In order to warn his audience of the dangers of creating false heroes, Shakespeare presents conflicting perspectives between the illusion of honour, and the private reality of Caesar, who believes himself to be the defender of Roman honour, tradition and democracy. His self promoting simile ‘as constant as the Northern Star’ exposes his vanity that makes him prone to the flattery of Decius in Act III Scene 1. Brutus observes that ‘Caesar, thou art mighty yet’, a public illusion of Caesar as a hero, which is supported by the fickle plebeians ‘making holiday to see Caesar and rejoice in his triumph’. By contrast, the accumulation of a ‘tired man of such a feeble temper’ who ails ‘like a sick girl’, as espoused by Cassius and Casca shows a flawed protagonist. However, despite this frailty, Caesar is still a cunning politician whose danger is exemplified in his pragmatic elimination of political foes, such as the ‘silencing’ of Flavius and Murellus .
In Act III Scene II of Julius Caesar, Shakespeare composes essentially a war in rhetoric between the characters of Brutus and Mark Antony. Although for different purposes, both speeches given by Brutus and Mark Antony, pertaining to Caesar’s murder, contain poignant and skilled rhetoric in order to win over the citizens of Rome. Brutus bases his speech upon the appeal of ethos, being straight forward and honest with his audience, defending his ethical foundation. On the other hand, Antony’s speech is based upon the appeal of pathos and logos, delivering strong emotional and logical examples to support his argument, as well as dramatic effects with his use of striking pauses and props. Both orators use many combinations of rhetorical devices from Isocolon and Chiasmus to logical fallacies such as Ad Hominem, in order to influence the citizens of Rome into agreeing with their opinion of Caesar’s death.
In the play, Brutus and Antony are the major contributors on the battle of honour, both using it is as a ploy to gain the support of the people of Rome and to accentuate their own honourable qualities. The funerary speeches are the point in the play where the audiences view is altered to be seen more from Antony’s point of view. Brutus initiates his speech utilising humility, intimacy and emotive language as key concepts to persuade his audience regarding the justification of Caesar’s assassination, where as Antony instantly uses flattery, moving into sarcasm and rhetorical question to sway the Roman crowd and audience into believing that Brutus’ acts were not done out of honour – an act which within itself is
Cassius mocks Brutus’s honour in order to manipulate him to join the conspiracy. To indicate this, Cassius says ‘we petty men walk under his huge legs and peep about to find ourselves dishonourable graves’. Cassius uses ‘peep’ and ‘petty’ to direct themselves as weak and helpless compared to the powerful Caesar. The strong onomatopoeia of the ‘p’ is used in order to make those words specifically stand out in order to make Brutus aware of what Cassius thinks of themselves compared to Caesar, which could upset him as he believes that all men are equal. The use of ‘walk under’ metaphorically represents that they are lower class to Caesar and that he is in control of everything.
Price criticizes the United States culture by juxtaposing the seriousness of a nation bouncing back from depression with the quirky nature of the flamingo. Price uses a critical tone, exciting diction, and understatements to contrast real flamingos from the plastic ones that society had become obsessed with. Her desired effect is to show how detached man is from nature. The diction such as “splashed” and “staked” is used well to excite readers. Price is critical when saying “pink” and “ironic” to show how ridiculous she believes the flamingos are.
Brutus: Patriot or Betrayer Damaging the trust of another person in a relationship and being dishonest are both considered to be signs of disloyalty and betrayal. In William Shakespeare's play Julius Caesar, betrayal was the basis of and during the entire course of the story. The question is based on whether or not Brutus should be considered a patriot or a betrayer based on his actions throughout the play. I don’t think there is an easy way to answer this question without looking into the background that caused Brutus to act out a betrayal toward Caesar because of his patriotism toward Rome. Early on in the play, the first act of disloyalty is shown by Cassius.
* Select key scenes, soliloquies or monologues then deconstruct in detail for techniques and how they have been uses to reveal/expose/challenge/confront perspectives * Identify the conflict that surrounds Caesar and who constructs the conflict * Assess Brutus’ role and internal conflict * Assess Cassius’ revengeful and aggressive stance as a find suggest how he has been used as a foil to Antony or Brutus’ perspectives * How is Cassius’ anger and frustration and fear and need for regicide explored in the text? * Who argues against regicide and why? * Why are the perspectives of Caesar differing across the characters – as a man, as a leader, as a monarch – and how do these differ from Caesar’s own
Assertions has made the impact on the world, on whether to " consider" on learning the cold truth and accepting the truth. Antony's use of such rhetoric devices leads the crowd to want more and to learn more information, because the more who know about the cause and effect of the loss of Caesar, the more people will revolt against Brutus. Overall, Antony uses
* Paragraph 1 – Shakespeare portrays Brutus and Antony in unique and differentiated ways to explore his own perception of each character * Brutus’ agenda is to Justify the assassination of Caesar and to win the people over with the aim of leading the nation * Brutus’ speech is spoken in prose which Shakespeare has used to represent the idea that Brutus is talking down to the audience and shows us that he is condescending * Antony’s speech is spoken in verse which means that he respects his audience and treats them like they are greater than him * Represents his manipulative nature and that his speech is based on emotion * Shakespeare’s use of textual form * ‘Had you rather Caesar were living and die all slaves, than that Caesar were dead to live all freemen?’ * Use of rhetorical questions to show that he is trying to manipulate the audience * Antony’s agenda however is to denigrate the conspirators, with his underlying agenda being to become heir to Caesar * ‘Brutus is an honourable
This is the issue that mostly bothered Jefferson, since he wanted the creation of a perfect society. The most important information derived from this secondary source was the ideologies that Jefferson had towards the Slaves and Native Americans. Jefferson believed these minorities were intellectually inferior and basically considered them a parasite and a libidinal race. To support my statement, I took this quote from the secondary source, “It must not allow its people to be “stained” and become a nation of mulattoes.” I found it very ironic at how Jefferson contradicts himself in several occasions, especially on this last quote because he himself had had children with his slave. Jefferson believes that slavery should be abolished because not only did it deprive the Black’s right to liberty, it also undermined the self control white men had to self republic.