Julius Caesar: A Man of Many Ways William Shakespeare was man of many words. His thoughts and ideas were out of this world and most of all, he was able to include poetry within his writings to make them come alive. The speech takes place after Caesar’s death and Brutus convinced Rome that they would be better without Caesar. Throughout the whole speech, repetition, allusion, and hyperbole are utilized to turn the people against the conspirators. The first example of a poetic device that can be seen in this paragraph would have to be that of repetition. Repetition seems to be a common theme throughout this whole play and is used greatly just in this little piece of writing. Anthony is preaching to the citizens of Rome after Caesar has …show more content…
Hyperboles show up many times to exaggerate what the meaning is supposed to do or mean. At the beginning of Anthony’s speech, he talks about Caesar's death and the scale of pain that it’s causing him. He says, “My heart is in the coffin there with Caesar, And I must pause till it come back to me.” Anthony’s heart is not literally in the coffin with dead Caesar, but it is in there figuratively. He is mourning the loss of a great friend and is saddened that he is no longer with him in life. Caesar was a man that everyone looked up to, so after his death, many were saddened and confused about what would come next. This news and his sadness makes the citizens sympathetic about Antony and make them feel bad. Antony, in some minds was just trying to cheer them up, but in reality, he was just working his plan. After making Brutus look great, Antony goes to turn around and put his plan into play. He says this to finally push his point over the edge. Allusion is used great to illustrate this. If pounds it in to make it stick. “You all did see that on the Lupercal. I thrice presented him a kingly crown, which he did thrice refuse: was that ambitious?” At that time, Antony was starting to make the citizens think seriously about what he just said and what it meant. It also shows the citizens that Caesar was indeed not ambitious. While Anthony continued, the citizens started to catch on and realize what …show more content…
It worked because at the end everyone was out for the conspirators, but why? This speech can be seen as one of the most influential speeches throughout because of the impact that it makes on everything. This speech creates the framework for the ending of the play which ends in a big way. Without that speech happening, much blood would have not been shed and a lot of pain would be gone. A lot of people would be here. This speech also helped give Octavius and Antony fire to attack Cassius and Brutus. With this being done, lives of all characters change forever. War breaks out and bloodshed happens everywhere. Brutus, Cassius, and Caesar are killed, along with many more, and the plot was no longer the same. Antony gains way too much power and respect that he didn’t gain and pretty much becomes hotheaded. This a common theme that was found out throughout Caesar's life and now is just following in the tracks of ruining another life. While Shakespeare was writing this piece, he had a thought in mind that is never expected. Adding impactful speeches, like this one, engages readers, and brings everything together. This speech started out as a sad thing, but at end of the day, it was just a way for Antony’s plan to work out. It is twisted due to the fact that using someone's death is used to manipulate minds and get what Antony wanted the whole time, power. He was able
Throughout his speech, Antony repeats the words “[Caesar] was ambitious” and “Brutus is an honorable man” to create a contrast between the two statements. (3.2.95-96). Through this repetition, Caesar successfully undermines Brutus. Everytime he calls Brutus an honorable man, he lists a positive trait of Caesar that contradicts Brutus’s claim that he was too ambitious. He tells the crowd about the times when Caesar showed compassion for the people and when he refused the crown thrice. Antony’s sarcasm about Brutus’s honor brings into question as to whether his honor deserved. This leads the audience to doubt their feelings upon Caesar’s ambition. Near the end of his eulogy, Antony uses apostrophe when he claims that “judgment ... art fled to brutish beasts” as a reason for why the Roman people believe Brutus. (3.2.114-115). Antony indirectly shames the crowd for their belief in Brutus in that Caesar was a tyrant. Fearing alienation of the crowd, he attributes this belief to a lapse in judgement that beasts have taken. Antony also makes a pun upon Brutus’s name when he comments “brutish beasts.” Antony implies Brutus has caused a lapse in judgement within the Roman people through his oration
Antony reminds the plebeians about the time when he, himself “presented [Caesar] a kingly crown, / Which [Caeasar] did thrice refuse” (III. ii. 97-98). Using logic and reasoning, Mark Antony explains to his crowd that the fallen Caesar couldn’t possibly have been ambitious if he had refused the ticket to become King multiple times. Immediately afterward, Antony made sure to remind the plebeians that Brutus is an honorable man. This use of logos with verbal irony proves to be extremely effective. Since Antony presented the crowd with a compelling fact supporting that Caesar was not ambitious, the phrase “Brutus is an honorable man,” would be even more effective in allowing his audience to realize that Brutus and the conspirators may not be honorable (III. ii. 83). According to Brutus, the conspirator's sole reason to kill Caesar was because they believed he was ambitious, Antony’s statement would then be incredibly useful to turn the crowd against Brutus and his people. The plebeians would start to realize that noble Brutus and his conspirators might not be honorable and could potentially have their own, personal reasons to assassinate Julius Caesar. Once the crowd realizes that Brutus and the conspirators could have murdered their leader for no valid reason, they would begin to feel anger which are the building steps to starting a rebellion just like how Antony
