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The tragic elements in Julius Caesar
Shakespeare julius caesar analysis
The tragic elements in Julius Caesar
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In, “Julius Caesar,” by William Shakespeare, there is a funeral held for Caesar at which Brutus and Antony speak. Brutus is one of the conspirators who killed Caesar while Antony is a friend of Caesars. Brutus speaks first and is able to turn the crowd from being angry about Caesars death to wondering why he was not killed sooner. Antony wants to speak at Caesars funeral and he is granted his wish under the terms that he does not speak ill of the conspirators. Despite agreeing to these terms, Antony slowly begins to praise Caesar and the crowd reverts to loving Caesar. Both men use ethos, logos and pathos to persuade the crowd; however, Antony is more effective in convincing. Both Antony and Brutus use ethos in their speeches to show nobility and have the crowd think highly …show more content…
of them. Brutus tries to show the honor of himself and the other conspirators while Antony is talking of Caesar. As Brutus claimed Caesar was ambitious, Antony uses ethos to disprove this claim. In act 3, scene 2 Antony proclaims, “I thrice presented him a kingly crown, Which he did thrice refuse.” Antony is speaking of Caesar’s so called ambition, which is put down by Antony bringing old events to surface. Antony pointing out Caesar’s strong character causes the citizens to think of Caesar as a more respectful and thoughtful leader. Brutus uses ethos to show how he believes no one is above the law including himself. In act 3, scene 2 Brutus explains, “I have the same dagger for myself when it shall please my country to need my death.” Brutus is saying that if he ever becomes like Caesar he wants the people to do the same to him. Brutus realizes power can get to anyone and wants the citizens to know he is humble and put thought into his actions. Logos uses facts to prove a point, and can be argued to be the most effective persuasive point, as it exploits logic instead of opinion.
In his speech, Brutus presents logos in a different way; they are not outright facts, rather statements that Brutus believes to be fact. Brutus use logos to explain to the crowd the reasons for his actions. In act 3, scene 2 Brutus says, “ As he was valiant, I honored him. But, as he was ambitious, I slew him.” Brutus believes Caesar’s ambition is a known piece of information and therefore states it like fact. The crowd embraces these statements due to Brutus’s confidence in them. Antony on the other hand, uses past events to show Caesar did not deserve to be killed. In act 3, scene 2 Antony proclaims, “He hath brought many captives home to Rome Whose ransoms did the general coffers fill.” Antony is referring to Caesars days as a general for the Roman army. The people loved Caesar for his military conquests and Antony sees this as an opportunity to remind the people how they appreciated Caesar. Using the irrefutable fact that Caesar brought land and riches back to the Roman people, persuades the people even closer to hating the conspirators for killing
Caesar. The final persuasive method both men use is pathos. They appeal to the crowd’s emotional side, causing sympathy for their causes. Antony tears up while he is speaking about Caesar. The people know Antony was a very good friend of Caesars’ and they empathize with Antony. In act 3, scene 2, Antony chokes out, “Bear with me. My heart is in the coffin there with Caesar, And I must pause till it come back to me.” Antony then begins to cry and the citizens all talk of the horrible injustice that has been done to Caesar. Brutus uses pathos to make the crowd feel less angry that a friend of Caesar was one who assassinated him. In act 3, scene 2 Brutus exclaims, “Not that I loved Caesar less, But that I loved Rome more.” At the beginning of Brutus’s speech, the crowd sees Caesars killing as a brutal betrayal by Brutus. However, by making the comment about loving Rome enough to kill one of his close friends, the people see Brutus as an honorable man who is willing to do anything for his country. Both men’s speeches are effective because they are able to influence the crowd to their way of thinking, even if for only a brief amount of time. Brutus causes the crowd to see his actions as honorable and necessary. However, Antony uses ethos, logos and pathos very effectively, causing the crowd to be infuriated by the conspirator’s actions. Antony was more effective with his speech and was able to sway the crowd to his way of thinking to the point of physical action.
Imagine yourself listening to a political debate, undecided as to which leader you agree with. One candidate begins to speak about unjust societal issues, such as the horrifying amount of people in the world that do not have food on their table. The candidate also begins to touch upon the topic of taxes and how he will lower them if he is elected. You find yourself being persuaded in the direction of emotions and morals. The power of language used to appeal others is not only present in the modern world, but also in the play The Tragedy of Julius Caesar, written by famous English playwright William Shakespeare. The Tragedy of Julius Caesar portrayed a story of how an aspiring leader, Julius Caesar, is assassinated by a group of schemers, lead by Marcus Brutus, who disagreed with Caesar’s decrees and ways of governing. Over the course of the text, it demonstrated the use of two rhetorical charms: ethos and pathos. While ethos refers to the moral and ethical appeal and pathos invokes to the emotional aspect, each one was evidently shown in the funeral speech for Caesar given by his best friend, Mark Antony. Prior to Antony’s speech, Brutus had given the plebeians a synopsis of what had occurred. However, Mark Antony knew that what Brutus had told the plebeians was false. In such manner, he allured the plebeians onto his side of the tragedy by touching upon ethical and emotional appeals.
