More handpicked essays just for you.
Rhetorical devices found in mark antony's speech
My experience with public speaking
Rhetoric in mark antony's speech
Don’t take our word for it - see why 10 million students trust us with their essay needs.
“Julius Caesar” by William Shakespeare is the story of the assassination of Julius Caesar. Two speeches were made after his death, one being by Mark Antony. He uses many rhetorical devices in this speech to counter the previous speech and persuade the crowd that the conspirators who killed Caesar were wrong. Rhetoric is the art of persuasion and these many devices strengthen this by making points and highlighting flaws. Antony uses many rhetorical devices, all of which are used to persuade the crowd that the conspirators are wrong and Caesar did not need to be killed.
Asyndeton is a rhetorical device which eliminates conjunctions in a list. Antony uses this to convey the idea that the list he is making is not complete. It adds drama and rhythm. He opens his speech with “Friends, Romans, countrymen, lend me your ears” (III.ii.72). Anthony is addressing the crowd as these titles. They are all friendly therefore he is trying to appeal to the crowd. He eliminates the conjunctions because there are many more friendly terms he can address them as. He wants his speech to be personal and is bringing together the social gap between the plebeians [also known as peasants] and him, a person who is higher up in the Roman society. This makes the plebeians believe that he is not talking down to them, but he is talking to them as a friend. The use of asyndeton in this instance makes Antony’s speech more personable and more appealing to the crowd.
Antony uses tautology in his speech in addition to many other rhetorical devices. Tautology is the repetition of an idea in two, nearly synonymous, words or phrases. “The evil that men do lives after them/The good is oft interred with their bones” (III.ii.74-75) is an example of this device. Antony is...
... middle of paper ...
...d saddened by Caesar’s death, this is also hyperbole. Antony is exaggerating his current emotions. He doesn’t truly need a moment before he goes on. He simply wants the crowd to react to his speech so far. In saying his heart died with Caesar, the pathos generated moves the crowd and gives them an opportunity to respond to Antony.
Antony’s goal was to persuade the crowd of plebeians that the conspirators acted impetuously and Caesar did not need to be killed. He uses many rhetorical devices to strengthen his speech and gain the support of the crowd. From rhetorical questions to the use of pathos, Antony masters the art of persuasion. His speech moves the crowd from believing Brutus’ reasoning for killing Caesar, to understanding that Caesar did not have to die.
Work Cited
Shakespeare, William. “Julius Caesar”. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2006.
Mark Antony’s speech, whose aim is to counter Brutus’ speech, enlightens the crowd on the unjust murder of Caesar. Though he never directly communicates to the crowd of his feeling towards the conspirators, Antony was able to effectively convey to the crowd, through the use of verbal irony and other stylistic devices/techniques in his speech, his true views of the assassination. Moreover, Antony was able to shrewdly emphasize his belief of the undeserved assassination of Caesar through the wide use of epiphoral and anaphoral structure in his speech. Antony emphasizes the wrongdoings of Brutus and Cassius through the ingenious use of the epistrophe along with verbal irony as he notes that “I should do Brutus wrong, and Cassius wrong” (III, ii, 125). Moreover, he stresses the importance of punishi...
" Now that he has the crowd's attention. He needs to put their minds to rest that he is not going to try and contradict what Brutus has just said, "I come to bury Caesar not. " praise him. Antony no uses the first part of his sarcasm, he says that Brutus and his followers have made Caesar pay "grievously" for his ambition, he said.
While Mark Antony’s speech is a eulogy Caesar’s funeral, it gradually develops the energetic tone of an epideictic (praise-and-blame speech), which points to an ulterior motive. He draws in his audience with a solemn introduction that is meant to defer any bad feelings the Roman’s have towards him, and then he begins to exemplify Caesar’s good character. However, his tone soon becomes more passionate and he begins to use interjections to arouse the listeners. By shouting “O judgment!” as he questions the Roman’s loyalty, Antony is making use of ecphonesis to force a reaction: hopefully one that supports Caesar. Antony strategically spaces these throughout the course of the speech to ensure their enthusiastic spirit, yet hide his own zeal from the audience. Most notably, he exclaims “what a fall was there, my countrymen!” to emphasize the magnitude of Caesar’s death and in the last line he shouts to them “here was a Caesar!...
