Comparing Logos And Ethos In Mark Antony's Speech

There are many parts to a speech that make it powerful. The three main categories that can decide how good a speech is are logos, ethos, and pathos. Logos is a person's logic and reasoning behind their argument, ethos is the trust between the speaker and the crowd, and pathos is the emotion in a speech. All of these are important to helping a speech be as strong as possible and without them, a speech with a lot of potential can seem dull and unimportant. When comparing and contrasting speeches, these are some key components to look for. If we compared Martin Luther King Jr's “I Have a Dream”speech with Mark Antony’s speech in the play The Tragedy of Julius Caesar by William Shakespeare, Martin Luther King Jr's speech is more powerful because although they both had a firm belief that they deserved what they were protesting for, Martin Luther King Jr. had much more pathos, with emotional pauses and analogies.

In Julius Caesar, Mark Antony performs a very touching and successful speech. After the conspirators kill Caesar, Antony carries Caesar’s body out onto the steps of the senate house in front of the civilians of Rome. Before the speech, the people are happy that Caesar has been killed and are completely

loyal to Brutus. After, however, the people turn into an angry mob and wreak havoc throughout the city and are angry at all the conspirators, especially Brutus. Antony’s speech contains lots of logos, ethos, and pathos. Antony shows logos by explaining that Caesar deeply cared for them. He says that ‘When that the poor have cried, Caesar hath wept:’ (III, ii, 90). This shows how Caesar cared for the people of Rome. This quote was especially powerful because the group it was presented to had a very diverse range of authority since what had just occurred was extremely important and most of Rome was there. Another way he shows logos was by saying in the ‘will’ that Caesar has left seventy-five drachmas to every man in Rome. This shows how he cared for the people of Rome which got the people to think of how kind a ruler he was. He shows ethos in his speech when in the first line he calls them ‘Friends’. This establishes a bond between Antony and the civilians because the word shows trust and puts them as equals. Finally, he shows his pathos throughout the speech. He occasionally took clever pauses to add suspense and show more emotion which helps to get the people riled up. He also gets angrier and angrier throughout the work until he was screaming to the people which led to incalculable mayhem throughout the crowd. 2000 years later, another man presented another very touching and outstanding speech.
On August 28, 1963, Martin Luther King Jr gave a speech in front of the Lincoln Memorial. His “I Have A Dream” speech is considered to be one of the most powerful speeches of his time. He created this speech because of the inequality during the time. There was racism, segregation, and danger, but his speech helped gain followers and make his struggle gain momentum to reach their goal of equality. He used the techniques to convey his message and it worked beautifully. He showed logos by quoting the Constitution and Declaration by saying how ‘the architects of our republic wrote the magnificent words of the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence, they were signing a promissory note to which every American was to fall heir. In this note was a promise that all men, yes, black men, as well as white men, would be guaranteed the inalienable rights or life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness’. This quote is saying how they deserved their rights of freedom from segregation, equal treatment, and other rights African American’s didn’t have at the time by these formal documents, which is firm evidence that these rights should not be restricted. He put ethos in it when he told people personal stories of how he thought the treatment to African Americans was at the time and how he believed it should be, such as his dream of equality. This added a level of trust between the crowd and him, giving his speech more power. Finally, he used pathos extremely well by repeating the phrase ‘I Have a Dream’. This increased the impact and level of success of his speech. Another way he showed pathos was by raising his voice and increasing his volume which had a stronger effect to the listeners because it made the recipients remember key parts of the speech by fluctuating his voice.
These two speeches are similar in many ways. First off, both have lots of emotion throughout the whole piece. The speakers both pause, yell and express ideas very well. Next, both were presented to similar audiences that were of mixed levels of society at the time. Another similarity is how both had goals they truly believed were right and wanted to reach. This desire fueled their emotion that helped to convince their crowd how their view is the correct one. Finally, both used repetition as a key element to their piece for an improved effect on the piece to make it have a stronger influence on the people.
Along with these similarities were many differences.

To start, Martin Luther King Jr referenced the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence which added reliability to his speech giving it more power. Another difference was how Martin Luther King Jr paused very often. While Mark Antony did pause, he did a few long pauses while Martin Luther King Jr had smaller but more numerous pauses. This allowed for more thinking on what he had just said which helped the people remember key points in his speech very clearly, which gave his speech a much more enduring effect. Finally, Mark Antony used props during his speech by holding up the evidence of the will, Caesar’s body, and Caesar’s robe to help him gain strength and this helped him be

successful.
Ultimately, Martin Luther King Jr’s ‘I Have a Dream’ is a much more influential and powerful speech than Mark Antony’s. There is more emotion, strength, and a firmer connection to the audience present in Martin Luther King Jr’s speech that made it so great. As excellent as Mark Antony’s speech was, he could not convey his message as well as Martin Luther King Jr.