How Does Julius Caesar Use Of Persuasion

Protecting Reputation with Persuasion

In The Tragedy of Julius Caesar, characters use persuasion to either benefit themselves or others depending on their motivation. Gaius Cassius, Marc Antony, and Marcus Brutus all persuade themselves or other of different things, but they all achieve the same result. Overwhelmingly, more characters use persuasion to affect others in order to fulfill their needs and wants, whether they intend to or not.

In Julius Caesar, Marcus Brutus, the best friend of Julius Caesar, tries to convince himself that he should join the conspirators to kill Caesar. Brutus believes he joins the conspirators for the good of the people, but really he benefits himself in a roundabout way. “It must be by his death. And for my

part / I know no personal cause to spurn at him / But for the general” (II.i.10-12). Brutus agrees that the only way to protect the people from Caesar is to kill him, so Caesar doesn’t gain too much power. Yet Brutus is reluctant because he is good friends with Caesar, so he doesn’t want to kill him. But, in order for the people not to suffer, Brutus convinces himself to kill Caesar, but not before reminding himself that he has no personal cause for this action and is acting as a martyr.
That lowliness is young ambition’s ladder
And therefore think him as a serpent’s egg,
Which, hatched, would, as his kind, grow
And kill him in the shell. (II.i.23, 33-36)
Ultimately, Caesar’s greatest flaw was his ambition and confidence, which led to his best friend choosing to kill him in order to stop him from gaining too much power.

Caesar poses such a threat that his best friend would go so far as to compare him to a serpent. Brutus decides he must kill Caesar “in the shell”, or before he becomes too powerful and he nips it in the bud. Although Brutus wholeheartedly believes that he is killing Caesar for the common good, Caesar’s death still benefits Brutus. Since killing Caesar prevented him from becoming a power-hungry dictator, it saved Brutus’ back in a roundabout way. Since Brutus was best friends with Caesar, if Caesar became dictator for life and abused his position of power, Brutus would be looked down upon as well because he didn’t do anything to stop Caesar. Therefore, Caesar’s death benefitted Brutus in the way that it protected his

reputation.
After Caesar is murdered, his good friend Marc Antony is naturally upset and wants to avenge his death. When the conspirators confessed that they were the ones that killed Caesar, Antony made a request that he would be able to speak at Caesar’s funeral after Brutus does. The conspirators unknowingly agreed to a part of Antony’s plan to avenge Caesar. Antony uses manipulation through ethos, pathos, and logos to convince the crowd at the funeral to turn against the conspirators and inspire them to help avenge Caesar’s death. After Brutus speaks at the funeral and convinces the crowd to be on the conspirator’s side, Antony immediately goes up after and convinces them of the opposite. The main reason the conspirators give for Caesar’s death was his ambition, and Antony proves to the crowd that Caesar was actually not ambitious. “When that the poor have cried, Caesar hath wept; / Ambition should be made of sterner stuff. / Yet Brutus says he was ambitious” (III.ii.100-103). Antony tells of a time when Caesar gave money to the poor, and when the poor cried, Caesar cried with them, which a person who was so ambitious would not have done. Antony even goes as far to say that since Brutus called Caesar ambitious, he was wrong and is dishonorable for saying that Caesar was ambitious. As Antony continues to give his funeral speech, he manipulates the crowd by using ethos, pathos, and logos. “Poor soul, his eyes are red as fire with weeping” (III.ii.127). This line is spoken by a townsperson who was listening to Antony’s speech and was remarking on the fact that Antony had to stop speaking for a moment because he was weeping. Of course, Antony would have been devastated by the death of his good friend, but he amps up the sorrow in front of the crowd in order to get them to side with him. Antony’s speech ends with the crowd expressing their desire to burn the conspirator’s houses down and to kill them as well. Caesar’s death resulted in the amount of power Antony had to exponentially increase. Before Caesar’s death, he had all of the power as a dictator, but after he died, Antony co-ruled with two other people, him being the most dominant out of the three. Antony, Octavius, and Lepidus are having a meeting to decide whom they should execute for disagreeing with and disobeying them. “These many, then, shall die; their names are / pricked” (IV.i.1-2). As ruler, Antony is able to order people to be killed and nobody can stop him. Before Caesar died, Antony never would’ve had this power, since Caesar declared himself dictator for life. By Caesar dying, it transferred most of the power to Antony, who benefited considerably.
Gaius Cassius is the first person to introduce the idea of murdering Caesar to Brutus.

As a person, Cassius is mischievous and good at manipulating, making him the perfect persuader. In order to persuade Brutus to join the conspiracy against Caesar, Cassius bad-mouthed Caesar and pointed out his flaws. “He had a fever when he was in Spain... / How he did shake. ’Tis true, this god did shake / His coward lips did their color fly” (126, 127-128). Cassius is acquaintances with Caesar, so he knows a decent amount about his life. Cassius tells Brutus about a time when he and Caesar were in Spain and Caesar fell ill and had a seizure. By telling Brutus this, Cassius is pointing out flaws in Caesar that make him an unfit leader. Cassius also calls Caesar a coward, showing his utter disrespect and dislike for him both as a person and a leader. Cassius also mocks Caesar by calling him a god, implying that he is the opposite since he would be so weak as to have a seizure. Although Cassius claims that he wants to kill Caesar for the good of the people, those are not his real motivations. Cassius constantly belittles Caesar and tries to prove that he is not a good leader, showing his jealousy. “I had as lief not to be as live to be / In awe of such a thing as I myself” (I.ii.102-103). Cassius does not get why everyone is in awe of Caesar’s glory and believes that he deserves just as much glory as Caesar. Cassius states that he would rather die than worship a man who is below him.

Cassius is so hostile towards Caesar because he is jealous of Caesar’s power. Since Caesar declared himself dictator for life, that makes the people in the Senate like Cassius basically powerless. By killing Caesar, there would not be a dictator anymore and the Senate would go back to having a fair amount of power. Therefore, Cassius benefits from Caesar’s death in the same way that Marc Antony did, in the way that it increases his power.
In Julius Caesar, most of the characters who use persuasion use it to benefit themselves. Gaius Cassius and Marc Antony know they are using persuasion manipulatively to get what they desire, but Marcus Brutus unknowingly helps himself through his persuasion. Although some of the characters use persuasion for power, some use it to protect themselves and their reputation. Either way, persuasion is a powerful tool in Julius Caesar, and many people were fooled.