What Are The Rhetorical Strategies In Julius Caesar

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Recommended: Rhetoric in the speeches of Julius Caesar

A Comparison between Eulogies in the play Julius Caesar
In speechcraft, orators have reverted to three basic concepts to persuade an audience; ethics, logic or emotion. All views are powerful, the path of emotion, or pathos, has stirred men to riots, the path of ethics, or ethos, has reminded people of the basest of their knowing and the path of logic, or logos, has calmed the savagest of beasts to men. No matter how human's develop, they retain the remnants of their not so distant cousins, animals. This is apparent when one takes note in the brain's ability to overcome human speech with basic emotions, to ‘render one speechless’ if you will. In these cases, much like animals, humans are propelled into action, leaving behind civilized concepts, …show more content…

In the Shakespearean play Julius Caesar, the speech recited by Mark Anthony for Caesar’s death was far superior to Brutus’s because it appealed to the audience's primal emotion while simultaneously relating …show more content…

The most significant example is when a ruffled tribune, Marullus, screams at a crowd of celebrating peasants You blocks, you stones, you worse than senseless things (1.1.39) while they were celebrating Caesar’s victory over his rival Pompey. Another prominent example of this style was used in Mark Antony's Eulogy in Act 3, where he said You are not wood, you are not stones, but men. And being men, hearing the will of Caesar will inflame you; it will make you mad (3.2.154) In this quote, Mark Anthony is dangling the will of Caesar in front of the already animated crowd, appealing to the fundamental want of knowledge, and in hopes of gaining an even stronger reaction from the gathered peoples. By using this quote in his speech Mark Antony allows a bound of pathos to grow between himself and the majority. He differs from the other tribunes, who compared these same peasants to stones. Caesar’s right hand man has planted a seed, making the audience believe that Anthony is truly on the side of the people while also believing Caesar was kind and devoted to the peoples of Rome. This seed continued to grow when the full realization of the departed senator deaths hit the Romans at the sight of his mangled body.
The final point made by the tribune Mark anthony was the driving stake into his masterpiece to completely drive the city of Rome into anarchy. But were I Brutus,

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