Julius Caesar Rhetorical Devices

No matter what the circumstances, people always look for someone to blame. When Caesar was murdered the Plebeians needed someone to blame for what happened. Despite Brutus’s honor and respect among the Romans, Antony gave the more convincing speech at Caesar’s funeral by having an emotional impact on the Romans, therefore convincing them that an injustice had been done. Brutus first spoke at Caesar’s funeral with the goal of justifying his actions to the plebeians. Out of the three rhetorical appeals Brutus used Logos the least.

Shakespeare is known for his incredible tragic drama writing in which he constructs different types of rhetorical devices to influence the setting, mood, and tone of a play, one being The Tragedy of Julius Caesar. These devices demonstrate the enhancement in a speaker’s attitude, personality, and emotion to get a point across. In one particular scene, Shakespeare works in Mark Antony’s speech where he reads to the Plebeians using various amount of rhetorical devices to get his point across. The purpose for Antony’s speech is to show how Julius Caesar died in vain, how the Plebeians are now supporting his murders, and how the Plebeians are not being open minded about the situation. Mark Antony uses repetition to enhance his sarcasm to potentially help his speech influence the Plebeians behavior in a convincing manner, making them turn on Brutus through emotional appeal.

He delivers an oration in order to defend himself. On the other hand, Mark Antony wants to persuade the audience that Brutus is guilty. He is not allowed to speak directly, which is why Antony uses special rhetorical devices. While reading the Act III, scene II of

In William Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar, Antony’s memorable and powerful speech uses pathos, logos, and verbal irony to influence the citizens to rebel against Brutus and the conspirators. When Antony was giving his speech about Caesar, he claims that “When that the poor have cried, Caesar have wept,”(III, ii, 92). Mark Antony cleverly implies that Caesar was not ambitious as Brutus claims he is. He tries to disprove to the audience that Brutus is not honorable or trustworthy by stating that Caesar wept for the poor and the unfortunate people. Antony influenced the audience to be sympathetic towards Caesar, for he is not an evil man as the conspirators claim he is.

Within Antony’s speech to the Romans he uses anaphoric text to spike a whirl of rage towards Brutus. Repeatedly Antony states “Brutus is an honorable man” emphatically for the duration of his speech to contradict Brutus’s nobility ( March Antony, Lines 83,88,95 ). Before Antony begins his speech he is approached by the Romans with comments to not speak bad on Brutus’s name, which is why he utilized the anaphora to repeat that Brutus is an honorable man therefore allowing him to gain the Romans trust to speak. Antony does not say these lines truthfully but sarcastically to make the people of Rome feel furious against Brutus for taking Caesar to his mortal death.

Antony uses rhetorical appeals and techniques in his speech to turn the people of Rome against those conspiring against Caesar. As a result, the people see Antony as a persuasive and strong leader of Rome. Antony opens his speech at Caesar’s funeral by using ethos to present himself as a credible source and a friend of Caesar. Antony states his purpose in the beginning of his speech by starting with “I come to bury

“And public reasons shall be rendered Of Caesar’s death.” (Act III, Scene II) In the play, “Julius Caesar” by William Shakespeare, Julius Caesar was killed by a group of conspirators who believed that his rule would result in the downfall of Rome, and that his death was the best solution. Marcus Brutus, who was viewed as the leader of the plot to kill Caesar, was the first to speak at his funeral, followed by Marc Antony. Each man’s speech included several examples of rhetorical strategies that ultimately swayed the audience to be in favor of one side or another. Marcus Brutus gave the better, more argumentative speech due to his effective use of rhetorical strategies.

In William Shakespeare’s tragedy Julius Caesar, Mark Antony uses rhetorical devices such as paralipsis, rhetorical questions, and verbal irony in his speech to the plebeians in order to plot them against the conspirators. During his speech to the plebians, Antony uses paralipsis in order to kindle curiosity and interest in the audience. Antony mentions to the plebians that he had Caesar’s will with him but tells them, “Have patience, gentle friends, I must not read it; It is not meet you know how much Caesar loved you” (3.2.152-153). By drawing attention to Caesar’s will, something Antony desperately wants to show the plebeians, but then dismissing the idea of reading it, Antony uses a type of verbal irony called paralipsis. Antony is aware that the contents

In Antony’s speech to the people, he speaks about Caesar over his dead body. His words make the commoners feel something, as opposed to Brutus,

(3.2.73).Then Antony continues to talk to the crowded about how he thought that caesar will be remembered for the bad he did and will be buried with the good that he did for people around the town. ”The evil that men do lives after them;The good is oft interrèd with their bones. So let it be with Caesar”.(3.2.74).He has yet to use one of the Rhetorical Appeals in his speech to use to get the crowded on his side backing him up. It is not till later on in the speech he uses Pathos to play with their Emotions “When that the poor have cried, Caesar hath wept”.(3.2.90).Saying how he is sad to see that Caesar was killed,Stating that he misses him and that he will cry about this moment. He does not focus on how he cares he just states three or four lines that show he cares the rest of the time he is talking about what caesar had done.

After reading excerpts from Julius Caesar by William Shakespeare, write an essay that compares Brutus’ speech with Marc Antony’s speech and argues the effectiveness of the rhetorical devices (ethos, pathos, logos) used in each. Be sure to support your position with evidence from the texts. William Shakespeare writes a play about Julius Caesar’s assassination and the speeches his friends gave at his funeral. In the play, Brutus assassinated Caesar because he thought he was protecting Rome. He was saying that if Caesar got all the power he would most likely become vicious and make everyone his slaves.

Marc Antony uses repetition throughout to strengthen his speech. Repetition is the action of repeating something that has already been said or written. Five times during his speech he repeats, “Brutus is an honorable man” (3.2. 94). Antony was not being very serious when he stated this. The statement was sarcastic.

At the beginning of the speech, he says, “I am here to bury Caesar, not praise him. My heart is in the coffin there with Caesar, And I must pause till it come back to me.” He dramatically turns away from the audience to “hide his tears”. In this line, Antony uses his “heart in the coffin” as a metaphor to show how heartbroken he is over Caesar’s death. He had to “pause until it came back to him” to captivate the seriousness in his emotions and persuade the audience that he was actually mourning the tragedy.

To conclude this analyzation of Brutus’s and Antony’s funeral speeches, even though both men shared the same purpose of their speeches, both of the speeches differ majorly from one another in many points that were addressed within the speech such as: emotion, tone, reaction from crowd, position, repetitive phrases, main points, and double meaning words that were found within the

Brutus wants to make the crowd feel like he is in a way the victim. In order to do that he says "As Caesar loved me I weep for him" so in a way the people feel bad for him. This emotional appeal did not persuade the audience considering the fact that he was if he truly did love Caesar as much as he said he would, then he would have tried to find a different route in getting rid of Caesar as emperor. Antony goes with the approach of making the people of Rome feel guilty. He tells the citizens "You all love him once not without cause what cause withholds you then to mourn for him" so they could reflect on their attitude towards his death.