In Shakespeare's play Julius Caesar there are many things. One becomes apparent to Brutus is how powerful words can be. Cassius used his words to trick Brutus. Antony used his words to rally the people into a war. Portia uses her words to have brutus tell his secret. I used my words to talk my friend out of suicide. I showed up to school on time. John did not. He arrived sometime between the end of third hour and advisement. I saw him on my way to fourth hour. His normally entertained and excited self was missing. His dramatic flare and morbid humor was elsewhere. His personality and spirit had fled. They were replaced by a gloomier, gaunter, more broken version of himself. This was unusual, but not surprising. Clinical and chronic depression has …show more content…
this effect. He was drawn in, a shell, a broken doll without a puppeteer, a sad creature with no energy to put on a mask of joy. As we walked to class I held a conversation. “How are you?” Silence. “Did you have an appointment this morning?” Silence accompanied by a slight nod. “How’d it go?’’ “Have you eaten today?” “I have food.” “Here, take it.” “I’ll see you at lunch.” All of this with silence as abysmal as space. A silence peppered with the static and white noise of our classmates. I saw him again after school. I was headed towards an ITS meeting. HE was not. I missed the meeting. More single person narration followed with equal effect and with silence as empty as the halls we walked. It took us twenty minutes to cross the school to his locker and back to where his ride waited. Twenty minutes no longer than any other set of twenty, but thicker, stronger, darker than others. And yet, they were still powerless to stop where we were going. Time continued her flowing, tragic ballet forward. The next day arrived. I was on time. John showed up with two minutes to get to his first hour class. I went to class without speaking to him, as he moved quickly and brushed off the remarks and questions of other friends. I saw him later, on our way to our fourth hour classes. He was wearing a sweater, even though the school was warm. As I tried to talk to him he brushed me off, leaving behind with questions and concerns that might not be dealt with. When I finally caught him I talked to him. Nothing was said. “How are you?” He breathes. “Is everything okay?” More breathing. “If you want to talk, just call me.” He moved forward into the mass of students leaving the building, still breathing. That was all he did. He wouldn’t think, didn’t want to think, didn’t try to think. If breath was he could manage, he would have left for good. He could do more than breathe. Not much more, but still could do more. There was a day where nothing happened. No battles were won or lost, no wars begun, no treaties signed. No one of importance was born or had died. This was not that day. I had finished my homework when he called me. “Hello?” “Elliot.” “John? Is everything okay?” “No. Yes. I don’t know.” “Do you want me to come over?” “No.
I’m fine. I just had a question about the math homework. What’s the answer to number 47?” “13X-3Y=4Z.” “Thanks.” “Is that all you wan-” “Why shouldn’t I kill myself?” The next fifteen minutes are private. They include many tears and almost ended with a funeral. Words drove him away from his own death. He continued his dance with Time, but he almost missed a step. Time is not a tyrant, nor is she cruel and unjust with her dance. She just can’t afford to stop dancing. She twirls and leaps without care, and if John had fallen behind, she would have been unable to stop moving for him. John missed three days of school. His parents were told and he now has therapy. As he moves forward from this there are others there to help him. His ballet continues. Time dipped and he almost fell. She twirled him and he almost didn't spin back into the dance. He could have ended then, but the words that keep tempo and make the music for her dance saved him. These words were not the same as the ones that told him he was better off dead. These words were different from the ones given to him at school that told him he was worthless. Words almost killed him and words brought him back. They have
power.
