Rhetorical Analysis Of Antony's Speech

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

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.

            Antony appeals to his audience's emotions: horror, sadness and anger, to persuade them to his view.  Antony enters with Caesar's body and shows his lamentation over his death, which reminds the plebeians what a horrible deed Brutus committed.

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.

Brutus first states, “[Would you rather Caesar] living, and die all slaves, than that Caesar were dead to live a freemen” Then Antony came back with “You all did love him once, not without cause. What cause withholds you, then, to mourn for him?” After Brutus’ speech, Antony was able to evoke the feeling of the audience and bring them back, before his death and see what they had loved within Caesar before his death. All of his accomplishments were able to evoke the emotions they had before his death and then wanted to actually kill Brutus. In the next Scene, it mentioned a major consequence of the words that Antony had spoken. The famous poet Cinna was killed. However, he wasn’t even involved in the assassination of Caesar. That was how much emotion he was able to evoke in the people in Rome. Although ethos could establish the cold, hard truth, pathos can get under peoples skin and effect them and draw them into your cause. In which case it is Antony's'

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.

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’

...Then none I have offended. The question of his death has been enrolled in the capital.” He supports the argument that he and the conspirators killed Caesar for honorable reasons, because the ethical thing to do would be to give the reasoning and tell the capitol about it. Antony here uses Ethos in a different manner: “He was my friend, faithful and just to me: But Brutus says he was ambitious; but Brutus is an honourable man. ” Antony was using reverse Psychology by saying Brutus is honorable, who of which says Caesar is ambitious, and therefore it must be true that Caesar’s friendship and trueness with him must be void. The commoners obviously don’t think lowly of Caesar, so this began to change their view of Brutus and the other Conspirators in killing him. Brutus’s use of Ethos was more effective because he used it to further prove his actions were for the good of Rome and honor, which finally swayed their opinion in favor of his actions at

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

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,

Lastly, Anthony used credibility and emotional appeals to unite her audience and provide a trustworthy and relatable argument for women to deserve the right to vote. Prior to speaking to her audience, Anthony traveled across the United States and spoke with several officials about ending the injustice. She explained to the audience that she had previously, “asked the senator to declare the power of the United States Constitution to protect women in their right to vote” (Anthony 5). This evidence builds a credible argument for Anthony and showed that she cared deeply about the fight for Women’s suffrage. Furthermore, this proved that Anthony had done research and knew a lot about the topic prior to this speech. Because Anthony had been previously

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 was much more filled with emotion. Brutus tried to use ethic to prove that he was super loyal to Rome to try to impress the commoners. He didn't really try to appeal to their emotions. Instead, he was more focused on the facts. It was filled with logic and reason.

Another type of strategy both Brutus and Antony use is pathos, which is an emotional appeal. The way both use this is different but it works to convince the plebeians to believe what they are trying to say. Brutus use pathos when he states, “This is my answer: not that I loved Caesar less, but that I loved Rome more” (lll.ii,20,21). With that he is making the plebeians think he is a hero for putting Rome first and caring for all of them.