Antony asks rhetorical questions and lets the audience answer for themselves. Brutus uses ethos by stating that he a noble man and that is why the people should believe him but infact Antony questions his nobility by saying what Brutus said,” Brutus is an honourable man”(III.ii.79). In a way, Antony states what Brutus states to convince the audience by using examples that Brutus is wrong. Antony himself knows what kind of man Brutus is but lets the people figure it out on their own. In addition, Brutus uses logos by expressing that fact that Caesar died because of his ambition. This argument is severely under supported because his reasons are invalid and simply observations. Antony uses “did this in Caesar seem ambitious” to question Brutus’ argument (III.ii.82). Antony gives examples backing his argument like when Caesar refused the crown thrice to prove his humbleness. The way Antony convinces the people to rebel is by using pathos. He brings the audience in by stepping down to their level and showing them the body of Caesar. While Antony talks at Caesar's funeral, he pauses because” heart us in the coffin there with Caesar “(III.ii.98). When Antony becomes emotional, he reminds the audience about what injust event happened to the much loved
Brutus vs Antony 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 characters, 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. Both speakers used an ethical appeal to the crowd and established their credibility.
The Tragedy of Julius Caesar by William Shakespeare is a historic tragedy about the brutal murder of the Roman senator, Julius Caesar. Within the play, Caesar has two close friends—Brutus and Antony. Antony is a loyal friend, supporting Caesar and encouraging him in his climb to kingship; Brutus is a king-fearing traitor who leads the plot to murder Caesar. After Caesar is murdered, both friends make speeches—Brutus to justify his actions and Antony to passive-aggressively disprove his claims. In the speeches, they use three rhetorical literary devices: ethos, the appeal to gain the crowd’s trust; pathos, stirring the crowd’s emotions to influence behavior; and logos, the use of logic to reason with the crowd. By comparing the use of ethos, pathos, and logos in each speech and by
In William Shakespeare’s The Tragedy of Julius Caesar, Brutus is a skillful orator who makes use of rhetorical devices to convey his points. In his speech made after the death of Caesar, Brutus uses devices such as ethos, parallelism, and rhetorical questions to persuade the people to his way of thinking. Ethos is when a speaker gives an example of credibility in order to appeal to the listener’s ethics. When Brutus asks the people to “believe me for mine honor, and have respect for mine honor” (3.2.14-15), he is using ethos to appeal to their morals in order to make them consider his opinions. The use of ethos exhibits Brutus’ need for the people to approve of him, and by extension, the assassination of Caesar. Later, Brutus utilizes parallelism
In the beginning of Brutus’s speech it’s shown that he is using ethos to convince the citizens of Rome of his credibility. “Believe me for mine honor and have respect to mine honor that you may believe. Censure me in your wisdom and awake your senses that you may the better judge.” (Shakespeare) In this first quote he obviously tries to convince the audience to believe in what he is about to say by telling them that he should be trusted because he is a truthful man. “If there be any in this assembly, any dear friend of Caesar's, to him I say that Brutus' love to Caesar was no less than his.” (1) Then again he persuades the crowd by telling them can be just as trustworthy as anyone else that knew Julius personally as a friend.
In the play Julius Caesar by Shakespeare, Brutus and Antony both display their sides of Caesar in hopes of getting the Plebeians to support them. Mark Antony, a friend of Caesars, effectively persuades the crowd that the conspirators are traitors rather than heroes while technically keeping his promise to avoid saying anything negative about them. Antony convinced the mob that Caesar cared for the common people by manipulating the definition of the words “honorable” and “ambitious,” and using props, thereby delivering the more effective speech in the end.
In Julius Caesar two men, Antony and Brutus, make two different speeches but with the same concept of ethos, logos, and pathos at Caesar's funeral. Brutus claims that it is okay that he killed Caesar and makes a speech about it. Antony is the more persuasive speaker than Brutus because he uses ethos, pathos, and logos better than Brutus. Brutus has a way with the people. He is a politician, and he knows how to get the people on his side.
