Mya Hayes
Pre-AP English II
Ms. Tatum
27 April 2018 Mark Antony: The Line Between Right & Wrong “Vengeance is not the point; change is. But the trouble is that in most people’s minds the thought of victory and the thought of punishing the enemy coincide.” ~ Barbara Deming In the play, The Tragedy of Julius Caesar, Mark Antony had a purpose in life and influenced many people throughout it. He committed his life to Julius Caesar, whom he considered to be a genuine friend. He has shown to love Caesar and after his passing, he undergoes several changes mentally. Mark Antony’s loyalty and intelligence make him power hungry and full of vengeance. For example, Shakespeare makes him contribute to the
…show more content…
On one particular occasion, he says, “Therefore, I took your hands, but, was indeed, swayed from that point, by looking down on Caesar. Friends am I with you all and love you all, upon this hope that you shall give me reasons why and where in Caesar was dangerous” (III.i.230-234). Antony realizes that Brutus needs him to join the conspirators reason on why they needed to kill Caesar. By knowing this he exploits Brutus’ illusion by telling the conspirators, “Friends am I will you all and love you all.” Thus, the conspirators are being manipulated by Antony into believing that he’ll go along with them. He, likewise, figures out a way to use his intelligence to manipulate the crowd into turning against the conspirators. In this statement, he affirms, “Having patience, gentle friends, I must not read it; It is not meet you know how Caesar loved men; and being man, bearing the will of Caesar it will inflame you, it will make you mad” (III.ii.139-143). This demonstrates how Antony manipulates the public by making them think he cannot read the will which makes the crowd’s feelings more unstable. By sharing Caesar’s will, he has control over the plebeians. This ties in how his loyalty to Caesar motivated him into manipulating the crowd into turning against the conspirators, which begins a civil …show more content…
He did unusual actions that he did not know he was incapable of doing because of love. His motive was to avenge Caesar due to the amount of loyalty he had for him. He wanted to help Caesar and do what he could not do since he is dead. He would have done what any other person would have done for their friend because it is human nature; nevertheless, his loyalty pushed him into using his intelligence and manipulation, at the same time, that caused the outbreak of war and the destruction of the Roman
In his play Julius Caesar, Shakespeare employs various rhetorical strategies such as direct address, repetition, and apostrophe in Antony’s eulogy to convince the crowd into believing that Caesar was a good ruler. His excellent use of rhetoric begins before he starts his speech through the establishment of familiarity. Before Antony begins his speech, he refers to the crowd as “friends, romans, [and] countrymen” to establish a personal connection, indicating the use of direct address (3.2.82). By referring to the crowd as “friends,” Antony removes any separation between him and the audience, establishing a close bond by choice. As it came first on his list, it emphasizes the importance of his friendship with the audience as friendship implies
Playwright, William Shakespeare, in the play Julius Caesar, utilizes many instances of rhetorical devices through the actions and speech of Caesar's right-hand man, Mark Antony. In the given excerpt, Antony demonstrates several of those rhetorical devices such as verbal irony, sarcasm, logos, ethos, and pathos which allows him to sway the plebeians. The central purpose of Mark Antony’s funeral speech is to persuade his audience into believing that Caesar had no ill intentions while manipulating the plebeians into starting a rebellion against their new enemies, Brutus and the conspirators.
In this day and age, persuasion can be seen on almost any screen. The average American views thousands of advertisements every week. Most ads are simply pushed out of a person’s mind, but the successful advertisements are the ones that resonate with people. Some forms of ads are very annoying to those who put up with them constantly. Online pop-up ads, for example, are proven to do worse for products and business than no advertising at all! This is because this form of advertising does nothing to convince or persuade the person viewing the ad, and no effort is put into actually put into proving what it’s worth to make a point. Pop-ads make zero use of something known as “rhetorical devices”. In Julius Caesar, Brutus and Mark Antony both try to convey their point of view to a large audience of Roman citizens. One had a better speech than the other since he used “rhetorical devices” more effectively. Logos (logical; what makes sense), Ethos (ethics and morals; portraying similar beliefs and values), and Pathos (emotions; natural feelings that can be counterintuitive to logos) are the rhetorical devices that Aristotle
The book Julius Caesar is full of happiness, conspiracy, power, and betrayal. The people of Rome deeply loved julius Caesar and wished to make him their king. A group of senators however were not so fond of this idea and formed a conspiracy. The leader of this group was a man by the name of Cassius. In order to make sure that his scheme of killing Caesar would work and would look honorable he had to convince a senator by the name of Brutus to help. After being convinced that they had to kill Caesar to protect Rome from a tyrant Brutus joined the conspiracy and soon became the principal conspirator.On the day in which Caesar was to be crowned king he was on the way to the senate when he was stabbed by all the conspirators panic ensued and to convince Rome of their honorable intentions Brutus gave a funeral speech. Mark Antony, a very close friend of Caesar, gave his speech after Brutus had given his. Mark Antony’s speech is more persuasive to the Roman people because of his outstanding use of pathos, sarcasm, and logos.
Rhetorical devices can be seen being used in history, such as William Shakespeare’s dramatic play “Julius Caesar”. In Shakespeare’s play Brutus and Antony conspire to lead a group to assassinate Caesar. Rome is in a panic as they find out that their first emperor Octavian who went by the name Julius Caesar has been stabbed to death. Brutus and Antony in an effort to achieve Rome’s support use rhetorical devices to try to receive support for their actions. You can see how they use ethos, pathos, and logos to eventually achieve their goal of persuading the citizens of Rome.
Tragic Hero in Julius Caesar A tragic hero is the character whose actions deeply affect the other characters and who creates a series of events that eventually lead to the character’s downfall and the downfall of his loved ones. Such a hero possesses a flaw in character that influences his actions and thinking and especially his judgments. In logically determining who the hero in Julius Caesar is, one simply must find the one character who fits the above guidelines. Marcus Brutus is the only one, and, thus, he is the tragic hero.
