Examining how Brutus and Mark Anthony Utilise Language to Manipulate the Audience in Act 3 Scene 2 of Julius Caesar This essay will scrutinize and analyse two speeches from Julius Caesar; firstly Brutus's funeral oration and Mark Anthony's response in Act 3 Scene 2. Brutus as a conspirator against Caesar addresses the audience to justify himself along with his other conspirator's actions whilst Mark Anthony speaks in Caesar's defence and Brutus prosecution. This essay will explore how each character uses rhetorical devices to appeal to the audience. Brutus uses rhetorical questions throughout his oration to the plebeians in Act 3 Scene 2. He uses this in order to create a sense of support for his actions. For instance, 'Who here that is so rude that would not be a roman?' Brutus here makes the audience question their allegiance to Rome. The audience as evidence from Act 1 are passionate about the glory of Rome. Brutus recognises this and attempts to utilise their patriotism for his answer. Brutus that 'Rome' is more important then Caesar. Also his use of alliteration for the 'W' sound strengthens how Brutus questions the crowd to his advantage and to show that he is also justifying his actions. Brutus justifies his reason for speaking throughout his funeral oration because he feels that it is important to strengthen the main reason to the crowd that his and the other conspirators actions were correct and that Caesar's ambition would have destroyed Rome. For example 'With this I depart, - that, as I slew my best lover for the good of Rome, I have the same dagger for myself, when it shall please my country to need my death'. The p... ... middle of paper ... ...h the audience as he directly appeals to the audience. Furthermore, Mark Anthony requests them to listen, which is a friendly way to begin the oration. The use of collective pronouns such as 'our', 'you' and 'we' create an emphasis on the audience which include the audience in Mark Anthony's views. To conclude this essay, I would have to agree that Mark Anthony's funeral oration is the more successful at utilising language in order to manipulate the crowd to his advantage. I think Anthony is more successful at this because he uses many different language techniques but at a formal pace. He implies many things about Brutus and the other conspirators through constant repetition. He repeats all of the constant names, which he wants to keep in the crowds mind in order to make the crowd side with him and to his advantage.
Brutus and Antony’s use of Ethos, Logos, and Pathos throughout the novel are just examples of the everyday persuasion used around us daily, when reading the play it does look like one giant competition to see who is the most persuasive and influential character. Even in today’s economy companies have to compete for the attention of consumers’ worldwide and politicians who argue their beliefs and views to millions of voters in order to get what they want, because the art of persuasion is just one big game.
?What! Drawn, and talk of peace? I hate the word, / as I hate hell, all Montagues, and thee. / Have at thee, coward! ? Act 1, Scene 1, line 67
The Tragedy of Julius Caesar by William Shakespeare is a historic tragedy about the brutal murder of the Roman senator, Julius Caesar. Within the play, Caesar has two close friends—Brutus and Antony. Antony is a loyal friend, supporting Caesar and encouraging him in his climb to kingship; Brutus is a king-fearing traitor who leads the plot to murder Caesar. After Caesar is murdered, both friends make speeches—Brutus to justify his actions and Antony to passive-aggressively disprove his claims. In the speeches, they use three rhetorical literary devices: ethos, the appeal to gain the crowd’s trust; pathos, stirring the crowd’s emotions to influence behavior; and logos, the use of logic to reason with the crowd. By comparing the use of ethos, pathos, and logos in each speech and by
In Act 1 Scene 2, we see that Cassius is jealous of Caesar and detests
In Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar, Brutus and Antony attempt to persuade the audience of their position on the death of Caesar. While Brutus explains that his death was necessary, Antony claims that Caesar was not deserving of his demise. However, though Brutus does have ample credibility and taps into the emotional link with his audience to some extent, he does not convey as powerful of an argument as Antony, as he fails to provide sufficient factual evidence. Antony, on the other hand, utilizes logical argumentation with solid evidence, creates an emotional connection with his audience, and maintains credibility in order to support his own argument. Through this, it can be seen that Antony’s use of rhetorical appeals and devices is superior to Brutus’s in its ability to persuade the Roman audience.
Mark Antony’s speech, whose aim is to counter Brutus’ speech, enlightens the crowd on the unjust murder of Caesar. Though he never directly communicates to the crowd of his feeling towards the conspirators, Antony was able to effectively convey to the crowd, through the use of verbal irony and other stylistic devices/techniques in his speech, his true views of the assassination. Moreover, Antony was able to shrewdly emphasize his belief of the undeserved assassination of Caesar through the wide use of epiphoral and anaphoral structure in his speech. Antony emphasizes the wrongdoings of Brutus and Cassius through the ingenious use of the epistrophe along with verbal irony as he notes that “I should do Brutus wrong, and Cassius wrong” (III, ii, 125). Moreover, he stresses the importance of punishi...
