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.
Shakespeare presents conflicting perspectives about the event as both an act of brutal murder and an act for the greater good of rome in Act 3 Scene 1. Shakespeare uses Brtuu’s perspective to religiously justify the act, conveyed through the highly symbolic imagery “let us bathe our hands in caesars blood up to our elbows”. This graphic action on stage is highly confronting for his audience, encouraging them to question the reasoning behind the assassination. This is immediately followed by Anotony’s soliloquy; here he is positioned on stage with caesars body, a prop which allows him to maniulate the crowd to transgress from Brutus perspective of the killing as a divine sacrifice to ac act of meaningless butchery. 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’s 1599 Tragedy, Julius Caesar, is a dramatization of an actual historical event and is, in general, a reflection of the anxiety felt regarding the succession of leadership at the time. Through the action of the play, and in particular the viewpoint of those involved, Shakespeare explores a variety of perspectives and through the dramatic medium comments on political power and how it may be wielded. Adding a further perspective of this situation is the speech made to the public by Barack Obama on 2nd May 2011. Obama’s address follows the death of an extremely controversial leader – Osama bin Laden. Through an examination and evaluation of these two texts, it will be seen how composers are able to manipulate perspectives through the specific representation of ideas.
In the first line of his speech, “Friends, Romans, countrymen, lend me your ears” (Line 1), he is building a connection with the crowd, letting them know that he is one of them, their friend, and that they are all part of the great country of Rome. His speech is aimed at the hearts and minds of the audience, trying to turn their hatred of this now dead leader upon his murderers, Brutus and the other conspirators. As he goes further into his speech he uses repetition, another form of pathos, to persuade the audience against Brutus, saying this such as, “But Brutus says he was ambitious, And Brutus is an honorable man” (Lines 1415), and, “I thrice presented him a kingly crown, Which he did thrice refuse. Was this ambition?” He is destroying the credibility of Brutus in the minds of the people, thus making all that was said in Brutus’ speech seem untrue, or
In contrast to Brutus , Antony speaks to the plebians as if they are his equals . He respects their intelligence to understand a speech given in verse . In a roundabout manner , he needs to use rhetoric to 1) make the people doubt brutus's honor and excuses . 2) to stir pity and increase the achievements of caesar and to 3) incite the crown into mutiny . He starts out by adressing them as "friends" because he wants to come to them as a friend rather than a ruler trying to get power .
In a scene in act 4 scene 3, Brutus says “Did not great Julius bleed for justice’ sake?” to which Cassius replies “bait not me, / I’ll not endure it... I am a soldier... abler than yourself”. This dialogue gives the audience a perception of Cassius as a braver and nobler man than Brutus and validates his non-existent fear of Caesar and his death; boldly stating “When Caesar lived, he durst not thus have moved me”. In the previous scene where Brutus and Cassius first confront each other, the imagery in the quote “When love begins to sicken and decay/It useth an enforced ceremony” shows that the argument between Brutus and Cassius seems to arise partially from a misunderstanding but also partially from stubbornness. Though Brutus claims that his honour forbids him from raising money in unscrupulous ways, he would still use such money as long as it was not he himself, but rather Cassius who raised it.
I think that Antony is up to something. Antony tries to get the crowd to support him, by making Brutus look disloyal. I just knew that Antony couldn’t be trusted. Now we have killed him. I just hope that the other conspirators can see it my way.
Cassius exclaims to be a “insupportable and touching loss,” shows that Brutus was wrong to kill Caesar, when even Portia, believes that taking her own life is the only way out. Brutus proves that even he felt that the assassination was unjustified. Shakespeare shows this when Brutus gets into an argument with Cassius about, “we now/ contaminate our fingers with base bribes.” A reason why Brutus killed Caesar was that he was corrupting the government and gaining power. This proves that killing Caesar is not bad, because Caesar’s corrupt ways appear in Cassius. Lastly, Brutus finally realizes that the assassination wasn’t right at the end of the play.
"I rather tell thee what is to be feared then what I fear, for always I am Caesar" (1.2.-), he cared about everyone else before himself, how noble. Clearly, his death was an awful crime committed by jealous men. It was unfair, and not right by any
Shakespeare uses a good range of language devices to show Macbeths shifts in power throughout the play. Techniques such as symbolism, emotive language and masculine iambic pentameter along with many others that I will be talking about were used effectively by Shakespeare. Firstly in act 1, scene 5 symbolic gesture is employed by Shakespeare to represent his plot of power shifts and the