How Does Shakespeare Use Ethos In Julius Caesar

“A fool thinks himself to be wise but a wise man knows himself to be a fool.”-William Shakespeare. Shakespeare has written many famous plays and has inspired many movie adaptations of his plays. One of his famous plays is Julius Caesar, this play is about Julius Caesar, 2 betraying friends, and the entirety of Rome after his death. Two main characters in this play are Cassius and brutus, which are Caesar’s best friends(that end up killing him), and their plan to overthrow Caesar and rule Rome together. One of the more important pieces of literature in the play is the infamous Marc Antony speech. The strategies that he uses in the speech are great and very well written. Shakespeare wrote this speech using ethos, logos, and pathos.

Antony is delivering this speech, after Brutus's speech, in front of the Roman peo0ple shortly after Caesar’s death. He is delivering this speech in spite of Brutus and Cassius killing good Casar. Having known they killed Caesar after all he did for them and Rome was shocking to him. The speech was delivered under the circumstance that Anotony wanted to related to the “common folk” and somehow raise their spirits as he talked about all of Caesar's motivation,achievements, and ambition. The people of Rome are all hearing his speech and are agreeing with his every word. The people are still very upset and distressed by

Caesar's recent death; their emotions are hostile but their actions are agreeable.

Shakespeare used the rhetorical device ethos in part 1.

Ethos refers to the writers/speakers credibility which may be dependent upon what is perceived by the general population (or intended audience) to be ethical or valuable. As Antony delivered his speech the people believed him because he was a follower of Caesar and stood behind Caesar and all his political decisions he made for Rome. Antony was a “credible” source and the people felt validated and heard. His speech helped him aggravate the crowd and relate to them as his speech help appreciate and discuss Caesar's and his tragic death with stirring stuff

up.

In Part 2 of the speech Antony uses repetition and rhetorical questions as he speaks to the distressed crowd. He repeats, in a sarcastic tone, about Brutus being honorable. “Here, under leave of Brutus and the rest/For Brutus is an honourable man” (lll.2.16.17) He repeats this phrase many times throughout the speech (parts 1-4) in spite of Brutus. He also uses the term “honorable” to convince the citizens that they were in fact dishonorable and they killed Caesar out of spite so that the people of Rome will rally against Brutus. Antony asks rhetorical question questions hence bringing the crowd to think that Caesar is a weak leader. “I thrice presented him a kingly crown,/Which he did thrice refuse: was this ambition?”(111.2.1617) Caesar denied the crown multiple times proving he did not want complete power as they are saying about him.

As the people “dissect” Cesar's every judgement and choice; the people notice that they may have liked Caesar for all the money and wealth he brought Rome but not for the leader he once was.

Antony's speech concluded that Brutus is a coward, and in some ways Caesar was too. Showing the citizen’s that their “perfect” ruler was not as honorable and ambitious as he seemed was shocking to them. This speech enlightened all the common folk by using repetition, ethos, and rhetorical questions.