Mark Antony uses personification and apostrophe to make ambition and judgment seem like they are living things. Antony used personification and apostrophe to make into Brutus a villain “O judgment, thou [art] fled to brutish beasts.” (32) and Caesar into an innocent good man “Ambition should be made of stern stuff.” (20). Antony speaks about how Caesar was not after power and that he only wanted to help the people of Rome. Antony achieves this by talking about when “I thrice presented him a kingly crown,” (24). Mark Antony was very distressed by Caesar's death, but he exaggerated his pain. Towards the end of his speech is when he truly exaggerates his pain “My heart is on the coffin there with Caesar.” and this helps the citizen to relate to
The speeches given by both Brutus and Mark Antony in William Shakespeare’s, The Tragedy of Julius Caesar are very persuasive to the audience. Mark Antony delivers a strong funeral oration in Caesar's honor. Antony was a trusted friend of Caesar and he manipulated the conspirators in thinking that he was fine with their deed. Antony uses a kind of mode of persuasion in order to convince the audience that Caesar is worthy kind of man. Antony then must use pathos in order to call the emotion of the audience. He must have to understand the nature of the audience to successfully induce his audience that Caesar really was not an ambitious man. After Brutus's speech ended it was Antony’s turn but Brutus made a big mistake by leaving as Antony started his speech. Antony starts his speech by saying, "friends, Romans, countrymen, lend me your ears! I come to bury Caesar, not to praise him" (3. 2. 70). He immediately starts using rhetoric and calculated dramatic words to incite the crowd into a frenzy.
... Antony also mixes Logos and Pathos when he says that “when the poor have cried, Caesar hath wept” (873) to show that Caesar was a noble and caring leader of the public and would never try to hurt or harm their liberties. Unlike Brutus, Antony’s logo requires the people to think on what he says, which only helps in winning his argument. He continues this mix when he says that “[they] all did love him once, not without cause” (873) in order to put guilt on the crowd for switching sides on the man they loved and admired so dearly. Antony, with full support of the crowd, uses his sense of loss and anger to guilt the public says that “[his] heart is in there with Caesar”(873) and after reading the contents of Caesar will to the public which gives each citizen 70 drachmas and various other gifts he asks “when comes another [as great as Caesar]?”
This method, albeit convincing, is merely a ruse used to eradicate logic in the minds of the audience, and replace it with an overwhelming amount of emotion. In the midst of Antony’s speech, he began to say, “You all did love him once, not without cause. / What cause withholds you then to mourn for him? / O judgment! Thou art fled to brutish beasts, / And men hath lost their reason…” (Scene 3, Act 2, 104-107) The prime emotion revealed in this excerpt is sorrow from Antony, which in turn, leads to guilt from the plebians. With Antony’s reminder of the citizens’ former idolization of Caesar, it made them reconsider why they don’t in fact love him anymore, an effectual method in establishing guilt in the hearts of the crowd. Guilt, a largely influential emotion, is perhaps the most powerful tool that pertained to Antony’s methods of manipulation; the reason being is because guilt often causes a person to reevaluate much of their past actions, and more often than not, their faults as well. In order to rid themselves of the gnawing, persistent feeling of troublesome guilt, people will often agree with the person who caused the feeling of guilt, much like the plebians and their immediate compliance with all of Mark Antony’s opinions. In regards to Mark Antony’s opinions, which are no doubt biased, he seemed to fill his speech with none other than praises and words that eulogize Caesar,
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.
Because Antony ingeniously uses a plethora of logical, emotional, and credible arguments, he outshines Brutus’s speech, which lacks in verifiable evidence. Antony also seizes the power of rhetorical devices in a more effective way than Brutus to convey his message. This battle between their speeches reflects in the outcome of their war, showing the superiority of Antony’s persuasive ability. While Brutus may have been an “honorable man,” it was Antony that proved to be the more effective one.
