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In William Shakespeare’s play, Julius Caesar, Marc Antony, who is a loyal friend of Caesar, gives a persuasive and touching speech to the Roman citizens at Caesar’s funeral. He made his speech effective by using a variety of rhetorical strategies such as irony, figurative language, and rhetorical appeals in order to change the thoughts of the citizens and to encourage them to question the conspirators about what their motivation was to kill Caesar. Antony opens his speech by welcoming those who came to the funeral and by explaining his false reason to be speaking to the audience. The Roman citizens gave their attention to Antony when he said, “Friends, Romans, countrymen.” He begins to speak in a sincere tone when he calls for their attention to let them feel welcome as well as to let them know that he is just like them. After greeting the audience, he explains that he was given the chance to talk due to the permission of Brutus and the other conspirators. He claims that “Brutus is an honorable man; And …show more content…
they are all, all honorable men.” His tone is sarcastic because he truly believes that they had no satisfactory reason to kill Caesar. Antony starts his speech this way to hide his honest reason for giving the speech, which is to turn the citizens against the conspirators. As Antony continues with his speech he begins to stir up their emotions.
Antony uses a logical approach when he stated, “I presented a kingly crown to him three times, Which he refused three times.” Antony indirectly said that Caesar was not as ambitious as the conspirators had portrayed because Caesar denied the crown three times. He becomes ironic when he says, “I don’t speak to disprove what Brutus spoke, But I’m here to speak what I know.” Although Antony means the total opposite of what he said, he said this because Brutus gave him strict rules to follow in exchange for Antony’s ability to speak at the funeral. A few lines afterward, he used an emotional appeal. He is exaggerating what he was feeling at the time by using a hyperbole which was, “My heart is there with Caesar in the coffin, And I must pause until it comes back to me.” By saying this he is able to express his sympathy to the citizens as well as to let them process what he was trying to
say. The ending of his speech consisted of Antony being ironic and using personification. Antony tries to cover up that he is persuading the audience when he says, “I didn’t come, friends, to steal away your hearts. I’m no orator, as Brutus is.” His use of irony is to make the citizens, as well as the conspirators, believe that he is not able to change the minds of the people, but in reality, his whole speech was convincing. Antony uses an emotional approach to make the citizens feel sorry for Caesar when he said, “I show you sweet Caesar’s wounds, poor dumb mouths, and ask them to speak for me.” He wants the wounds to communicate with the citizens in order to motivate them. Antony is persistent with another personification and suggests to, “Put a tongue in every wound of Caesar, that would move the stones of Rome to rise and rebel. Marc Antony used many rhetorical devices in his speech that presented a new perspective on the death of Julius Caesar to the Roman citizens.
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
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
He carried carried out Caesar’s corpse and laid him down before the crowd as he began to speak. Antony has already used pathos as a strong rhetorical device. The sight of a dead body has brought a very serious and saddening atmosphere upon all onlookers. Antony begins by stating “I come to bury Caesar, not to praise him. The evil that men do lives after them; The good is oft interred with their bones; So let it be with Caesar.” (3.2.2) Explaining to the crowd that he is not going to praise Caesar for the man he was but rather respectively bury him for his funeral has established that he isn’t biased. Conveying that man's good deeds are often forgotten with death has stirred up a feeling of remorse towards Caesar; another usage of
After Caesar is killed, Antony becomes very mournful and outrage by the treachery of the conspirators that killed Caesar. Antony asks for just to a speech at Caesars funeral and Brutus grants him that one wish. Antony is a very intelligent man and he has the ability to manipulate a crowd with his speeches. For example in Act 3 During Antony speech he says
Marc Antony asked to speak at Caesar’s funeral, and Brutus only allowed to do so on certain conditions. Conditions were that Brutus would speak first and Antony would speak immediately after. Antony needed to also not blame the conspirators for anything and admit that he was only allowed to speak based on Brutus’s permit (Act III.Scene I.254-271). Cassius is wary of this agreement, and he says to Brutus aside, “...do not consent that Antony speak in his funeral: Know how much the people may be moved by that which he utter?” (Act III.Scene I. 248-253) Cassius was well aware that Antony had the art of knowing the man. Antony’s rhetoric significance of emotional appeal, pathos, is indicated in the way he speaks. Antony denied any ability to “stir men’s blood.” as he puts it.
