In the play “Julius Caesar”, both Mark Antony and Brutus give compelling and effective arguments after the murder of Julius Caesar. They include similar points in their speeches, but the way they present is very different. Although both give strong performances, Mark Antony’s delivery and content of his speech is more effective than the speech Brutus presents.
Brutus has had more time to prepare his speech to Rome. He knew that Caesar was going to die and was able to collect his thoughts and decide how he was going to present his speech and what he was going to say to the people. Mark Antony on the other hand was just as surprised as the rest of Rome. He had no idea that Caesar was going to be murdered. He had much less time to gain his composure and collect his thoughts, but was still able to come up with strong and logical points. The fact that Mark Antony was in the same situation as the rest of the people gave him a boost. The people knew he felt the same way they did and that he was just as surprised as they were.
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Brutus uses very formal language. He needed to sound professional, proper, and important. Mark Antony used mostly formal language, but also used some jargon. He used more emotional words instead of trying to impress the Romans like Brutus. Brutus feels he needs to show his worth to the people in order for him to “win” the argument. Brutus gets his point across clearly, but does not expand on why Caesar was ambitious or why everything Caesar did was so bad. He continuously says he loved Caesar but never explains his relationship with him. Mark Antony does a similar thing in which he continuously says Brutus is honorable, but never explains why. This helps emphasize the insincerity in the statements. Mark Antony uses tone and language to persuade the crowd without telling them what he wants them to do. His ability to make the people think they came up with ideas makes them more committed to
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
Mark Antony’s speech, whose aim is to counter Brutus’ speech, enlightens the crowd on the unjust murder of Caesar. Though he never directly communicates to the crowd of his feeling towards the conspirators, Antony was able to effectively convey to the crowd, through the use of verbal irony and other stylistic devices/techniques in his speech, his true views of the assassination. Moreover, Antony was able to shrewdly emphasize his belief of the undeserved assassination of Caesar through the wide use of epiphoral and anaphoral structure in his speech. Antony emphasizes the wrongdoings of Brutus and Cassius through the ingenious use of the epistrophe along with verbal irony as he notes that “I should do Brutus wrong, and Cassius wrong” (III, ii, 125). Moreover, he stresses the importance of punishi...
The most predominate and important aspect In the play Julius Caesar, by William Shakespeare are the speeches given to the Roman citizens by Brutus and Antony, the two main charaters, following the death of Caesar. Brutus and Antony both spoke to the crowd,using the same rhetorical devices to express their thoughts. Both speakers used the three classical appeals employed in the speeches: ethos, which is an appeal to credibility; pathos, which is an appeal to the emotion of the audience; and logos, which is an appeal to the content and arrangement of the argument itself. Even though both speeches have the same structure Antony’s speech is significantly more effective than Brutus’s.
First, Mark Antony has been loyal to Caesar since the beginning of the play; in addition, he is a decent speaker that can persuade individuals to follow him at Caesar’s funeral. At the end of the funeral, numerous Romans take Antony’s concept of revenging the conspirators for their wrong-doing. The Plebeians say, “We’ll burn the house of Brutus/ Away then. Come, seek the conspirators” (3.2.245-246). It suggests the powerful effects of Antony’s speech which make the Plebeians seek revenge, versus Brutus’s speech about how Caesar deserves to die because of his ambition. Although it is true that Antony can easily
Depending on the cause and how they speak is how an audience will react. The ending can make or break how it went, you always want to leave the crowd with your main point or something to get across to them. Brutus mentions Antony “Do grace Caesar’s corpse and grace his speech”(3.2.62-63), this leaves people in anticipation of Mark Antony’s speech and to give him respect and time. Agnes Heller says “Brutus is not a man without passions...such as friendship, courage, magnanimity, temperance, and justice.”(Heller) this can show that Brutus does not know any better than to tell the people about Mark Antony and support him because he is too kind hearted to purposely not give Antony a chance to speak. Mark Antony however ends his speech with pathos and emotion, “My heart is in the coffin there with Caesar”(3.2.108) which makes the crowd sympathize for him. Also Antony makes sure to include a dramatic pause for his speech to sink in and for effect, this causes the people to go out into a riot. Antony got the reaction he was looking for by angering the Romans, seeing that Caesar is dead without good cause. In the article “The Tragic Hero of Julius Caesar” Paolucci says that “Marc Antony will be the key figure in the determination of the fate of Rome and of the conspirators/liberators.”(Paolucci). In the play Antony does become a key factor in their fate, this speech is part of it because he quickly turns the Roman citizens against them. The kind of reputation that you have in a community can also have a huge part in making people listen to you. Brutus was known as the nobleman throughout Rome that people would often listen to and trust. Mark Antony was known as Caesar’s loyal friend but also did not have to bad of a reputation in Rome, maybe not as good as Brutus but it was not bad. “Here comes his body mourned by Antony”(Shakespeare, 3.2.42) shows empathy to Mark Antony and makes the audience start focusing on Antony instead of himself and
In William Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar, Mark Antony—a loyal friend to Julius Caesar, the former emperor of Rome—gives a speech to the Roman commoners in order to persuade them to turn against Brutus, for Brutus and the conspirators had slain Caesar. Antony’s uses rough and sharp diction, a scornful tone, and honest anecdotes in order to achieve his purpose of manipulating the common people to take his side.