Throughout his speech, Antony repeats the words “[Caesar] was ambitious” and “Brutus is an honorable man” to create a contrast between the two statements. (3.2.95-96). Through this repetition, Caesar successfully undermines Brutus. Everytime he calls Brutus an honorable man, he lists a positive trait of Caesar that contradicts Brutus’s claim that he was too ambitious. He tells the crowd about the times when Caesar showed compassion for the people and when he refused the crown thrice. Antony’s sarcasm about Brutus’s honor brings into question as to whether his honor deserved. This leads the audience to doubt their feelings upon Caesar’s ambition. Near the end of his eulogy, Antony uses apostrophe when he claims that “judgment ... art fled to brutish beasts” as a reason for why the Roman people believe Brutus. (3.2.114-115). Antony indirectly shames the crowd for their belief in Brutus in that Caesar was a tyrant. Fearing alienation of the crowd, he attributes this belief to a lapse in judgement that beasts have taken. Antony also makes a pun upon Brutus’s name when he comments “brutish beasts.” Antony implies Brutus has caused a lapse in judgement within the Roman people through his oration
& respects the intelligence of the common people to understand a speech given in verse. Brutus's authoritative air is once again illustrated at the very opening line of his oration when he demands the attention of the people, "Romans, countrymen, and lovers, hear me for my / cause, and be silent, that you may hear. Believe me / for mine honor and have respect to mine honor, that / you may believe"(Act III, scene ii, lines 13-16). this one line, Antony uses Brutus's words to his advantage by changing them to make himself sound friendlier. By the very first word of Antony's speech, one can infer that he is about to give a humbling oration; he uses the ethical appeal to convince the people to believe in his cause rather than Brutus's. Finally, while the crowd is in awe of Brutus's raw power and booming authority, Antony uses sarcasm He is "an honorable man" (Act III, scene II, line 84) in a tone of biting mockery, therefore questioning Brutus's credibility. & nbsp; It is true that the Roman people have emotions that sway with the winds, but this is partly due to the great speaking skills of both Brutus and Mark Antony.
Antony reminds the plebeians about the time when he, himself “presented [Caesar] a kingly crown, / Which [Caeasar] did thrice refuse” (III. ii. 97-98). Using logic and reasoning, Mark Antony explains to his crowd that the fallen Caesar couldn’t possibly have been ambitious if he had refused the ticket to become King multiple times. Immediately afterward, Antony made sure to remind the plebeians that Brutus is an honorable man. This use of logos with verbal irony proves to be extremely effective. Since Antony presented the crowd with a compelling fact supporting that Caesar was not ambitious, the phrase “Brutus is an honorable man,” would be even more effective in allowing his audience to realize that Brutus and the conspirators may not be honorable (III. ii. 83). According to Brutus, the conspirator's sole reason to kill Caesar was because they believed he was ambitious, Antony’s statement would then be incredibly useful to turn the crowd against Brutus and his people. The plebeians would start to realize that noble Brutus and his conspirators might not be honorable and could potentially have their own, personal reasons to assassinate Julius Caesar. Once the crowd realizes that Brutus and the conspirators could have murdered their leader for no valid reason, they would begin to feel anger which are the building steps to starting a rebellion just like how Antony
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.
In Act III scene ii, Antony and Brutus used different rhetoric devices for their speeches; although both were successful in influencing the Roman citizens. In Brutus’s speech he uses alliteration to ask “Who is here so base that would be a bondman?” and “Who is here so rude that would not be a Roman?” However, these questions are not only alliteration, but also rhetorical questions. He asks these to guilt trip the Romans into thinking that they would be selfish to not care about their own country. Even though this is the reason why Brutus killed Caesar, the conspirators except for him were not attempting to save Rome when assassinating Caesar. Brutus also uses repetition in his speech; after every rhetorical question he asks “If any, speak; for him have I offended.” When he repeats this it makes his questions seem more like accusations. Brutus basically influences the audience to think the conspirators were all
Antony, though he kept to his bargain, brought the audience to his side in a variety of ways. He used all three methods of persuasion to his advantage. He claimed the killers of Caesar to be honorable and noble, and in the very act of doing so turned Brutus' followers against him. This shows the true ability of Marcus Antonius, and that he is a far greater threat than the conspirators recognized. This power of words is well known, and Aristotle's three methods of persuasion live on in modern speechwriters. Ethos, logos, and pathos are just as effective in our time as in that of Shakespeare, the Roman Empire, and wherever there are people to speak and people to listen. Thus even today, this speech of Shakespeare through Antony shows the sheer impact that mere words can have.