A person willing to step forward and speak will have a more recognized voice and that is why public speaking is one of the most vital components of leadership. Through public speaking many leaders have thrived to the top and have even gone as far as to motivating people to start world wars. Public speaking has been around for hundreds of years, which even dates back to ancient Rome with Julius Caesar. In act three of William Shakespeare's play, Julius Caesar, Mark Antony persuades the people of Rome with the use of ethos, pathos, and repetition. Mark Antony uses public speaking as a crucial weapon to convince the Roman people that the conspirators are horrible people.
During the eulogy Mark Antony motivates the people of Rome, as well as play with their emotions. Antony points out that Brutus was wrong by saying Caesar was ambitious saying,
When that the poor have cried, Caesar hath wept.
Ambition should be made of sterner stuff.
Yet Brutus says he was ambitious,
(3.2.90-93)
Mark Antony is building up Caesar's character and showing the people Caesar only cared for the good of his people. The crowd now knows Caesar's death has indeed been unjustified, and Mark Antony uses the crowds anger to motivate them and take action. One of the many angry crowd members says, “Poor soul!
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His eyes are red as fire with weeping.” (3.2.114) Mark Antony later points out the betrayal of Brutus on Caesar by saying how much of friend Caesar was to him. Mark Antony realizes the crowd of people having some emotional appeal towards Caesar and uses it towards his advantage to make a personal connection.
During the eulogy everything that Mark has said is reflecting poorly on Brutus by making it seem as he is uncaring, a trait a friend showed not have. Mark Antony begins by saying “For Brutus, as you know, was Caesar’s angel.”(3.2.176) Antony has now tapped into the crowd’s emotion by showing how much Caesar truly cared for Brutus making Brutus seems like a foe than a friend. His clever use of pathos makes the crowd want to take action for what has happened to their beloved Caesar. Marks use of repetition also helps the crowd take action for
Caesar. Lastly, Mark makes a personal appeal and shares his emotion for his dead friend, he starts remembering Caesar's kindness. Antony is continuously thinking of what great thing did for the Roman people. Antony's says, Come I to speak in Caesar’s funeral. He was my friend, faithful and just to me. But Brutus says he was ambitious, And Brutus is an honorable man. (3.2.83-85) Antony keeps getting reminded on what Brutus said during his speech, in which he agreed Caesar's ambition made it necessary to kill him. Antony is being sarcastic when he says “Brutus is an honorable man.”(3.2.86) This makes Brutus seem like he is the opposite of what Antony has been saying What Antony does, demonstrates his mastery of verbal manipulation. Mark Antony ended up persuading the people of Rome with the good skill ethos, pathos, and repetition to avenge the death of Caesar. Many leaders still practice the good skill of public speaking like the ones before them did. This skill is evolving and getter better every new generation that begins to practice it.
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
outlining the irony used by Antony, allowing him to persuade the crowd against the conspirators without directly saying that the conspirators did anything wrong. Ultimately, Antony’s funeral oration is expertly tailored to his audience.
The final piece used to persuade the crowd is Pathos, Both Antony and Brutus use this to talk about Caesar’s death. Antony says. ‘’Come I speak in Caesar’s funeral. He was my friend, faithful and just to me: But Brutus says he was ambitious;’’ while Brutus says ‘’as Caesar loved me, I weep for him; as he was fortunate, I rejoice at it; as he was valiant, I honour him; but, as he was ambitious, I slew him. ‘’ With this they are both saying he is a good, but Brutus is also trying to say that even though he killed Caesar he loved him, but I was something that had to be
Brutus failed to think twice, and underestimated Antony. Antony asks Brutus to allow him to “in the pulpit, as becomes a friend, / Speak in the order of his funeral” (943). The way he speaks of Caesar is intimate, with his words flowing and carefully placed. In this way, he persuades the collective mind of the commoners with ease. Also, Brutus and Cassius’ opposing strategies jeopardize their plan to fight Rome.
Marc Antony’s eulogy was for Julius Caesar. He was able to effectively change the Roman people’s optimistic view of Caesar’s death while simultaneously making Brutus and the conspirators look evil.
Based on the analysis of Brutus’ and Antony’s speeches at Julius Caesar’s funeral, Antony evidently portrayed the most compelling speech. Antony profoundly acquired the citizens’ opinion with the rhetorical tactic, PATHOS, which is an appeal to one’s emotion. He explicated that his “‘heart is in the coffin there with Caesar, And I must pause till it come back to me.’ ୮He weeps.ㄱ” (3.2.116-117). In this scenario, Antony elaborates that his sole heart rests aside Caesar and that he must halt his speech to regain the little composure that he upholds; these actions allow the audience to demonstrate sincere sympathy for Antony, a man supposedly in emotional chaos, which distinctly fluctuated their emotional morals. The statements greatly distinguished
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
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.
