Julius Caesar Rhetorical Analysis

500 Words1 Page

In Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar, Marc Antony stands out as the most persuasive character in the play. During Antony’s speech at Caesar's funeral, he draws the crowd's attention with his use of different rhetorical questions. Antony can change the crowd's opinion on the conspirators and he persuades them to realize their wrongdoings. This makes Marc Antony the most persuasive character by using Logos to prove Caesar is not ambitious and by using repetition and verbal irony while saying Brutus is an honorable man. Marc Antony employs logos to argue that Caesar's intentions were not influenced by ambition, but rather a desire to benefit Rome. Caesar's acts show his humility and value for the people of Rome over power for himself. Caesar was a trusted friend as “He hath brought many captives home to Rome,” and this was to benefit the city as a …show more content…

The. Caesar’s refusal to the “the crown thrice,”(3.2 104) presented by Antony shows his lack of ambition for complete rule. Someone who is genuinely ambitious would happily take this gift of a crown as an honor and not think otherwise. When Antony brings up Caesar's will he says, “they [crowd] would go and kiss dead Caesar’s wounds.” This is because the crowd would go and praise Caesar because his will was meant for the people of Rome. If Caesar is truly ambitious, he would not care to make his will for the people, and instead, it would be a selfish act for himself. Marc Antonty uses logos to prove different reasons why Caesar is the opposite of ambitious. After proving the real motives Caesar had for the people of Rome, Antony kept on repeating Brutus as an honorable man to question the real intentions of Brutus. He repeats this multiple times throughout his speech, not because he believes it, but to make the people of Rome think deeply about the true intentions of Brutus. Antony gave many examples proving that Caesar was not ambitious. “Brutus says he [Caesar] was ambitious, and Brutus is an honorable man” (3.2

Open Document