Cassius Rhetoric

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In Ancient Rome, a man by the name of Julius Caesar is rising to power. Cassius, a conspirator against Ceasar, does not believe that this shall happen. In the story “Julius Caesar” written by William Shakespeare, Cassius in act one, scene two, Cassius is attempting to persuade Brutus that Caesar is a weak man who is no better than Brutus. Cassius describes Caesar using ethos and dark ethos so that he can access Brutus’s pride and cause Brutus to feel that he is a great man and that Caesar does not deserve this power.
Cassius is trying to create the downfall of Caesar. He is trying to persuade Brutus because he is Caesar’s best friend as well as Cassus’s. Therefore because he trusts Cassius, he can likely persuade Brutus to understand his point of view. Furthermore because Brutus is Caesar’s close friend he can get close to Caesar.
In lines 57-78, Cassius makes Brutus feel that he is a great man and that if he were to see his inner qualities that he would believe it too. Joseph J Romm in his Book “Language Intelligence” states, “Getting noticed and getting “in” have been the twin tasks for rhetoric for over two thousand years” (1). Cassius is slowly getting in and getting noticed by building Brutus up so that he can feel that is a great person and later that Caesar is not. Cassius later attempts to make himself look trustworthy by saying “Were I a common laughter, or did use/ to stale with ordinary oaths my love to every new protestor... then hold me dangerous” (I.ii.72-74 & 78). He is acting as if he is not a deceiving person by basically saying that if you don’t believe that I do not deceive people then let it be that way. By doing this, he seems like he is giving up on Brutus so it seems that Cassius doesn’t care what...

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...bout it and that he too dislikes these conditions.
Smart men who use their language of language intelligence are capable of causing good people to do bad things. In the story “Julius Caesar” written by William Shakespeare Cassius uses ethos and ethical fallacies to persuade Brutus to assist him in taking Caesar down. Cassius works hard to get Brutus on his side by entering Brutus’s pride and persuade him that Caesar does not deserve to be king. In the end Cassius does make progress but doesn’t get there yet. Brutus is still considering what Cassius has said and he has asked that they talk later about the rest.

Works Cited

Shakespeare, William. The tragedy of Julius Caesar
McDougal Little. 2009. Print.
Romm, Joseph J. Language Intelligence: Lessons on Persuasion from Jesus, Shakespeare, Lincoln, and Lady Gaga. North Charleston, SC: CreateSpace, 2012. Print.

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