Julius Caesar Rhetorical Analysis

Similarly with Anthony when he addressed the commoners on the assassination of Caesar, his use of the dialectical technique undid the impression Brutus created, and succeeded at weakening Brute’s justification of killing Caesar, claiming that his death was for the sake of Rome. Brutus’s clever strategy to use Caesar’s ambition and overthrow him without any obstacles in the way has failed, because the dialectical examination technique exposed the contradictions in his argument. Being ambitious back in Rome must have been a negative trait for a leader to have, and Brutus successfully branded Caesar as an ambitious man. “The noble Brutus Hath told you Caesar was ambitious/If it were so, it was a grievous fault/ Hath told you Caesar was ambitious and grievously/ Hath Cesar answer’d it”

However, there is a deeper message Anthony is conveying, which is that Caesar’s crime was criminally dealt with. Moreover, Anthony reminds the public of the military success Caesar has brought to Rome, as well as his sympathy towards the poor when they cried out. An “ambitious” man in Brutus’s dictionary is someone brutal, so how could Caesar be ambitious and still care for the poor? “I thrice presented him a kingly crown which he did thrice refuse” (The Life and Death of Julius Caesar), if indeed Caesar was “ambitious” as Brutus says, he would’ve accepted the title and wore the crown, but he did not, which only means that Caesar wasn’t a forthcoming cruel ruler as Brutus stated. “Had you rather Caesar were living and die all slaves, than that Caesar were dead, to live all free men?” (The Life and Death of Julius Caesar). Cleary, then, Caesar is not ambitious, if he were he would be brutish instead of sympathetic, and power hungry instead of humbled. This is the work of the dialectical examination technique, every possible contradiction in Brutes’s arguments was