He carried carried out Caesar’s corpse and laid him down before the crowd as he began to speak. Antony has already used pathos as a strong rhetorical device. The sight of a dead body has brought a very serious and saddening atmosphere upon all onlookers. Antony begins by stating “I come to bury Caesar, not to praise him. The evil that men do lives after them; The good is oft interred with their bones; So let it be with Caesar.” (3.2.2) Explaining to the crowd that he is not going to praise Caesar for the man he was but rather respectively bury him for his funeral has established that he isn’t biased. Conveying that man's good deeds are often forgotten with death has stirred up a feeling of remorse towards Caesar; another usage of
In act III, scene ii, Antony proves to himself and the conspiracy, that he has the power to turn Rome against Brutus. He deceived the conspirators with his speech during Caesar’s funeral. In this speech, Antony pulls at the heartstrings of the countryman by showing emotions and turning them against their beloved leader, Brutus. The scene takes place the day of Caesar's death. Leading up to this point the people loved Brutus because, reasonably he explains of them about Caesar's death and told them it was necessary. In Antony's speech he showed signs of hatred towards Brutus and the conspirators. He thinks for himself and deceives the people, when he explains how Brutus lied to the people . The plot depends on Antony’s speech.
...losing of his speech, where Antony outlines Caesar’s generous will to Rome. It is an appeal to the greedy side of the audience, who want to get something out of his death. While it does help to dissuade anybody else from supporting Brutus, it also stands to further persuade the listeners that Caesar was a good man who did not deserve his fate.
Shakespeare uses dramatic pathos, ethos, repetition and logos in the case of Antony to make his speech memorable in his effectiveness to sway the audience’s opinion. William’s use of Antony having the last word and subterfuge powerfully displayed a moment of literature memorable for the art of persuasion and manipulation. He veiled the true intent. The weaker written speech for Brutus had one effective point. The point that he killed Caesar for Rome. The breakdown of Brutus’s speech makes readers feel the tension and
...low him even to the point that they will risk their lives to get revenge on the conspirators. The fact that Antony persuaded the people to do such things proves that Antony’s speech was more effective at reaching its goal of turning the people against the conspirators.
Using mostly pathos, as Abraham Lincoln did when he delivered the Gettysburg Address, stating, “The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here” (Leggett). This is crucial because it grasps the emotions of those affected by the Battle of Gettysburg. Antony begins his speech by addressing “Friends, Romans, Countrymen” (Holt 834). By addressing this crowd, Antony is catching the attention of those who idolized and cherished Caesar. Antony’s speech was not about clenching the attention for himself, but to turn the attention to the death and the reasoning of why Caesar was murdered. Towards the end of the speech, Antony begins to question the Roman people. Antony begins appealing the emotions by stating “When that the poor have cried, Caesar hath wept” (Holt 835). This means, Caesar was caring enough to cry for the poor people of Rome when they cried in hard times. Antony also states “You all did love him once, not without cause: What cause withholds you then to mourn for him?” (Holt 835). By adding question, Antony is able to make the people of Rome feel the guilt of who and what they should
In William Shakespeare's, Julius Caesar, rhetorical devices are used throughout Decius Brutus’s speech to Caesar to persuade him to attend the senate, and ultimately meet his demise. Decius Brutus uses repetition to directly play into Caesar’s ego and convince him to show at an event he was previously very unsure of. Decius first uses repetition to make Caesar feel as if he were an irreplaceable addition to the senate. He addresses Caesar as, “most mighty Caesar…” (2.2.74) multiple times throughout his oration. The repetition of “mighty” draws Caesar’s attention away from the fact that he really must not go to the senate and instead focuses on why he must. Caesar is known to be easily persuaded by the promise of attention or rewards. Decius
In William Shakespeare’s play, The Tragedy of Julius Caesar, a character named Mark Antony gives a speech to the citizens of Rome in regard to Caesar's unfortunate death. The purpose of his speech is to expose one of killers, Brutus, for his wrongful actions towards the deceased Julius Caesar. Throughout Mark Antony’s speech, rhetorical devices including sarcasm, emotional appeal, and metaphors are used to enhance the effectiveness of the speech by provoking negative emotions towards Brutus to emerge from the audience. Sarcasm with repetition is one of the devices used most often in the speech to enhance the influence of Mark Antony’s words.
