The Art Of Seduction And The Dark Side ' : Antony 's Funeral Oration

            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.

Roman politician and popular figure in the Roman Republic, Mark Antony, uses the rhetorical devices of pathos, logos, and ethos in his funeral oration for Julius Caesar, in order to deem the assassination of Caesar by Cassius, Brutus, and their conspirators, wrong. The speech conducted by Mark Antony, a good friend of Caesar’s, has a sorrowful tone due to the fact that Mark Antony wants the crowds of Romans to agree with him. Antony conducts his speech in such a way to strike pity and regret in the assassinators and conspirators of Julius Caesar. Usage of pathos, ethos, and logos is essential in winning over the plebeians trust and respect.

Mark Antony was speaking to a vast crowd of distressed people all attending Julius Caesar’s funeral, and were already believing everything Caesar's killers had told them . One of the killers named Brutus, a once trusted friend of the recently deceased Caesar, had allowed Antony to speak to the people as long as he, “... come to bury Caesar, not to praise him” (I.ii. 71) and remind them that he had been permitted by Brutus to speak. Antony had hoped that by making this speech, he may be able to convince the crowd that their slain ruler was a good man who had died for no true reason other than other men’s fear. The crowd begins slightly hostile, but is easily persuaded in Antony’s favor.

In Julius Caesar, Marc Antony gives a powerful speech, in which he uses his words to twist the opinions of the people. In the beginning, the funeral attendees are rejoicing because of Caesar’s death, but by the end, they are indignant towards Brutus and the conspirators. This happens because Antony’s repetition makes his words sound sarcastic when he says, “Brutus is an honorable man,” several times. His sarcasm causes the crowd to turn against Brutus and the conspirators.

Before he even begins, he knows the Romanś are all for Brutus, so he carefully engages the crowd. Carrying Caesarś body, Antony asks permission to come closer. Taking a more sensitive and informal approach to the crowd, he greets the Romanś as friends and stands at the same level as everyone else. Marc Antony was very clever when giving his speech because he chose to use sarcasm to give Brutus compliments. Before the speeches, he agreed to not say anything bad about the conspirators and only good things about Caesar (Act Ⅲ Scene 1 lines 244-251).

     Similarly, Brutus And Mark Antony, who were very close to Caesar, both gave speeches at the funeral following Caesar's assassination. The speeches were given in Act 3, Scene II of the play. During the entirety of the speeches, both Brutus and Mark Antony shared their feelings towards Caesar with the audience, telling how they had much love for him. They both used appeals to win over the audience in order to have them on each of their sides. For example, Mark Antony greeted the people with respect to gain their trust and their ears, "Friends, Romans, countrymen, lend me your ears...". Brutus had a goal to persuade the people that Caesar's assassination was for

Unlike Brutus’ prose speech, Mark Antony’s speech is in blank verse, which is used in more passionate writing. Antony’s speech subtly disproves Brutus while heightening the crowd’s emotions to rage. Antony mentions times in which Caesar’s actions did not portray ambition, and then following each example, he says, “Yet Brutus says he was ambitious, / and Brutus is an honorable man” (86-88, 93-94, 98-99). This use of epimone subtly disproves Brutus, and starts to turn the crowd against him, because it not only shows Brutus in bad light, but also makes it seem like the people conclude this on their own, even though Antony’s manipulations are very much at play. Antony appeals to pathos when he addresses the crowd, saying: “hearing the will of Caesar, / It will inflame you; it will make you mad” (3.2.42-43). He then uses paralipsis when he “o’ersho[o]t[s] [him]self” (150) by saying “‘Tis good you know not that you are his heirs” (line 145), which escalates the crowd’s love for Caesar and hatred toward his assassinators: “[The conspirators] were villains, murderers!”(155). To heighten the rage against the conspirators even more, Antony shows the crowd of plebeians Caesar’s dead body, and Caesar’s famous cloak now run through by knives: “Look, in this place ran Cassius’ dagger through. / See what a rent the envious Casca made. / Through this the well-belovèd Brutus stabbed” (172-175). By mentioning the conspirators’ names, Antony creates a hatred of those men and their followers. Also, by showing the crowd Caesar’s cloak, which he obtained after conquering a tribe, Antony reminds the crowd both how great Caesar was and how horribly wrong it was that his greatness was shredded by the knives of traitors. Antony continues his expression of Caesar’s

In his speech, he justifies his actions by stating that, even though the Romans loved Caesar, his death was for the good of the country. However, in the most prominent example of language in the play, Antony speaks on behalf of his dead friend, Caesar. Even though he is facing a crowd of Brutus’ supporters, Antony chooses to stir the crowd. Under leave by Brutus, he says, “I speak not to disprove what Brutus spoke, But here I am to speak what I do know. You all did love him once, not without cause.

