On the Ides of March in 44 B.C., Roman Emperor Julius Caesar was stabbed to death by a group of prominent politicians led by Marcus Brutus. The sudden death of Caesar created a power vacuum which gave rise of a two factions, one headed by Brutus and Cassius and the other by Antony and the future triumvirs. Shortly after Caesar’s death, Antony spoke at his funeral and used the opportunity to lead the Roman people away from Brutus and back to believing in Caesar and consequently, the Second Triumvirate. By combining a subtle use of questions and interjections to keep audience engaged, a variety of rhetorical devices devices that dignify Caesar and himself, and an effective use of all three modes of persuasion, Antony is able to convert the …show more content…
However, the most important use of a rhetorical question is in the last line where he challenges his audience if there “comes such another [Caesar]?”. Here the rhetorical question serves to summarize the greatness of Caesar and to pass the responsibility for future actions onto the listeners. As a result, the people will be more likely to act against the conspirators after they have realized there will not be anyone as good as Caesar. 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
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
Antony gave the most effective funeral speech to thoroughly convince the Roman people to side with him and rebel against the conspirators. In order to accomplish this, Antony uses the persuasive techniques logos, ethos, and pathos.
In William Shakespeare's play The Tragedy of Julius Caesar, two speeches are given to the people of Rome about Caesar's death. In Act 3, Scene 2 of this play Brutus and Antony both try to sway the minds of the Romans toward their views. Brutus tried to make the people believe he killed Caesar for a noble cause. Antony tried to persuade the people that the conspirators committed an act of brutality toward Caesar and were traitors. The effectiveness and ineffectiveness of both Antony's and Brutus's speech to the people are conveyed through tone and rhetorical devices.
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
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.
The most predominate and important aspect In the play Julius Caesar, by William Shakespeare are the speeches given to the Roman citizens by Brutus and Antony, the two main charaters, following the death of Caesar. Brutus and Antony both spoke to the crowd,using the same rhetorical devices to express their thoughts. Both speakers used the three classical appeals employed in the speeches: ethos, which is an appeal to credibility; pathos, which is an appeal to the emotion of the audience; and logos, which is an appeal to the content and arrangement of the argument itself. Even though both speeches have the same structure Antony’s speech is significantly more effective than Brutus’s.
Throughout the entirety of his speech to people, Anthony snuck in many devices to sway the people of Rome onto his side. Anthony would always get around to telling a story about Caesar and at the end of that, he would add a question, which he does not want the crowd to answer, thus making it a rhetorical question. The purpose for asking a rhetorical question is to make people rethink themselves or their views and motives; as is the same for Anthony, who is trying to provide insight to Brutus’s reasoning in the killing Caesar and depict it as misconstrued. Brutus says to the people that he had slain Caesar due to his “ambitions” but, Anthony wants the people to rethink that opinion by listing examples of Caesar being a heroic leader of the people,
It was, however, the most apparent example of repetition in the epistrophe, “Brutus is an honourable man” (III, ii, 84, 89,) that outlines the heart of Antony’s speech – that the conspirators were, in fact, not the least bit honourable in their murder of Caesar. Antony uses the epistrophe again to illustrate the other major concept in his speech; Caesar wasn’t ambitious – he didn’t deserve to die. “Brutus says he was ambitious.” (III, ii, 88, 96, 100). Through the heavy-handed use of repetition in Antony’s eulogy to Caesar, he delivers a strong message to the crowd. More importantly, however, such repetition was able to compel the audience into believing his words instead of Brutus’.
In William Shakespeare’s play Julius Caesar a senator named Mark Antony is responding to Brutus, another senator who killed Julius Caesar, and his speech about how he should be trusted because of his position of authority. Mark Antony’s response speech used literary techniques efficiently and was compelling the audience to listen to him over Brutus to show that Caesar was not too ambitious.
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.
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.
In The Tragedy of Julius Caesar, rhetorical devices are commonly used to persuade the audience. During the speeches many devices were effectively used to convince the Romans to choose the side of the argument being presented. Mark Antony’s speech ended up being more effective than Brutus’s due to his use of pathos throughout to help his point be made that Caesar did not deserve to
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