Mark Antony’s use of rough and sharp diction contributes to his purpose of convincing the Roman proletariat to turn against the conspirators. Antony addresses the people as “Friends, Romans, [and] countrymen,” and asks for them to “…lend [him their] ears” (III.ii.72), which all three of those words are very rough and direct, as well as
Mark Antony also includes a hyperbole in his speech to show how saddened the death of caesar made him and to make the audience feel sad. At the end of the speech Antony says to the audience “My heart
Through the whole of his spectacular speech, Mark Antony influences the crowd using his distinct diction. He is able to inculcate a fired up anti-Caesar mass of people, and he makes the populace believe that Julius Caesar’s death was a true tragedy. Antony gracefully applies his proficiency with ‘logos’ and ‘pathos’ to his speech and is able to adroitly gain followers. His strong reasoning and explanations allow the Romans to buy what he has to say. Antony’s ability to speak in a roundabout way is a key constituent of his speech. Withal, he is extremely humble and the way he plays down his prowess is impressive. Mark Antony puts all the parts of his remarkable rhetoric together, and the result is a speech for the ages.
Mark Antony's Speech from Shakespeare's Julius Caesar Mark Antony’s funeral oration over the body of Julius Caesar in act three, scene two is the most important speech in the play and effects the development of the play as a whole in many ways. Firstly this speech falls in the play where we have seen Antony’s distraught reaction to the murder of Caesar and his letter vowing allegiance to Brutus in return for being able to live. Act three, scene one prepares us for Antony’s rhetoric as here he states that ‘Brutus is noble, wise, valiant and honest’ which fits in with him repeatedly stating ‘Brutus is an honourable man’. It becomes evident in this scene that Antony has an ulterior motive for forming this allegiance and asking to do the funeral oration when he is ‘swayed from the point by looking down on Caesar’ and then states that ‘friends am I with you all, and love you all’ but still wants to know ‘why and wherein Caesar was dangerous’. Thus we the audience are aware that Antony is not being honest with the conspirators especially when he speaks in a soliloquy of the anarchy he will create when he states ‘blood and destruction shall be so in use…that mothers shall but smile when they behold/
Antony’s argument was one of great subtlety and dignity. This was necessary for Antony to uphold so that he did not violate the agreement he had made with the conspirators in the previous scene (III, I) which allowed him to give his speech at Caesar’s funeral. Brutus stated that Antony could ‘speak all the good he can devise about Caesar’ as long as he did not blame them and that he said he spoke ‘by our permission’. Although the terms of this agreement restricted Antony’s words he still manages to indirectly disprove the conspirators’ motives and persuade the audience to question what they had once thought. Antony states in his speech that ‘Brutus hath told you Caesar was ambitious’, and then retorts ‘You all did see that on the Lupercal I thrice presented him [Caesar] a kingly crown, which he did thrice refuse.’ By doing this, Antony carefully rebuts Brutus' statement without going against the terms of his pledge to the conspirators. Throughout his speech Antony continues to comply by calling them "honourable men", but the crowd feels a sense of sarcasm each time he calls them that. He then sa...
In front of the people of Rome at Caesar’s funeral whilst giving his speech, Antony makes up Brutus to up to be this honorable and noble man, nonetheless Brutus is one of the conspirators who ended Caesar’s life. Caesar has been slain by, Trebonius, Cinna, Cassius, Brutus, Ligarius, Decius, Metellus and Casca. All because most had felt that he was too ambitious for their liking, Cassius has manipulated each one of them into committing the crime alongside him. Once Caesar is killed, Brutus delivers his speech, saying, “Not that I loved Caesar less, but that I loved Rome more”(lll.ii.20). Basically just trying to justify the reason he helped to kill one of the most loved Romans in all of Rome. Antony then comes out and begins his speech at Caesar’s