     Antony’s speech going a whole different direction was nice of him but he still managed to slip some words into his speech to say mean things about Brutus, first is the word ‘honourable man’ that antony uses in his speech, the use of Caesar’s will and the way Antony tells the plebeians who killed Caesar. For the reason the word honorable men meant, in Antony’s speech was that Brutus was an awful person for what he did to Caesar. To say to the plebeians that it was Brutus fault that Caesar is now dead. The way the plebeians react to what Antony says doesn’t surprise them because before his speech Brutus explains why he had to kill Caesar.

Antony’s mastery over influence and words wrongfully played off of the naivety and ignorance of the plebeians. Once Antony gained the trust of the conspirators, and was allowed to speak at Caesar's, funeral to display the body, he used manipulation to control of the citizens. Antony’s speech reinforced their trust and love for Caesar while making them question whether Brutus was truly an “honourable man.” To make sure the citizens trust him, he says, “For I have neither, wit, nor words, nor

After Caesar was assassinated the people of Rome were banging their heads against a wall, wondering if Caesar deserved to die or not. Brutus and Antony manipulate the people of Rome with their persuasive speeches in hope to get them to side with either Brutus or Antony. Antony uses multiple techniques to manipulate the crowd throughout his speech. One technique was to question the people. Did they really love Caesar and his positive non-ambitious contributions?, or was he evil and deserving of death? “Have patience, gentle friends, I must not read it. It is not meet you know how Caesar loved you. You are not wood, you are not stones, but men. And, being men, hearing the will of Caesar, It will inflame you; it will make you mad. 'Tis good you know not that you are his heirs, For if you should, O, what would come of it?”(3.2.152-158). This is the point at which Antony begins using some really questionable methods of rhetoric persuasion. With the crowd already wound up over Brutus's speech, Antony decides to use his amazing manipulation skills and make the people of Rome fall in love with Caesar again and go against the killers. Antony persuades the crowd once again by reading Caesar's will and telling the Romans, Caesar was to give the Roman people everything that belonged to Caesar, because Caesar really did love Rome and the people. “Here is the will, and under

The conspirators already distrust Antony because of his and Caesar’s close friendship. After Caesar’s death, Brutus, ignoring Cassius’s pleas, grants Antony permission to speak at Caesar’s funeral. Being a great orator himself, Brutus states that he will tell the audience the reason for the “death of our Caesar.” Brutus does not realize that Antony now has two advantages

In William Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar, Mark Antony, who is a true friend of Caesar, promises Caesar’s soul that he’d seek revenge against the individuals responsible for his brutal murder. Shakespeare uses dramatic irony in his writing when Brutus takes Antony’s promise of not saying anything against the conspirators in front of the crowd. Unfortunately for Brutus, who took part in Caesar's murder, Antony gets a chance to address to the plebeians alone. Antony's speech to the plebeians is one of the most significant portions of this play. As Brutus takes the stand, the only intentions he has is convincing the public that Caesar's murder was for the good of Rome as a whole.

Antony gave his speech right after Brutus, which was perfect timing, because the people didn’t have to time to fully think about what Brutus said. Brutus told the crowd that he killed Caesar because he was too ambitious, but gave no good evidence of how he was ambitious. Antony proved to the crowd that Caesar wasn’t ambitious by giving three examples. The examples he gave were, “He brought many captives home to Rome whose ransoms brought wealth to the city”(III, ii, 87-88), “When the poor cried, Caesar cried too”(III, ii, 90), and “He refused the crown three times”(III, ii, 95-96). After them examples, the people believed suffered a terrible wrong. Antony then showed the crowd Caesar’s cloak and pointed out where Brutus stabbed and said, “For Brutus, as you know, was Caesar’s angel. The gods know how dearly Caesar loved him”(III, ii, 176-177). Lastly, Antony read Caesar’s will to the people and told them that Caesar left every individual seventy five drachmas and left them all of his walk ways. After the showing of the cloak and the reading of the will, the people want revenge on the Brutus and the