Julius Caesar Rhetorical Analysis

In the play, Julius Caesar, which was written by William Shakespeare, there is someone named Caesar. He had been offered to be crowned king three times but he denied. Cassius felt that Caesar should not be king and he tried to convince Brutus of this. The conspirators also felt this way. They felt Caesar would not be a good king. There had to be a way to stop Caesar from being king. Yes, it happened……… they killed Caesar. The conspirators convinced Brutus that Caesar should not be king, so Brutus eventually joined them on their plan to kill Brutus. One day Caesar is heading to the Senate House with all the conspirators around him. The ides of March have come. When he arrives at the Senate, Trebonius managed to pull Mark Antony away from Caesar so they could attack him, then Brutus and the conspirators came up and they began to stab Caesar. Caesar asks, “Et tu, Brute? then fall Caesar,” and he dies. A servant of Antony comes and asked Brutus if he could meet with him to learn why Caesar had to die and Brutus promised Antony would not be harmed. Brutus tells him that he had to die because he was destroying the republic. Brutus gives Antony

permission to take Caesar’s body and show it to the crowd but he is to only say positive things and not blame the conspirators. Brutus and Antony each said a speech.
Both Brutus and Antony used ethos, logos, and pathos in their speeches.

Brutus did his speech first. The main argument of his speech for why he killed Caesar was because it was best for Rome. He stated, “ There is tears for his love;joy for his fortune; honour for his valour; and death for his ambition,” which is an example of pathos because this shows his emotions towards Caesar. One reason Brutus felt Caesar could not be king because he would turn everyone into slaves. This is an example of logos because he is giving facts and logic to make them realize what is happening. He knew no one wanted to be slaves. Even though Brutus killed Caesar he told the crowd that he was Caesar’s friend which was a way he used ethos to show credibility. No one in the crowd was offended by what Brutus had said. Brutus did what was best for

Rome.
On the other hand, Antony felt that Caesar should not have been killed simply because he didn't do anything wrong. Antony said, “ The evil that men do lives after them; the good is oft interred with their bodies; so let it be with Caesar,” which are loaded words. In his speech, he kept saying that Brutus said Caesar was ambitious which is using the rhetorical device of restatement. When he was trying to figure out how was Caesar ambitious he used logos to provide evidence to prove Caesar was not ambitious when he explained, “ You all did see that on Lupercal I thrice presented him a kingly crown, which he did thrice refuse: was this ambition?” Antony used ethos by also stating just as Brutus explained that, “ He was my friend, faithful and just to me.” He asked a rhetorical question saying, “Did this in Caesar seem ambitious? When that the poor have cried, Caesar hath wept: ambition should be made of sterner stuff.” This represented pathos to make the people think about the poor people. Antony just told his side of the story and tried to see what was the reason Caesar had to die. After Antony’s speech the crowd had responded by wanting to kill the conspirators. If Antony had said his speech first and Brutus said his last, the people might would have understood and accepted the death of Caesar better because the last thing they would have heard was Brutus explaining why it was the best thing for Rome.