The Power of Mark Antony’s Speech in Julius Caesar and Winston Churchill’s Speech, Blood, Toil, Tears, and Sweat

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.

Similarly, by not destroying Mark Antony along with Caesar, let alone allowing him to speak in Caesar’s funeral, Brutus engineers his future’s demise. “‘. . . Antony is but a limb of Caesar. Let’s be sacrificers, but not butchers . . . let’s kill him boldly, but not wrathfully . . . and for Mark Antony, think not of him; for he can do no more than Caesar’s arm when Caesar’s head is off’”(916). This is an even greater fallacy than the first. Antony’s rage and passion is enough force alone to drive him and the Roman army to kill every last conspirator, gossiper, and senator who was set against his great Caesar. The fiery drive behind Antony was an imminent threat to Brutus and the conspirators, yet because of Brutus’s flawed logic, Antony lived and they died. Another illustration of this is when Brutus makes the decision to allow the silver tongued Antony to speak in Caesar’s funeral. After a weak, unconvincing speech given by Brutus to the public, Antony takes center stage, capturing the hearts, minds, and attention of the people, essentially turning them on their former leader. “‘Oh most bloody sight!’ ‘We will be revenged.’ ‘Revenge! About! Seek! Burn! Fire! Kill! Slay! Let not a traitor live!’”(954). Brutus’s most prominent, fatal flaw is his lack of sound judgment.

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?

He wanted the crowd to turn away from Brutus and Cassius. In Antony’s Eulogy speech, Mark Antony attempts to undermine the conspirators by persuading the citizens of Rome to join his side by showing that Caesar was not ambitious but a great leader through the use of rhetorical appeals like pathos and ethos, repetition, and rhetorical questions.

“The broad masses of a population are more amenable to the appeal of rhetoric than to any other force” according to Adolf Hitler, a master in rhetoric, who was able to sway the people of Germany into electing him as chancellor, and who was able to brain wash an army into creating the biggest mass genocide on the planet. This type of strategy is mimicked by Mark Antony in William Shakespeare’s The Tragedy of Julius Caesar. Mark Antony’s extensive knowledge of rhetorical strategies, such as appeal to the emotions of the commoners, knowledge of topic and reputation, and syntactical devices eclipse Brutus’ reasoning for killing Julius Caesar and wins over the Roman commoners.

Many people know that Julius Caesar was betrayed and killed by many people who he had thought to be his friends. Some less common knowledge is that he did still have friends and others who stayed loyal to him. One man named Mark Antony was the most loyal of them all, even after Caesar’s death. When he found out Caesar had been killed, he began plotting to get on the traitor’s good sides and make it seem as if he had joined them so that he could convince the citizens to fight against them with him. He deceived the traitors and convinced them to let him speak at Caesar’s funeral, and in this speech he turned the citizens against them using very powerful rhetorical skills. After he had drove the traitors from the city, he took control of the city and led them to victory in a war against the conspirator’s armies. These are three telling examples that prove Antony’s skill and potential as a leader.

Antony felt that Brutus should not have killed Caesar. He does not feel that he did anything wrong at all for Brutus to have killed him. Within him knowing how the people of Roman feels about Caesar and trying to get their full attention after Brutus speech he starts off by saying “Friends,Roman, Countrymen, lend me your ears; I come to bury Caesar,not to praise him. The evil that men do live after them; the good often interred with their bones; so let it be with Caesar.” That’s his way of saying I don’t expect you all to think about the good or at least all the good Caesar has did/done as much as you think about the bad. “He was my friend,faithful,and just to me: But Brutus says he was ambitious And Brutus is a honourable man”. Antony keeps saying over and over “Brutus says he was ambitious” but he does not feel Caesar was ambitious because “When that the poor have cried,Caesar hath wept:”. He then uses ethos and goes to try to discredit Brutus by saying “You all did see that on the Lupercal I thrice presented him a kingly crown,which he did thrice refuse: was this ambitious?”. Antony is saying why give a man credit for just now wanting to be king and do what is right for Roman now when he didn’t want to the first three times it was offered to him. He asks them a rhetorical question with logic to it “You all did love him once,not without cause: what cause withholds you then,to mourn for him?” I say the question has logic because how can you love someone

Marc Antony’s eulogy wins the heart of his fellow Romans by undermining and destroying the conspiracy. The conspirators claim that it was necessary for the good of the republic to murder Caesar and convince the crowds of Romans to believe so. After he wins over the crowd, Brutus, a conspirator, allows Marc Antony to speak considering him as no threat to the conspiracy. However, Brutus is proven wrong when Antony’s oration manipulates the crowd into a mob thirsty for the blood of the conspirators. Marc Antony’s eulogy is more compelling to the crowd with his use of rhetorical appeals, ethos, pathos, and logos, compared to Brutus in the tragedy, Julius Caesar.

Mark Antony claims Caesar is not ambitious through the use of rhetorical questions, where Brutus rhetorically argues that Caesar's rule would leave Rome as slaves. " He hath brought many captives home to Rome/ whose ransoms did the general coffers fill:/ Did this in Caesar seem ambitious?" (16-18 IIIii). Antony rhetorically appeals to the logic of the audience by reminding them that Caesar sought to ensure the freedom and wellbeing of his people showing he was not ambitious. " Had you rather Caesar were living and die all slaves" (12-13 IIIii).

Antony, another Julius Caesar character, employs three Machiavellian skills: using fickleness to his advantage,“...while you treat them well, they are yours” (Prince 3), and ruling by fear. Antony’s objective was revenge toward the conspirators for killing Caesar. Antony also successfully used the fickleness of the Roman people to his advantage. After Brutus explained why the conspirators had killed Caesar, the crowd was understanding and agreed with the conspirator’s actions. The Roman peasants are convinced; they even want Brutus as their new emperor, with better qualities than Caesar. The plebians say, “Caesar’s better parts / Shall be crowned in Brutus” (3.2.54-55). But the level of the masses’ support for Brutus did not deter Antony’s opinion of the wrongdoing of the conspirators. In Antony’s speech, he spoke both confidently and assertively, which led to Antony convincing the crowd to support his cause and fight against the conspirators. Additionally, in Machiavellian style, Antony understands the crowd’s perspective; they need praise to believe in Antony’s cause. Antony appeased the Roman masses when Antony

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.

He tells them that he did it because Caesar was ambitious and for the good of Rome. The crowd is into what he says. They call him “noble Brutus” (III, ii, 11) and even say on the next page “let Brutus be Caesar” (III, ii, 47) just like they had said about Marc Antony. In the end there was something different with Marc Antony's speech that put him over the top, and it was that he lead the crowd towards rioting. As stated earlier in the paper the crowd wanted to kill Brutus and burn his house and all this bad stuff to do to him and the conspirators but, none of that was said about Marc Antony during Brutus’s

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

Consequently, the citizens of Rome are starting to realize that the murder was corrupt and not justifiable. Another appeal Mark Antony utilizes is logos, or logic. To elaborate, Antony temps the citizens with the will of Caesar, “Here’s a parchment with the seal of Caesar./ I found it in his closet; ’tis his will” (3.2.125-126). The use of the parchment is to entice the citizens into wanting to know more about Caesar. His will is very generous and makes him look like a gracious and giving ruler, which is the exact opposite of what the conspirators thought. The factual evidence presented in the will provides the citizens with the rage they need to revolt against the conspirators. In brief, Pathos, Ethos, and Logos help Antony gain the citizens support and convey his counterpoints to the audience of his speech.