Upon the dancer’s departure, “the dancer, who though older was still languid and full of grace, reached out and tapped me with two fingers on the cheek, turned, and walked away” (185). Krauss uses this odd gesture by the dancer helps reinforce the strange quirks of the dancer and the author’s thought of the gesture containing “something condescending in it, even meant to humiliate” (185). The use of the words, “languid and full of grace” continues to strengthen the narrator’s fascination in the dancers beauty but also how the narrator feels uncomfortable with her interactions with the dancer. After the narrator’s encounter with the dancer, she walks by a crowded park “until a cry rang out, pained and terrified, an agonizing child’s cry that tore into[her] as if it were an appeal to [her] alone” (186). The author’s use of the painful and terrifying cry reintroduces the theme of a screaming child from the first passage which reinforces the author’s incapability to manager her guilt. The use of the word “agonizing” in this context suggests the overwhelming amount of guilt the author contains but in form as a youthful shrilling scream. Towards the end of the short story, the agonizing
In speechcraft, orators have reverted to three basic concepts to persuade an audience; ethics, logic or emotion. All views are powerful, the path of emotion, or pathos, has stirred men to riots, the path of ethics, or ethos, has reminded people of the basest of their knowing and the path of logic, or logos, has calmed the savagest of beasts to men. No matter how human's develop, they retain the remnants of their not so distant cousins, animals. This is apparent when one takes note in the brain's ability to overcome human speech with basic emotions, to ‘render one speechless’ if you will. In these cases, much like animals, humans are propelled into action, leaving behind civilized concepts,
Every person has their own individual beliefs and values that they live by. There is a line that one believes they will never cross. However, people can also be easily persuaded to abandon these values if the reasoning is fair enough. This is human nature. To manipulate someone is to use or change them for a specific purpose. In Shakespeare's play The Tragedy of Julius Caesar, he illustrates how easily people can change their minds through manipulation. He conveys how people can be manipulated, how they manipulate themselves, and how they manipulate others.
Persuasion in Julius Caesar was an indispensable factor in the play. From Decius’s sly flattery to Antony’s significantly impressive speech to the commoners, many different ways of persuasion were used in Julius Caesar. Its power was demonstrated through eloquence between Brutus and Antony to the commoners at Caesar’s funeral. As a result of their speech, Antony succeeds to appeal to their emotional feelings, he swayed them to think conspiracy can’t be justified and makes them go against the conspirators. Cassius and Brutus failed to justify their conspiracy which gave Antony a precious chance to gain the crowd’s trust. Now I’m going to analyze how persuasion by different characters in the story Julius Caesar turned the tables around.
William Shakespeare’s play The Tragedy of Julius Caesar is a story full of manipulation and jealousy that changes the way people think. Ancient Rome had umpteen different ways of handling situations that, in today’s world, would be considered unethical; such as battles that were very much horrifying and vivid. However, these battles were not important with the development of the plot. Shakespeare uses various ways of the idea of manipulation and betrayal to lead readers into the rest of the narrative.
Manipulation influences decisions and changes others’ thoughts. In The Tragedy of Julius Caesar, manipulative language acts prominently between the characters. Brutus struggles to decide if the safety of the Roman Republic appears more important than his friendship with Julius Caesar. Cassius tries to persuade him to join the conspiracy that decides to kill Caesar. Envious of Julius Caesar’s power, the Senators believes that when Caesar becomes ruler, the change of government forever affects Rome. Brutus agrees that it seems for the best of Rome for Caesar never to become dictator, but he never wishes to change his opinion on his death. In a persuasive manner, Cassius sends anonymous letters to Brutus to convince him to join the conspiracy. The conspiracy consists of senators and aristocrats who gather to converse about the Julius Caesar’s assassination. Cassius nominates Brutus as the leader of the conspiracy in order to gain his vote. They decide to kill Caesar on “the Ides of March.” On the morning of March 15th, Caesar’s wife persuades him to stay home because of an eerie dream. Decius, a conspirator, convinces him that the dream retains good omens. In a rush to become king, Caesar goes to the Capitol where the conspirators murder him. Therefore, Antony begs to speak at his funeral where he convinces the plebeians that Caesar never means harm. At this point, Antony declares war on the Caesar’s killers. In the end, he defeats Brutus and Cassius, and the two conspirators kill themselves. In The Tragedy of Julius Caesar, William Shakespeare declares that language expresses a powerful weapon, and in the hands of a skilled person, it manipulates others through the use of foreshadowing, imagery, and verbal irony.
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.
Brutus made his speech effective in persuading the people by using tone and rhetorical devices. Brutus was compassionate when referring to how he loved Caesar as much as Caesar`s friends of his speech. Brutus was showing compassion on lines18 - 20 when he said, "If there be any in this assembly, any dear friend of Caesar's, to him I say that Brutus's love to Caesar was no less than his." Brutus said this to help the people understand the sorrow he felt for the loss of Caesar, but he felt he killed Caesar for the good of Rome. Brutus anticipated an objection by the people when he said he loved Caesar , so he went on to say on lines 20 - 23, "If then that friend demand why Brutus rose against Caesar, this is my answer: Not that I love Caesar less, but Rome more."Brutus manipulated the people with rhetorical questions. He asks them on lines 29 - 33, " who is so base, that they would be a bondman, who is so rude, that they would not be a Roman, and who is so vile, that will not love his country," the people do not want to be against their country nor do they want to be so base to be a slave....
