The Four Literary Tools Used in Julius Ceasar

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In this speech, the crowd's initial feelings consisted of mourning and solemnnity. Brutus' speech put a note of finality on the controversy of Caesar's murder, allowing his audience to let go and not pursue the conspirators against Julius Caesar. After Brutus' speech at Caesar's classic funeral, Marc Antony makes a vigorous speech. Where Brutus used no passion, Mark Antony exploited it at every possibility. The crowd's feelings are changed greatly because of Antony's moving speech. Antony employs diction and repetition tactfully to implore the audience to Brutus' dark agenda. Rhetorical questions are another powerful tool used by Brutus to strain the wrong that has occurred in Rome and its necessary correction, using their ethics.

Since this is not a written expression to the people and a speech directly to the people, Antony also uses alliteration heavily.

Brutus' tone in his speech addressing Caesar's passing to the public is described as rational; Antony recognizes this weakness and uses the powerful leverage of passion to sway the audience in his favor. The first way he does this is by employing powerful diction and repetition. There is contrasting diction in the passage to make Antony's points shine through: "evil", "good"; "ambitious", "grievous"; "love", "mourn". The opening line is a now classic and powerful employment of diction: "Friends, Romans, countrymen, lend me your ears". This one line commands the attention of the audience immediately. Later in the text, after the first few lines, the words Brutus and Caesar are never in a same line. This use of "he" when Antony speaks about Brutus' comments about Caesar creates great distance between Brutus and Caesar and immediately gives Brutus' argument a much ...

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...ind of the crowd and reverse their initial feelings towards Caesar. One is alliteration, which captures the listener's ears immediately, and creates harsher comparison, while speaking of the personal subject of values of the Roman citizens. Another tool are the rhetorical questions posed to the audience by Antony. He demands that they think of their personal connection to Caesar and their values; he indirectly states that they must take action to this murdering of their leader through these questions. Repetition is used throughout to embolden the points of Brutus' original speech. Parts of the speech are also made more important by their repetition, including some values of the Romans once again. Finally, diction is a critical part of the argument Antony proposes. His different use of words creates contrast and highlights his core points.

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