Julius Caesar Marc Antony in Shakespeare’s play, Julius Caesar was murdered by Brutus despite Brutus’s allegations of Caesar’s quest for dictatorship status and supports his argument by manipulating the people’s emotions. Antony’s purpose is for the people to mourn for their lost leader through Brutus’s lies so that they would seek revenge on him. Antony speaks in a driven but sarcastic tone for the citizens of Rome. Marc Antony persuaded the people using pathos, ethos, and logos. In regards to their leaders murder, the Romans turned against the senate, there for Antony’s speech was more persuading than Brutus’s.
Saying that he wasn’t praising Caesar also appeals to the audience because right now, they are hating Caesar. During the speech, he uses rhetorical irony, and attacks the ethos of Brutus. He constantly and sarcastically repeats that Brutus is an “honorable man”, after he puts Caesar’s image up each time. This key strategy makes the people question Brutus’s honor and character. Pathos is the appeal to the emotion, and is the most often used rhetorical strategy in both Brutus’s and Antony’s speech.
Right away, the crowd is moved by Brutus’ speech and is immediately on Brutus’ side. Brutus makes sure he respects everyone by asking if he offended anyone. Brutus also uses logos in his speech. He lets the crowd know that if Caesar was still alive and resumed on becoming king, they would all be slaves, “Would you rather that Caesar living and we would all go to our graves as slaves, or that Caesar were dead and we all lived as free men?” (3,2 pg.129). Brutus assumes that they would be slaves if Caesar became king and he logically explains what went through his head.
He is convinced by letters written by Cinna that the civilians of Rome request him to prevent Caesar from gaining power. He then agrees to join the group who wishes to kill Caesar. He has a distinct perspective that majority of the conspirators hold and that is that Caesar has gained too much power, he shows this through extreme exaggeration (hyperbole) in the event of Caesar’s funeral, “had you rather Caesar alive and die as slaves, or Caesar dead and live as free men?” It evokes or suggests conflicting perspectives which urge the audience to determine whether Brutus is truly a noble Roman or a coward
Tybalt completely forgets about Mercutio and says to him “Well, peace be with you, sir. Here comes my man.” This quote suggests that Tybalt was looking for Romeo and he saw his enemy. While Romeo and Tybalt are still arguing about their hatreds towards each other, Romeo gets insulted by Tybalt by calling him a “villain”. This was insult towards Romeo because in the reign of the Elizabethan time that word was very insulting especially for someone like Romeo as he comes from a noble family. Mercutio joins in the conversation and says “O calm, dishonorable, vile submission!
549430 Ms.Owens – 1st English II November 19, 2014 The Assassination of Julius Caesar One of the basic needs of being human is to control something in life whether it be money, or a group. One of the ways to gain power is by killing someone or assassination. Caesar, the leader of Rome, is assassinated by the conspirators who believe that he is becoming too powerful. The conspirators were wrong, Caesar shouldn’t be dead. The assassination is proved wrong by Antony when he reads Caesar's will to the people.
Rease May Mrs.Clark/Mrs.Taylor English II Dec 10. 2013 Rhetorical Strategy Here Julius Caesar’s cold body lay. The great Caesar has been slain by his “loyal” friends. Brutus tries to explain that the death of Caesar was for the good of Rome because he became too ambitious while Antony tries to explain subtlety that Caesar was not ambitious and that it was the conspirator’s ambition that had slain Caesar. Both Brutus and Antony delivered great eulogies to Caesar, but Marc Antony’s was more persuasive to the crowds of Rome.
As a tragic hero, Brutus maintains noble intentions throughout the play. Grabbing at any opportune moment, Brutus desirably protects the Roman Republic from becoming corrupt and ruled by dictatorship. Cassius and other conspirators felt that Caesar’s ambition and tyrannical ruling reflects upon a dangerous outcome for future Rome. Persuaded by Cassius’s hatred of Caesar’s immediate gain in power and acknowledgement, Brutus constructs a plan for the assassination of Caesar. He greatly fears that “the people// [will] choose Caesar for their king” (I.ii.78-79).
(3.3 29+32) The fatal flaw of the third conspirator, Cassius is that he is scared of what will happen to him after he murdered Caesar. Cassius and Brutus though that Anthony will turn Rome against them and realize what they did was wrong and their traitors. Cassius’s famous quote is “” Men at times are masters of their fates; the fault; dear Brutus, is not in our stars. But in ourselves””. (1.2 139-142) In conclusion, these conspirators lead to their own downfall by not listening to each other.
He undermines Brutus, conveyed through his lamenting tone “thou art the ruins of the noblest man” to further challanege the perspective that caesars thirst for power was a threat to the roman republic. Shakespeare furthers these conflicting perspectives in Act 3 scene 2 to demonstrate the power of political rhetoric. In the funerary speeches, Brutus’ patriotic tone in “not that I loved Caesar less but that I loved rome more” representes him as a protector of the roman republican values that Caesar threatened. This is sharply