For most people, telling the truth is a highly revered trait that is taught at a young age. Parents are constantly telling their children to never lie and to always be honest. And yet, humans tend to resort to twisting the truth in order to get what they want. Whether it is a politician hiding the truth for votes or a young child crying crocodile tears to get their sibling in trouble, humans seem to require manipulation to receive what they truly desire. In William Shakespeare’s tragedy, Julius Caesar, this idea of falsifying information for one’s own gain is apparent. Characters such as Cassius, Antony, and Decius Brutus all demonstrate that manipulation is a requirement in order to achieve an overall goal.
Honor and power is what drives the conspirators to assassinate Julius Caesar in William Shakespeare's play Julius Caesar. Caesar is now the single leader of Rome, and members of the Senate have concerns that he will abuse his sole power. Therefore, they plot and accomplish the assassination of Caesar in an attempt to rebuild the balance of Rome. Rome falls into chaos with an unknown future with no central leader for the people to follow. In Act I, Scene 2, Cassius, a member of the Senate, explains to his friend, Brutus, that Caesar is not the god he makes himself out to be. Instead, he argues both he and Brutus are equal to Caesar and are just as deserving of the throne. Cassius’ speech to Brutus diminishes Caesar’s godly demeanor through
Power is how much control and support one has. Power can be controversial because the people who want it sometimes don't know how to handle it. In Julius Caesar, written by Shakespeare, many different people possess power. They gain the power in varied ways and react to having it differently. Since there are so many situations in Julius Caesar, power shifts are very common because diverse times call for the amounts of power to vary between different people.
"The evil that men do lives after them, the good is oft interred with their bones.” This quote from Marc Antony’s speech in Julius Caesar displays only a small part of his true feelings to the crowd that gathers for Caesar’s funeral, while also revealing some underlying intentions. This elaborate and emotional speech also shows how loyal he was to Caesar as a leader and as a friend.
At the beginning of this book the author describes the dancers coming in on a rainy Monday morning to begin warm-ups and rehearsal. This of course is the beginning of their voyage to opening night. The dancers taking part in this production were from the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theatre. The ballet that they plan to perform in seven weeks is called “Speeds.” The choreographer of “Speeds” is a world-renowned woman by the name of Jennifer Mullers. This production contains a cast of eleven dancers and five alternates. “Speeds” is a modern ballet that explains how one moment in time is like no other, and how often things in the world change.
Antony, though he kept to his bargain, brought the audience to his side in a variety of ways. He used all three methods of persuasion to his advantage. He claimed the killers of Caesar to be honorable and noble, and in the very act of doing so turned Brutus' followers against him. This shows the true ability of Marcus Antonius, and that he is a far greater threat than the conspirators recognized. This power of words is well known, and Aristotle's three methods of persuasion live on in modern speechwriters. Ethos, logos, and pathos are just as effective in our time as in that of Shakespeare, the Roman Empire, and wherever there are people to speak and people to listen. Thus even today, this speech of Shakespeare through Antony shows the sheer impact that mere words can have.
A lot is learned about Julius Caesar in the first two acts of Shakespeare’s play. One of his qualities includes being superstitious. In act one scene two, Caesar tells Mark Antony to touch Calpurnia’s stomach while he passes by in the race “for our elders say the barren touchèd in this holy chase, shake off their sterile curse.” Caesar believes that by having an athletic man touch her stomach, Calpurnia, a barren woman, will be able to bear children. However, Caesar sees this superstitious behavior as a weakness, and Julius Caesar does not show weakness. When the Soothsayer warned Caesar to “beware the Ides of March” in the same scene, he passed it off as silly and ignored the warning. Caesar thought that if he showed fear, then others would think he is not fit for the throne. At that time in the play, all the people of Rome seemed thrilled to offer Caesar the crown. They were almost desperate, and Caesar used that advantage to quench his need to be fawned over. When Casca is telling Cassius and Brutus what happened with Caesar, he tells them that Caesar was offered the crown twice ...