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Short notes on Shakespeare's historical plays
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Rhetorical analysis essay cdc
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"Et tu, Brute?" (3.1.1153). The immortality of the quip is astounding, as people today who haven't even read The Tragedy of Julius Caesar, by William Shakespeare, quote Caesar's famous last words, sometimes unknowingly. In such is displayed the power of rhetoric, an attribute also revealed by the lasting effects the two different eulogies presented at Julius Caesar's funeral-of-sorts. Indeed, in presenting distinct speeches before a crowd of plebeians and Caesar's corpse, Brutus and Mark Antony change Rome's future in indubitably surviving ways: demonstrations rally in the streets of Rome, Brutus and his operation's puppeteer-of-sorts Cassius flee, and a war between those who'd avenge Caesar as true friends of Rome and those whose unquenchable …show more content…
Brutus uses prose, perhaps showing less calculation than his words would have one think he'd want to flaunt; in understanding his speech theretofore, the divide between his masterfully premeditated words and his apparently hasty organization of said words is seemingly unintentional and perhaps even sloppy. However, such an odd combination can actually withal have the effect of causing his audience to think he conceived of his reasons on-the-fly; his use of prose can be interpreted as his attempt to appear inherently logical and innately judicial by the most brilliant faculty so as to build up an even bigger ethos in an unexpected and confounding way. And it works; consequent cries from the plebeians include, "Live, Brutus, live, live!", a quote that seems far too emotional for an audience who merely just listened to a speech involving much dispassionate logic; yes, it is the prose style of the speech that allows introspection and application to reality of the part of his audience, causing the mob to associate his more calculated claims with human values and attributes instead of those of, say, a statue (3.2.1419). In contrast, Mark Antony uses blank verse, which is fairly poetic and rhythmic; this is likely so as to provide a structure and flow that shows wherewithal and intention and provides a sense of ethos, which the words themselves seem to lack in pursuing the piercing and vivid pathos they did. It can be said that the sobbing on Mark Antony's part contributed to his speech and even bettered it; but sobs alone do no good in this sort of setting if there's no fruitful organization of them. Mark Antony's weeping before the mass of plebeians could simply result in a lump in the collective jugular anatomy of the people there; however, it is not so: because of the deliberate organization of his speech, Mark Antony is able to convert raw emotional power into neat and logical
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.
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...
Brutus vs Antony 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 characters, 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. Both speakers used an ethical appeal to the crowd and established their credibility.
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
Brutus made his speech to the public first, he did not really connect to the audience on an emotional level like Antony did in his speech. He really just provided reasons and facts as to why he murdered Julius Caesar. Therefore, Brutus is using Logos throughout his speech, which appeals to intellect and reasoning. Brutus says “hear me for my cause, and be silent, that you may hear.” (Anderson 831). He is trying
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
We have all tried to convince someone that we are right and another person's wrong.Sometimes you win and sometimes you lose it all depends on how strong your argument is. Other times you're even trying to win over a crowd like in a debate. Well in the tragedy Julius Caesar by William Shakespeare Antony and Brutus both give a speech to the people of Rome trying to convince them to side with either Brutus or Antony. Antony says the murder of Caesar was not justified and Brutus thinks it was. Mark Antony gave a more effective funeral speech than Brutus.
Unlike Brutus, Antony had a lot of strong pathos points such as , “For Brutus, as you know, was Caesar’s angel,/ Judge, O you gods, how dearly Caesar loved him! (3,2,193) When Antony said this, he did not directly say anything bad about the conspirators, this influences the plebeians to feel sympathetic towards Caesar and possibly somewhat, resentful towards Brutus and his accomplices. Antony is able to show his sympathy and he was able to get the conspirators to feel sympathy. Brutus was not able to manipulate the individuals in the same was as Antony. Antony was also able to use ethos as well as Brutus did. Just like Brutus, Antony was able to connect to the individuals by starting out his speech with, “Friends, Romans and countrymen…’ (3,1,82) Here he is showing them that he’s a common person. Brutus uses mostly ethos, this shows that he is straight to the point. But with Antony, he makes people think like when he says, “He hath brought many captives home to Rome,/ Whose ransoms did the general coffers fill./ Did this in Caesar seem ambition? (3,1,97) Mark Antony’s speech was more persuasive than Brutus’ simply because Brutus was only trying to persuade the audience that killing caesar was the right thing to do. Antony’s
In William Shakespeare’s play, Julius Caesar, Mark Antony calls upon “Friends, Romans, [and] countrymen” to lend their ears to him in order to convince the populace of Rome to rise against the conspirators that had murdered him. The main conspirators, Casca, Cassius, and Brutus, portray Caesar as a tyrannical ruler with a terrible ambition for power and express that in killing Caesar, they have only done what is best for Rome. However, after indirectly dispelling Brutus’ claim that Caesar was ambitious, Mark Antony’s rhetoric persuades the auditors into a state of rebellion through his cunning use of language. Antony veils his words when speaking to the crowd of Romans because he is given permission to speak at the funeral on the one condition
One of these speeches, delivered by Cassius, carries the sole purpose of recruiting Brutus to aide with Caesar's assassination plot. During this speech, Cassius uses powerful emotions to try to elicit feelings of hatred towards Caesar from one of his closest friends. Another famous speech in the play, delivered by Brutus directly following the murder of Caesar, displays such powerful use of rhetoric that Brutus changes the feelings of a crowd of thousands from anger to gratitude. When Brutus speaks, he persuades the audience that the murder of their most beloved ruler actually took place to benefit them, which is no easy feat when dealing with an angry mob. Brutus speaks with such powerful emotion that the crowd knows no other way to feel, as shown here, " Not that I loved Caesar less, but that I loved Rome more. Had you rather Caesar were living and die all slaves, than that Caesar were dead to live freemen?" (3.2.23-25). Lastly, Mark Antony’s speech, directly following the one given by Brutus, shows perhaps the most powerful use of rhetoric in the whole play. In one monologue, Antony changes the crowd’s mind again, this time against Brutus. Without saying anything negative about any the conspirators, Antony successfully drums up an army of people ready to fight in honor of their great leader. By far the most successful
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
Shakespeare is no where close to modern text but, he does know how to achieve a certain purpose in writing which is used today. The play, Julius Caesar, has two very important speeches that are uttered by the characters Mark Antony and Brutus while at Caesar’s funeral. Brutus’ speech, which shows what should be his sorrow for Caesar’s death that he allowed, uses the rhetorical appeal pathos in order to get his point across. This appeal provides emotion to persuade the audience into believing the speaker. In this case, Brutus is making an effort to get the people of Rome to believe that Caesar had to die. That’s why throughout the speech, he continues to state how he is mourning the loss of his friend. There are also rhetorical strategies
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
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.