Leif Borgen Mrs. Curty ENG II honors 27 March 2024 Rhetorical Strategies in Antony's Funeral Speech In Act Three Scene Two of the play Julius Caesar by Shakespeare, a character named Antony gives a speech at the funeral of Julius Caesar that uses many different forms of rhetorical Strategies. He uses rhetorical strategies to convince the audience that the assassination of Julius Caesar was not a good thing and that they should feel sorry for Julius Caesar and feel angry at Brutus and the other senators for assassinating Caesar. The forms of rhetorical strategies that Antony uses in his speech are ethos, logos, and pathos. He uses all of these different strategies to help convince the audience that the assassination of Julius Caesar was unjustified
Similarly with Anthony when he addressed the commoners on the assassination of Caesar, his use of the dialectical technique undid the impression Brutus created, and succeeded at weakening Brute’s justification of killing Caesar, claiming that his death was for the sake of Rome. Brutus’s clever strategy to use Caesar’s ambition and overthrow him without any obstacles in the way has failed, because the dialectical examination technique exposed the contradictions in his argument. Being ambitious back in Rome must have been a negative trait for a leader to have, and Brutus successfully branded Caesar as an ambitious man. “The noble Brutus Hath told you Caesar was ambitious/ If it were so, it was a grievous fault/
& 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 is trying to convince his audience of why Brutus and the conspirators are wrong for what they did, and Brutus is trying to convince them of why Caesar needed to be killed. In the book, Brutus says this“Had you rather Caesar were living, and die all slaves, than that Caesar were dead, to live all freeman?” Here we see Brutus trying to reach out to the audience and make them think about being enslaved. He is trying to make them realize that he and the conspirators needed to kill Caesar for their sake. In order to keep their lives normal as they know it, Caesar needed to die. He was trying to emotionally make them feel a certain way, and understand that he killed his good friend for the sake of the citizens or Rome. On the other hand, Antony says “For Brutus is an honorable man; so they all, all honorable men”. With this quote it shows that Antony recognizes the trustworthiness of Brutus and the conspirators. He recognizes they are honorable and people who would make the right decisions. This truly helps persuade that the decision of killing Caesar was wrong, that even a man who believes in the people who commited the murder goes against them. Not only does he make the people realize that the friendship between Caesar and Him was strong and that they’re wrong for taking Caesar from him, but he shows that these honorable men truly chose the wrong decision. He does this by saying how
Playwright, William Shakespeare, in the play Julius Caesar, utilizes many instances of rhetorical devices through the actions and speech of Caesar's right-hand man, Mark Antony. In the given excerpt, Antony demonstrates several of those rhetorical devices such as verbal irony, sarcasm, logos, ethos, and pathos which allows him to sway the plebeians. The central purpose of Mark Antony’s funeral speech is to persuade his audience into believing that Caesar had no ill intentions while manipulating the plebeians into starting a rebellion against their new enemies, Brutus and the conspirators.
Although he was allowed to make a speech at Caesar's funeral, he can not speak ill about the conspirators, nor can he start any accusations.Thus, Brutus confirms this for the audience stating, “Who is here so rude that would not be a Roman? If any speak; for him have offended.”(J.C 4.3.6) Brutus deliberately tries to defend his point towards Antony. Antony’s speech also pointed out the type of relationship that he and Brutus share.
Straightaway after Brutus's appeal, he made a critical mistake of neglecting Antony since he is a powerful orator that was able to manage and create a skillful speech in which he appeals to emotion. Antony begins by connecting to the public as "friends, Romans, [and] countrymen," and then continues to say how Caesar was a "friend, faithful and just" even weeping right after, needing to "pause till it comes back to me" (3.2.x). This excerpt highlights the immediate contrast between Brutus and Antony, as one greets the populace as friends first, rather than citizens. In fact, by using his skill with language and making public displays of his private emotions, the pauses in his speech theatrically illustrate that he is overcome with emotion and tears, allowing Antony to refute Brutus, that Caesar's death had a much more dramatic effect.
To begin with , Marc Antony speech was held high to the commoners he used a lot of repetition to channel his Pathos Appeal to the commoners . Antony had spoke of Caesar and how he was not ambitious he said , “He hath brought many captives home to Rome, Whose ransoms did the general coffers fill: Did this in Caesar seem ambitious ?”, (Shakespeare Act 3 ,Scene 2 : 88-90). Marc Antony used a list of Repetition , questioning the crowd so he could show that Julius was in fact not Ambitious as Brutus had said he was . The affect the Repetition had the crowd of commoner inquiring Brutus and was he such a trustworthy person after all. This went on throughout the whole speech Antony then goes on to say “You all did see that on the Lupercal I thrice presented him a
One of the most prominent authors of his time, William Shakespeare, uses the power of rhetoric in several ways throughout the play The Tragedy of Julius Caesar. Rhetoric, the use of persuasive or manipulative speech or writing, provides the play with elements that help to move the story along. The different types of writing try to persuade the characters in the play to partake in different events. Using rhetoric in key events, such as speeches given by different characters, can be essential in changing the direction of the plot. Lastly, rhetoric is used in many of the characters’ dialogue and speeches throughout the play. Shakespeare's use of rhetoric both increases the dramatic elements and moves along the storyline to change what the audience