In this speech, the crowd's initial feelings consisted of mourning and solemnnity. Brutus' speech put a note of finality on the controversy of Caesar's murder, allowing his audience to let go and not pursue the conspirators against Julius Caesar. After Brutus' speech at Caesar's classic funeral, Marc Antony makes a vigorous speech. Where Brutus used no passion, Mark Antony exploited it at every possibility. The crowd's feelings are changed greatly because of Antony's moving speech. Antony employs diction and repetition tactfully to implore the audience to Brutus' dark agenda. Rhetorical questions are another powerful tool used by Brutus to strain the wrong that has occurred in Rome and its necessary correction, using their ethics.
Antony’s speech in Julius Caesar proves to be truly powerful as it shows his true emotions and intentions with Caesars death and going against Brutus. With the amount use of imagery, figurative language, and skilled rhetoric devices, Antony proves himself a consummate politician as he lands on top and defeats Brutus and ends up the victor of the
William Shakespeare's Julius Caesar is a tragic story of the dog and the manger. After Caesar is killed Mark Antony, a good friend of Caesar, plots to revenge his bloody death. He knows there is strength in numbers, and through a speech at Caesar's funeral, Antony plans to win the crowd of Rome and turn them against Brutus and the other conspirators. Cassius is one of the leading conspirators and is weary of Antony; Brutus is confident that there is nothing to fear, but he speaks before Antony at the funeral just to be safe. These two speeches, vastly different in message but similar in delivery, move the emotions of the people. Brutus's and Antony's speeches differ in length, have similar ways of keeping the crowd's attention, and differ in tone.
In William Shakespeare's play The Tragedy of Julius Caesar, two speeches are given to the people of Rome about Caesar's death. In Act 3, Scene 2 of this play Brutus and Antony both try to sway the minds of the Romans toward their views. Brutus tried to make the people believe he killed Caesar for a noble cause. Antony tried to persuade the people that the conspirators committed an act of brutality toward Caesar and were traitors. The effectiveness and ineffectiveness of both Antony's and Brutus's speech to the people are conveyed through tone and rhetorical devices.
It is safe to say this due to the fact that the plebeians were persuaded to the side of Antony, by the end of the act all of rome is running rampant just as Antony wanted. Some would say Brutus was the better speaker but the only reason Antony persuade the plebeians at the end scene because he spoke last and it left the last impression on the people of rome. This is completely false and this can be said because if Brutus was a better speaker the people would have stayed by his side even after the speech by Mark Antony because as cliche as it sounds first impressions rarely don't stay in your mind especially after such a dramatic point in the play. Mark Antony won because he brought more emotion, and ethics into his speech with help of visual aid to create emotions that went by what he was fighting
Brutus and Mark Antony both delivered speeches to the roman people after the death of Julius Caesar, these speeches relate to the conclusion of the play by foreshadowing the battle of Philippi which in the end both Brutus and Mar Anthony die. Brutus is giving a speech about why he should be king after he killed Caesar and Mark Anthony is giving a speech on why Brutus should not be king which lead to a battle and they both die.
He did this to make Brutus appeal more as a tragic hero. One choice that he had made was that he had let Mark Antony speak at Caesar’s funeral. Cassius did not like the idea of Antony speaking at his funeral but Brutus waved him off and said that he could speech at his funeral, but he had some things that he had to follow to be able to talk. Brutus tells Antony, “Mark Antony, here, take you Caesar’s body…. After my speech is ended” (Shakespeare 3.1.244-251). Brutus had said this as the guidelines of what Mark Antony was able to talk about. But letting him talk was a very big mistake. When the time came of Caesar’s funeral, Brutus spoke first but after he was done he left. He told the townspeople, “I do entreat you, not a man depart, Save I alone, till Antony have spoke”(Shakespeare 3.2.60-61). Once he had left everything went downhill. Antony was able to convince the people that he was right and that the conspirators deserved to receive justice for killing Caesar. Later on in the play, during the battle scenes, Brutus had overpowered Octavius’s men and had claimed victory, and he had claimed it way too soon. Titinius says to Cassius, “O Cassius, Brutus gave the word too early / Who, having some advantage on Octavius / Took it too eagerly. His soldiers fell to spoil / Whilst we by Antony are all enclosed.” (Shakespeare 5.3. 5-8). As a result of him calling victory too soon, he had caused
Brutus used a lot of logos and ethos to try to use his respect and position on the people to persuade them. He used almost no emotion and that was one of his biggest downfalls.