The death of a friend or relative can elicit overwhelming feelings of anguish, grief and rage in an individual, an emotional roller coaster experienced by Marc Antony upon the murder of Julius Caesar in Shakespeare’s tragedy Julius Caesar. This vehement sensation of anger prompts him to seek vengeance on the conspirators that had wronged Caesar and punish them in a way that would mirror their misdeed. A cunning politician well versed in rhetoric, Antony exacts revenge by persuading the plotters to accede to his request to speak at Caesar’s funeral and the Roman populace to concur with him. Antony’s multifaceted choice of rhetorical appeals adds cogency to his arguments, making him the most persuasive character in the play. Overall, Marc Antony
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.
In the beginning of the speech, Antony says, “I come here to bury Caesar, not to praise him,” to set a sincere tone. To get the sympathy of the people, he showed how he was genuinely upset about the death of his friend. Also, he starts by saying this to appear to be following Brutus’s rules. This strategy is to cover up his use of a sarcastic tone in the rest of the speech. The mood changes when Antony addresses all of the conspirators by saying, “Because Brutus is an honorable man; And they are all honorable men, [...].” He says things like this throughout his speech to emphasize the insignificance of the word honor when it is used to justify a murder. He’s trying to get the citizens of Rome to question the authority of Brutus and the conspirators. This strengthens his argument by allowing the people to think for themselves and showing how the group doesn’t have a strong ethical reason for killing Caesar.
He took the strategy of pathos to a whole new level. Antony brought Caesar's will, and with it the gown he wore when he was stabbed. This was a hard hit to the audience. At this point Antony had their hearts in the palm of his hand. He began pointing out the holes the conspirators left in the gown, saying stuff like, “See what a rent the envious Casca made” and “Through this the well beloved Brutus stabbed” (III, iii, 172-173). The tides are starting to turn here. No longer is Antony hiding his feelings toward the gentleman. He stopped calling them honorable, and is now calling them out for what they have done. And the crowd is following suit. Once Antony turned, they turned as well. Like a barrel in a revolver they all turned at once. This might've been a visible plot point towards the beginning of the scene, in order to win the support of the people there's no better way then hitting them in the feels. Individuals in the audience begin crying out, “O piteous spectacle!” “O noble Caesar!” and most importantly, “O traitors, villains!” (III, iii, 195-198) Antony should be getting a lot of praise for how good of a job that was done, or Shakespeare
A notable trait of his is that he is rhetoric which gives him the benefit of becoming an extraordinary politician. Though the speech he gave, as mentioned before, “Friends, Romans, countrymen, lend me your ears” (3.2.82), unleashes hidden traits of Antony, it also unleashes the hidden potential of him being an exemplar fit as Rome’s leader. This speech helps persuade the Conspirators to go against Brutus for the assassination of Caesar. This scene highlights how strong Antony’s rhetoric skill is. When Antony stands over Caesar’s body, he predicts that a civil war will break loose within Rome. After gaining a gargantuan amount of motivation from Caesar’s death, Antony says “Over thy wounds now do I prophesy (which like dumb mouths do ope their ruby lips to beg the voices and utterances of my tongue) A curse shall light upon the limbs of men; Domestic fury and fierce civil strife. Shall cumber all the parts of Italy; blood and destruction shall be so in use and dreadful objects so familiar shall but smile when they behold their infants quarter with the hands of war, all pity choked with custom of fell deeds; and Caesar’s spirit ranging for revenge with Ate by his side come hot from hell, shall in these confines with a monarch’s voice Cry “Havoc!” and slip the dogs of war, that this foul deed shall smell above the earth with Carrion men, groaning for their burial” (3.1.285-301). With Antony’s hypothesis on civil war, it turns out go become a reality, in which results in Antony’s
Mark Antony begins his speech by deceiving and assuring the crowd he is not here to sway them; saying he is merely here to give a eulogy, for “the good (of a man) is oft’ interred with their bones.” Mark Antony, being the skilled orator that he is, sets the table for dissent. He hits upon the notes of ambition and honorable in a way that soon calls both terms
A later example occurs during the funeral oration by Mark Antony. Brutus logically gives his reasons that necessitated Caesar’s death. He informs them that he acted out of love of Rome and his desire to prevent tyrants from controlling her. The citizens embrace his words with cheers and understanding. However, their mood alters when Antony offers his interpretation of the situation. He passionately described the deeds Caesar performed in behalf of the citizens of Rome, which clearly contradict the opinion of the conspirators that Caesar was too ambitious. Antony carefully uses irony in referring to Cassius and Brutus as honorable men; the strategy wins over the citizens and they listen with growing anger to his words. He leads the citizens to the body and begins to show the brutal results of the murder while simultaneously influencing them to believe that the conspirators are murderers and traitors. Ultimately, Antony reads Caesar’s will, which leaves his parks, private estates, and newly planted gardens to the citizens of Rome.