Throughout his famous speech in the play Julius Caesar by William Shakespeare, Mark Antony continuously propagandizes the crowd using his eloquence. From the very beginning of his speech, Antony is facing a crowd that is already not on his side. His unique elocution allows him to fairly easily brainwash the throng into submitting to his ideas about Julius Caesar’s death. Using rhetorical appeals such as logos and pathos, Mark Antony changes the mob’s mind in a timely manner. He uses plausible and convincing reasoning, rationale, and emotional appeal in order to indoctrinate the multitude of Romans into believing what he has to say. Antony’s exceptional mellifluousness helps him put it all together though, leading to the final product that is his acclaimed speech. Mark Antony possesses phenomenal enunciation and flaunts his rare skill admirably as he dexterously instills his views into the brains of the Romans.
middle of his orchard on the morning of the ides of march the day that
In the play The Tragedy of Julius Caesar by William Shakespeare, Julius Caesar is murdered by a group of conspirators under Brutus’ direction wishing to rid Rome of Caesar’s power. At his funeral, Brutus provides Mark Antony, an ally to Caesar, a chance to speak under certain terms: he cannot arouse chaos in the crowd by putting fault on Brutus and the conspirators for the murder of Julius Caesar, and he may only speak well of Caesar. Antony’s speech, however, does stir chaos and disorder in the fluctuating crowd, what he originally intended to do, and they do turn against Brutus. Antony uses appealing language, influential gestures, and significant props to sway the defensive crowd to uprising and rebellion.
The most predominate and important aspect In the play Julius Caesar, by William Shakespeare are the speeches given to the Roman citizens by Brutus and Antony, the two main charaters, following the death of Caesar. Brutus and Antony both spoke to the crowd,using the same rhetorical devices to express their thoughts. Both speakers used the three classical appeals employed in the speeches: ethos, which is an appeal to credibility; pathos, which is an appeal to the emotion of the audience; and logos, which is an appeal to the content and arrangement of the argument itself. Even though both speeches have the same structure Antony’s speech is significantly more effective than Brutus’s.
In William Shakespeare's play The Tragedy of Julius Caesar, two speeches are given to the people of Rome about Caesar's death. In Act 3, Scene 2 of this play Brutus and Antony both try to sway the minds of the Romans toward their views. Brutus tried to make the people believe he killed Caesar for a noble cause. Antony tried to persuade the people that the conspirators committed an act of brutality toward Caesar and were traitors. The effectiveness and ineffectiveness of both Antony's and Brutus's speech to the people are conveyed through tone and rhetorical devices.
Brutus repeatedly says, “If any, speak, for him have I offended,” (III.ii.25). Brutus’ tactic is to try to force someone, or dare them, to disagree with him, which no one ends up doing. Brutus tries to make people fear him, which works for a brief period of time. Mark Antony, on the other hand, goes on the attack, rather than the defense, by repeatedly saying, “Yet Brutus said he was ambitious; And… he is an honourable man.” (III.ii.89-90). By going on the offensive side, Mark Antony uses the repetition of this extreme usage of irony and sarcasm to make the audience understand that all of this is Brutus’ fault and that he should be punished for his crimes, no matter his intentions. Both groups use similar rhetorical strategies to prove that Caesar should or should not be dead for what he has done, with differing results. Brutus and Mark Antony also use emotional appeals to persuade their audience that they are correct in the matter of the death of their esteemed
Companion to the Speeches of Mark Antony and Brutus in William Shakespeare's Julius Caesar. The play Julius Caesar reaches a peak of tension at the point of the two speeches, and so it would seem whichever speech was enjoyed more. by the crowd would make the speaker the more popular. This was in fact the case in the play.
“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.
The speech made by Marcus Antonius, called Antony, in Act Three, Scene Two of Julius Caesar shows that despite being considered a sportsman above all else, he is highly skilled with the art of oratory as well. In the play by William Shakespeare, this speech is made at the funeral of Caesar after he is killed by Brutus and the other conspirators. Brutus claimed earlier, in his own funeral speech, that the killing of Caesar was justified. He felt that Caesar was a threat, and too ambitious to be allowed as ruler. Much of this sentiment, however, was developed by the treacherous Cassius. Antony, on the other hand, felt that the conspirators were traitors to Rome and should be dealt with. This speech used a variety of methods to gradually bring the crowd to his side, yet maintain his side of the deal with Brutus. This deal was that he, “shall not in your funeral speech blame us...” (3.1.245) for the death of Caesar. Antony holds his end of the deal for the majority of the speech, yet by doing so convinces the crowd of Brutus' and the others' disloyalty. In many ways, this speech can be seen as the ultimate rhetoric, and it includes all three of Aristotle's methods of persuasion. This are the appeal to credibility, called ethos, the appeal to emotions, called pathos, and the appeal to logic, called logos. All three of these devices are used to great effect during the speech of Marcus Antonius.