Julius Caesar Rhetorical Analysis Essay

In the play The Tragedy of Julius Caesar, written by William Shakespeare, Mark Antony who once was a dear and loyal friend to the late Julius Caesar, gains an impactful opportunity to showcase his masterful art of rhetoric when he provides a speech at Caesar’s funeral. In the plotline of the play, a man named Brutus is swayed into killing Caesar, his close friend; because he is prodded by other deceitful men who claim that the murder of Caesar would benefit the future and well-being of Rome. After the murder is successfully conducted, Brutus and the other conspirators bathe their hands in the blood of Caesar and simultaneously stimulate tension and chaos among the people of Rome. Mark Antony valiantly goes to see Caesar’s body and to also speak

to the conspirators in an attempt to comprehend why they would partake in such a horrific act. Antony then asks the conspirators for permission to make a speech at Caesar’s funeral in his honor. Brutus accepts Antony’ request, as long as Antony does not make him and the other conspirators seem wrongful or guilty in any way. However, Antony’s speech proves to be exceptionally moving within the audience, especially because of certain rhetorical devices and appeals, such as verbal irony and the strategic utilization of building pathos to emphasize to the crowd the unethical actions of Brutus and the other men.
First and foremost, through the usage of verbal irony in Antony’s eulogy to Caesar, he is able to indirectly highlight the flaws of Brutus and his wrongdoings to persuade the audience to resonate with his side.

He accomplishes this while simultaneously constraining himself from being straightforward, which would ultimately cause him to break his promise that he would not make the conspirators seem clearly corrupted. Antony ironically repeats throughout that “Brutus is an honorable man” (IV.ii.95) a plethora of times, which alters the literal meaning of the diction because it is the exact opposite of what he truly means. The irony is heavily encompassed within these consistent statements of Brutus being “honorable”, because he is distinctly mocking his integrity with obvious hints of sarcasm, although the literal diction does not portray that same tone. Respectively, Antony chooses verbal irony to emphasize to the audience how Brutus is a traitor and to also ruin his credibility by mocking him in the sense that when he calls him an honorable man, he is implying an entirely different, negative, connotation that differs from the actuality of the words themselves. The audience will respond greatly to the verbal irony because afterwards, their former openness to accepting Brutus’ actions will shift and they will take Antony’s side of the situation. Furthermore, even more verbal irony is present throughout many sections of Antony’s speech. For instance, he points out, “the noble Brutus

hath
told [the audience] Caesar was ambitious” (IV. ii.78-79), but then continues to ponder on about how ambitious Caesar actually was. Antony elaborates and states Caesar had dismissed the offer of the crown three times, which makes him question whether this was truly an act of ambition or not: “Was this ambition?” (IV.ii.98). Again, by still referring to Brutus as an honorable man, but likewise still accentuates Brutus’ misleading and invalid statements, he is bringing attention to how Brutus is the polar-opposite of honorable. Antony does this to lessen Brutus’ rectitude as an overall individual so the audience will be more compelled to accept the point of view that Antony is emphasizing. The audience does in fact accept this notion, as they are made fully aware after Antony’s speech that Brutus, who they may have once perceived as virtuous, actually engaged in a massive act of betrayal towards Caesar, and Rome itself. The verbal irony effect proves to work wonders to the listeners in expressing the inequity produced by Brutus and the other conspirators.
Moreover, another tactic that Antony exercises within his speech is the strategic building of pathos which appeals directly to the emotions of the audience. He states, “For Brutus, as you know, was Caesar's angel. Judge, O you gods, how dearly Caesar lov'd him! This was the most unkindest cut of all; For when the noble Caesar saw him stab, Ingratitude, more strong than traitors' arms, Quite vanquish'd him: then burst his mighty heart” (III.ii.181-186). The detailed and impassioned words of Antony demonstrate the tragic event of Caesar’s death. He chooses to focus on this emotional appeal, because he knows that by bringing the crowd into a state of sorrow, they will be more vulnerable to persuade against Brutus and his heartless betrayal to his friend. It wasn't the wound that killed Caesar, says Antony, but Brutus's treachery that caused him to break internally. All of these intense emotions cause the audience to be heated towards Brutus, which in return, will possibly make them want to seek revenge on him. Additionally, pathos is also built in other parts of Antony’s speech to continue playing on the audience’s feelings. Antony mentions, “Then I, and you, and all of us fell down, Whilst bloody treason flourish'd over us. O, now you weep; and, I perceive, you feel, The dint of pity: these are gracious drops. Kind souls, what, weep you when you but behold, Our Caesar's vesture wounded? Look you here, here is himself, marred, as you see, with traitors” (III.iii.93-99). When Antony unveils the body of Caesar, this automatically sparks an emotional response from the crowd who is viewing it. Antony does this out of hopes that the audience will become empowered to rise against the unethical behaviors of the conspirators. He manages to get the crowd to do what he believes they should follow through with: attack those who slew Caesar out of their pure anger and rage towards the injustice, without breaking his vow of not talking badly about the men behind the conspiracy. By stirring up powerful feelings, this is a prime example of how he used the strategy of creating pathos to appeal to the listeners. Overall, the appeal of concocting pathos worked very effectively at making the audience relate to Antony’s side of the argument based on raw emotion.
Conclusively, the device of verbal irony and the appeal of pathos are only some of the many rhetorical skills that Mark Antony utilizes to his advantage in an attempt to prod the audience to agree with his outlook on the situation verses Brutus. Through damaging Brutus’ integrity, and also firing up the emotions of the listeners to convince them to seek revenge on the traitors of Caesar, Antony skillfully conceives a victorious argument against his opponent, Brutus. His astute mind and articulate speech provides him with the weapons necessary to utterly destroy Brutus’ implausible rhetorical attacks and overall scheme in general.