The Acceptive Use Of Words In Shakespeare's Julius Caesar

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

Introducing his points, Marc Antony begins with the rhetorical appeal ethos, the appeal to ethics, convincing the crowd that Brutus and the conspirators are liars. In discrediting the conspirators, Antony calls upon his authority compared to that of the conspirators. Antony claims the right to speak because Caesar was his “friend, faithful and just to” (III.ii.84) him. Consequently, by calling

Throughout his speech in Act 3, Mark Antony uses Pathos, Ethos, and Logos to subtly convince the commoners to turn against the conspirators. He uses Ethos, or the ethical appeal, many times throughout the speech, most notably in his first line; “Friends, Romans, countrymen, lend me your ears!” He is attempting to make himself seem more honorable from the very beginning of his speech. Throughout the rest of the speech, he constantly questions Brutus’s Ethos. Brutus, who was believed to be honorable, had not been questioned on what he said until Mark Antony began to contrast his word to Caesar’s.

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 the play Julius Caesar written by the whimsical, sophisticated William Shakespeare both beloved Brutus and noble Antony deliver their most thorough attempts to win over the delicate citizens of Rome into what they believed was correct. Brutus gave it a valiant effort in trying to convince the citizens that murdering the noble Caesar was the best thing to do for the people. In the end Brutus’ effort was not enough because Antony was able to turn every Roman against Brutus and the other deceitful conspirators during his speech with his extraordinary use of logos, pathos, and ethos.

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.

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.

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.

According to picturequotes.com, “Words are powerful. They can create or they can destroy. So choose your words wisely.” In Julius Caesar, by William Shakespeare, conspirators slay Julius Caesar, resulting in anarchy in Rome. Some agree with the death, while others oppose the sudden and violent death of Caesar. Unlike Antony, Brutus uses emotion rather than fact to sway the Roman people that Caesars death is justified. Although Brutus puts rules in place so he can not talk disrespectfully of the conspiracy, Antony, Caesar‘s closest friend, uses his slyness and manipulation in his funeral speech to persuade the Romans. Although both characters use analogies, parallelism, loaded words and hyperboles, their speeches convey very different

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.

Examining how Brutus and Mark Anthony Utilise Language to Manipulate the Audience in Act 3 Scene 2 of Julius Caesar

Right after Caesar had been killed, the conspirators had encountered Antony. Antony, being heartbroken with the death of Julius Caesar, had a simple request, which was to speak at Caesar’s funeral. Little did the men know the malevolent plan that Antony had in mind. When the day of the funeral came, and Brutus had finished speaking, Antony came up and began his speech declaring, “Friends, Romans, countrymen, lend me your ears… For Brutus is an honorable man; so are they all, all honorable men.” (Julius Caesar. II. ii. 70-79). Antony clearly does not believe the men that killed his beloved friend are honorable, yet he continues to call them this. Antony is demonstrating verbal irony by filling his words with sarcasm. Besides verbal, situational, and dramatic irony, Shakespeare also used the powerful tool of symbolism within The Tragedy of Julius

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