Julius Caesar Rhetorical Analysis

Rhetoric is used on the daily by those that are involved in politics to gain the hearts of the crowd. In the poem The Tragedy of Julius Caesar, rhetoric plays a major role in convincing the crowds of citizens. The Tragedy of Julius Caesar revolves around the election of Caesar as the Roman leader. A group of people, called the conspirators, disagreed with the election and decided to take matters into their own hands. Someone named Cassius gathered the group up and even convinced Brutus, one of Caesar’s best friends, into joining them in the murder of Julius Caesar. After the murder, Brutus allowed Antony a chance to speak at Caesar’s funeral with conditions. Antony was told to not speak badly of them in front of the crowd. Antony does just

By saying this, he’s leading the crowd to believe that Brutus is all-mighty. This is an example ethos because Antony is pointing out his trustworthiness to the crowd by pretty much putting it in the crowd’s head that Brutus allowed him to speak so he must be trustworthy. Another example of ethos would be the repetition of the phrase “Brutus is an honorable man” immediately after he states a reason of his death. He does this to hint at the crowd that none of the reasons are justifiable by fact; only by credibility. Antony slowly moves on to show all the good qualities of Caesar followed by a reason of his death and the phrase “Brutus is an honorable man”. By doing this, he is showing the crowd that they’re in the wrong for only trusting Brutus’ honor and not taking into account the actual good qualities Caesar had. All of these strategies were effective because now the crowd begins to questions whether or not Caesar was actually ambitious. They begin talking back and forth with each other with their thoughts of Caesar’s true personality. The crowd also begins to confide in Antony referring to him as

Antony states, “If you have tears, prepare to shed them now” (III.ii.166). Antony says this to dramatically alter the mood to overall bring a high change in emotion for the crowd. Antony then proceeds to speak about Caesar’s accomplishments which makes the crowd’s mood sad. He then goes on to say, “This was the most unkindest cut of all; / For when the noble Caesar saw him stab, / Ingratitude, more strong than traitors’ arms, / Quite vanquished them. Then burst his mighty heart;” (III.ii.180-183). He pretty much tells the crowd that Caesar loved those who murdered him and that he was very heartbroken when he saw them stab. Antony uses loaded words such as “burst” and “mighty” to strengthen the already saddened mood and inject a bit of anger into the crowd. He then begins to use stronger words like “ingratitude”, “treason”, and “marred” to further destroy the reputation of the conspirators and make the crowd