...ns. This made Antony's speech more effective in the fact that he used detailed reasoning for why Caesar was not ambitious. This was why the people came to his favor in the end. The tones and rhetorical devices they used helped to capture their audience by appealing to their emotions and helping to move the views of Antony and Brutus's views across to their listeners. Comparing effectiveness and ineffectiveness of both speeches was important in determining which way the people would be swayed.
Antony asks rhetorical questions and lets the audience answer for themselves. Brutus uses ethos by stating that he a noble man and that is why the people should believe him but infact Antony questions his nobility by saying what Brutus said,” Brutus is an honourable man”(III.ii.79). In a way, Antony states what Brutus states to convince the audience by using examples that Brutus is wrong. Antony himself knows what kind of man Brutus is but lets the people figure it out on their own. In addition, Brutus uses logos by expressing that fact that Caesar died because of his ambition. This argument is severely under supported because his reasons are invalid and simply observations. Antony uses “did this in Caesar seem ambitious” to question Brutus’ argument (III.ii.82). Antony gives examples backing his argument like when Caesar refused the crown thrice to prove his humbleness. The way Antony convinces the people to rebel is by using pathos. He brings the audience in by stepping down to their level and showing them the body of Caesar. While Antony talks at Caesar's funeral, he pauses because” heart us in the coffin there with Caesar “(III.ii.98). When Antony becomes emotional, he reminds the audience about what injust event happened to the much loved
Firstly, Antony says a general statement that, “the evil that men do lives after them” (III.ii.74), when in fact he is subtly and sneeringly referring to the conspirators actions. The Roman commoners don’t realize that this general statement is swaying them, but the rest of Antony’s speech further convinces them of the evil the conspirators have done. Later, Antony talks about Brutus says that “sure, [he] is an honourable man” (III.ii.98), emphasis on the sure. Because he uses a scornful tone while sarcastically saying this statement, he is really beginning to show the audience his true feelings on the situation. Knowing that even Antony bitterly disagrees with the choices of the conspirators, it further persuades the common people of Rome to turn against Brutus and the rest of Caesar’s murderers. These occasions show Antony’s sour tone, especially towards the conspirators, and Antony’s tone also riles up the Roman citizens. His tone helps to exasperate the commoners with Caesar’s murder, and therefore assists Antony in achieving his purpose to manipulate the audience to turn against
In William Shakespeare play Julius Caesar, Caesar is assassinated, and the city of Rome becomes enraged, demanding the death of the conspirators that murdered him. Brutus, one of the main assassins, talks to the mob and persuades them to understand that they are at an advantage without Caesar, the tyrant, as the dictator of Rome. He then leaves Mark Antony, who has meticulous orders to not try to pin the murder on the conspirators’ selfishness, but can speak numerous praises about his superior. Mark Antony then speaks to the persuaded crowd about Caesar’s endeavors and the benefits that Caesar gave to the kingdom, giving everything that was necessary and more. Mark Antony’s speech riles the citizens of Rome to mutiny without actually revealing his personal intentions of wishing to do so. In William Shakespeare’s play Julius Caesar, Mark Antony’s speech is more persuasive that Brutus’ speech
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.