How Does Shakespeare Use Persuasive Language In Julius Caesar

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Within the play, “Julius Caesar” by William Shakespeare, a ploy is created to murder Julius Caesar by several members of the senate. This is fueled by the fear that Caesar's power is growing to great and is leading to him possibly taking power as king of the Roman empire. In the beginning, the group of conspirators is made up of Cassius and several other senators, who feel they would be more successful with the support and the help of Brutus, a close friend of Caesars.
Shakespeare uses persuasive language in Cassius’s monologue in Act 1, Scene 2 to demonstrate Cassius’s manipulative qualities.
In Act 1, Scene 2 Shakespeare characterizes Cassius as manipulative. In the second scene of the first act of the play, “Julius Caesar”, Cassius pulls …show more content…

Near the middle of Brutus’s monologue, he expresses to Brutus his surprise of the potential for someone like Caesar who is frail to single handedly rule the Roman Empire: “A man of such a feeble temper should/So get the start of the majestic world/And bear the palm alone”(Act 1, Scene 2, lines 136-138). In this quotation, Shakespeare's use of both pathos and ethos can be seen. Cassius uses anti-ethos in the phrase, “a man of such feeble temper” to illuminate that Caesar is weak and in turn break his credibility as a good leader. This is due to the fact that weakness is not a desired trait in a leader and if this trait is prevalent in a leader, it can decrease their support. Moreover, Cassius uses pathos to manipulate Brutus by creating anger through highlighting the weakness in the leader of the Roman Empire. Anger is also created because of the thought of a single, all powerful leader ruling over the Romans, especially one who is weak. The use of this rhetoric is intended to manipulate Brutus into assisting Cassius and the conspirators in the murder of Caesar. Around the end of Cassius’s monologue, he questions why Caesar is allowed to act as a god while everyone else is bellow him: “Why, man, he doth bestride the narrow world/Like a Colossus, and we petty men/Walk under his huge legs and peep about/ To find ourselves dishonorable graves”(Act 1, Scene 2, lines 142-145). In this quotation,

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