julius Caesar by William Shakespeare, the dictator of Rome is assassinated by his senators. Among which was one of his closest advisors, Brutus. Another friend of Caesar, named Marc Antony, hears of this assassination and is grief-stricken. Together the two men speak to the citizens of Rome about their views of what is right. Firstly Brutus speaks, soon after Antony recites his side of the story. Although the crowd is swayed by both men, Antony is able to maintain the support of the people with his ideas and values. Antony was the better speech for a varying amount of rhetoric he used, among which are pathos and juxtaposition. Brutus uses these as well, but not as adequately.

The rhetorical strategy he uses the most is pathos to touch the heartbroken citizens of Rome. In Antony speech, it repeats stating “yet Brutus says he was ambitious” making it sound like Brutus is also ambitious to convince the citizens of Rome. Another rhetorical strategy he uses is logos to tell the citizens “when the poor cried, Caesar hath wept” getting the citizens understand that Caesar know how they feel. The strongest rhetorical strategy Antony used was pathos by making the citizens wanting to know what Caesar's will

The final demonstration of the theme is when Antony, a follower of Caesar, cleverly uses pleasant words against Brutus and the conspirators. In the scene where Antony speaks, Caesar is already dead and Antony could publicly speak only if he did not dirtied Brutus’s name or Caesar’s. He blatantly calls the conspirator honorable: “The noble Brutus/ Hath told you Caesar was ambitious. / If it were so, it was a grievous fault, / And grievously hath Caesar answered it. / Here, under leave of Brutus and the rest/ (For Brutus is an honorable man, / So are they all, all honorable men), / Come I to speak in Caesars’ funeral” (3.2. 912-13). The power of Antony’s speech and the manner her referred to his enemies was fabulous. He achieved the plebeians’ ultimate approval and will succeed in avenging Caesar’s death. He did so by using wise and well-chosen words.

Antony’s speech tells the citizens that they should not disapprove of Brutus and his actions, however they still should remember Caesar for the great leader and war hero that he was. He thought that Caesar had no wrongdoings and they didn’t give him a chance. The crowds reaction was to immediately go and kill the conspirators. Inside Antony’s speech, he uses three different examples of rhetorical devices. He uses repetition, pathos, and ethos.

The speeches given by both Brutus and Mark Antony in William Shakespeare’s The Tragedy of Julius Caesar are very persuasive to the audience that they are given to, but rhetorical devices were used in different ways in order for each to have an effect on the people of Rome. In Brutus’s speech, he uses devices such as rhetorical question and antithesis to convince the Romans that he and the conpirators did a good deed by killing Caesar. In Mark Antony’s speech, he sways them to believe that Caesar did not deserve to die, and that the conpirators were the real enemies by using rhetorical devices like rhetorical question and apostrophe. Both speeches were very

Cassius, Brutus, and Antony use rhetoric successfully in William Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar, albeit each differently and for different causes. Each of these men uses his skills in rhetoric to convince each other and at some points the entire population of Rome to follow his beliefs. However, each of these men has different motivations to do so, as well as different characteristics and general worldviews.