Mark Antony, in the play The Tragedy of Julius Caesar, was a brave, intelligent, pleasure-loving, and cunning man. He was loyal to his friend, Caesar, whom he considered a true friend. He looked at life as a game in which he had a signified part to play, and played that part with excellent refinement and skill.
The central theme of Act III, Scene ii of “Julius Caesar” by William Shakespeare is the power of rhetoric because it shows the effect of two funeral orators’ on the crowd. In this scene, Antony and Brutus have similar purpose in talking to the public, which is to gain the support of the Plebeians according to their conflicting views about Caesar’s assassination. This essay focuses on comparing the orations of the two speakers in this part of the play according to Aristotle’s rhetoric system. According to Aristotle’s writings, Antony’s speech is more persuasive than Brutus’ speech, because he is able to provide logical, emotional and ethical appeals to his audience. Firstly, in comparison to Brutus’ logic, Antony provides more evidence to prove that Caesar was not ambitious. Secondly, Antony’s emotional acts and speech moved his audience more than Brutus. Finally, Antony acts more noble than Brutus does.
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
When the conspirators allows Antony to speak at Caesar’s funeral, he exposed the men for their crimes and exploited them for their corrupt motives. When the conspirators allows Antony to speak at Caesar’s funeral, he exposed the men for their crimes and exploited them for their corrupt motives. Throughout the whole play, Antony never hides the truth from his generals and his motives for participating in the war are clear. During his speech with the citizens of Rome, they ask Antony to read Caesar’s will and he willingly does it. After reading the will, he explains what Caesar wants and justifies his actions. “For I have neither wit, nor words, nor worth, actions, nor utterance, nor the power of speech, to stir men’s blood. I only speak right on.” said Antony. This quote from the text is talking about how Antony only speaks the truth and only speaks about what he knows is right. As seen in the text, Mark Antony was a smooth talking blunt man who used his honesty to his advantage to gain people’s trust and power. Cassius was a deceitful man, who cheated his way into a powerful position. He used other men as pawns to get what he wanted from life. His motives were awful and the outcome of his actions was bad too. During the play, Cassius talks to Brutus and tries to persuade him to join his side by lying to him. There is so much flattery that Cassius gives Brutus to help persuade him. “I have not from
“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.
At the beginning of Act III, Brutus has the most power because he is still the most honorable person, and has not murdered Caesar yet. The people know about the conspiracy to kill Caesar, based on the fact that Artimidorous tried to warn Caesar, however, they did not try to stop the conspirators. These events demonstrate that the people thought he was doing the right thing for the people of Rome. After the conspirators killed Caesar, the common people were saying, “Caesar’s better parts / shall be crowned in Brutus” (A3, s2, line 52-53). This means that everything that the people liked in Caesar will be in Brutus, once they crown him king. Right after the plebeians said this, Mark Antony made all of the people change their minds and go against Brutus and the other conspirators. At this point, Antony now has the most power in Rome because he has changed the minds of all the people in Rome. The people were for Brutus being the king, but in a very short time, Antony swayed the people against the conspirators. This shows that the people value his opinion so highly that it overruled the fact that Brutus only does actions for the most honorable reasons. For example, when the people say, “Revenge! About! Seek! Burn! Fire! Kill! Slay! /Let not a traitor live!” (A3, s2, line 210-211). This means the the people of Rome won’t let the death of Caesar rest until the people avenge the death of their soon to
Rome is thought of as one of the greatest empires the world has ever seen. And the greatest ruler of the greatest empire, possibly the entire world, is Julius Caesar. Julius Caesar is known today to be a trustworthy, fair and brave leader, but you don’t become the greatest leader to ever live by not succeeding. He understood this and he was successful beyond measure.
After Marc Antony’s speech, he convinces the town people to revolt against the conspirators by controlling ego and not letting his id overrun him. “The id is the primitive urge to seek pleasure without concern for boundaries” (Losh). The conspirators killed Caesar, who Antony loved very much. It is possible that his id compelled him to want revenge on the conspirators. The ego, which deals with the part of the mind interacting with the environment and people, would make Antony rationalize and realize that he couldn’t kill the conspirators, but he could get other people to, like the mob. Knowing this, Antony could have intentionally convinced the mob to revolt against the conspirators, but he couldn’t just come out and tell them to. He had to make them want to kill the conspirators, and think that it was their idea by addressing their ids. If Antony got the mob on his side about Caesar, they would feel betrayed by the conspirators and their ids would make them want immediate revenge. By convincing the townspeople that Caesar was a great man and leader, and that he didn’t deserve being killed for the reasons that the conspirators gave, Antony got the mob...
A lot is learned about Julius Caesar in the first two acts of Shakespeare’s play. One of his qualities includes being superstitious. In act one scene two, Caesar tells Mark Antony to touch Calpurnia’s stomach while he passes by in the race “for our elders say the barren touchèd in this holy chase, shake off their sterile curse.” Caesar believes that by having an athletic man touch her stomach, Calpurnia, a barren woman, will be able to bear children. However, Caesar sees this superstitious behavior as a weakness, and Julius Caesar does not show weakness. When the Soothsayer warned Caesar to “beware the Ides of March” in the same scene, he passed it off as silly and ignored the warning. Caesar thought that if he showed fear, then others would think he is not fit for the throne. At that time in the play, all the people of Rome seemed thrilled to offer Caesar the crown. They were almost desperate, and Caesar used that advantage to quench his need to be fawned over. When Casca is telling Cassius and Brutus what happened with Caesar, he tells them that Caesar was offered the crown twice ...