Brutus Vs Anthony's Persuasion

Antony, another Julius Caesar character, employs three Machiavellian skills: using fickleness to his advantage,“...while you treat them well, they are yours” (Prince 3), and ruling by fear. Antony’s objective was revenge toward the conspirators for killing Caesar. Antony also successfully used the fickleness of the Roman people to his advantage. After Brutus explained why the conspirators had killed Caesar, the crowd was understanding and agreed with the conspirator’s actions. The Roman peasants are convinced; they even want Brutus as their new emperor, with better qualities than Caesar. The plebians say, “Caesar’s better parts / Shall be crowned in Brutus” (3.2.54-55). But the level of the masses’ support for Brutus did not deter Antony’s opinion of the wrongdoing of the conspirators. In Antony’s speech, he spoke both confidently and assertively, which led to Antony convincing the crowd to support his cause and fight against the conspirators. Additionally, in Machiavellian style, Antony understands the crowd’s perspective; they need praise to believe in Antony’s cause. Antony appeased the Roman masses when Antony

            Antony appeals to his audience's emotions: horror, sadness and anger, to persuade them to his view.  Antony enters with Caesar's body and shows his lamentation over his death, which reminds the plebeians what a horrible deed Brutus committed.

Brutus used repetition the most to influence the crowd. He states about Caesar’s “tears, love, and ambition.” Brutus also asked the audience rhetorical questions that they could not answer, and he would take their silence as if they were agreeing when in reality they were probably too scared to answer. Antony also used repetition to sway the crowd. He often pointed out that “Brutus was an honorable man” and he said it with more and more sarcasm each time. Antony also took advantage of the crowd and used reverse psychology on them. He used Caesar’s will as a tool to accomplish this. He told the crowd about Caesar’s will, telling them that they would think twice if they heard what was in the will, but he doesn’t read it to them. That made them beg for him to read it to them. Not only does this get them to do what he wants, it also give the crowd a false sense of authority over Antony. Also, he asks the crowd if he can come down and join them, saying they give him permission, again giving them that sense of authority. Antony, in addition to the will, used Caesar’s body as a prop in his speech. He created a sympathetic attitude towards Caesar. The other pathos appeal Antony used was the contrast that he showed between the beginning and end of his speech. He opened, saying he was only to “bury Caesar, not to praise him” yet towards the end he had accomplished his goal in making the crowd feel sorry for Caesar and wanting to

In William Shakespeare's play The Tragedy of Julius Caesar, two speeches are given to the people of Rome about Caesar's death. In Act 3, Scene 2 of this play Brutus and Antony both try to sway the minds of the Romans toward their views. Brutus tried to make the people believe he killed Caesar for a noble cause. Antony tried to persuade the people that the conspirators committed an act of brutality toward Caesar and were traitors. The effectiveness and ineffectiveness of both Antony's and Brutus's speech to the people are conveyed through tone and rhetorical devices.

In the tragic play Julius Caesar by William Shakespeare, the ruler of Rome, Julius Caesar, is stabbed to death by some of his so-called friends. Brutus, one of Caesar's best friends, is approached by some of the other senators to join the conspiracy to kill Caesar. Brutus weighs his options and decides to join the conspirators for the good of Rome. At Caesars's funeral, Brutus gives a speech to convince the citizens that the conspirators were right to kill Caesar. In contrast, Antony gives a speech to convince the Romans that there was no real reason to kill Caesar. Both characters try to persuade the audience, but they achieve different tones using literary and rhetorical devices. The tone of Brutus' speech is prideful, while the tone of Antony's speech is dramatic and inflammatory.

In The Tragedy of Julius Caesar by William Shakespeare Brutus and Marc Antony go head to head at Caesar’s funeral. Both of the men give a speech, but which one was more effective? The speeches revealed each of their personalities and their character. In this essay I will be comparing and contrasting Brutus’ speech and Marc Antony’s funeral speeches.

Antony uses an abundance of pathos in his speech. One example is: “Caesar was my friend and just to me” (III, ii, 86). Using pathos helps the audience make connections with him. He also reads Caesar’s will which makes the people feel guilty about turning against Caesar during Brutus’ speech. He shows them the stabs wounds on Caesar’s coat and names which conspirator stabbed him. The Roman people now feel pity and anger towards the conspirators. Overall, Antony was smart with his words and won over the Roman people better than

The citizens also want to hear Antony speak of the situation and when he lies about having Caesar’s will, it makes the reader wonder his real reasoning behind speaking out. Antony’s speech was superior to Brutus’s because he manipulated the citizens into believing things that aren't true and by using different rhetorical devices such as logos and pathos. ANALYSIS OF BRUTUS’S SPEECH

In the Tragedy Of Julius Caesar, Brutus and Anthony both presented a speech to the citizens of Rome. Brutus argued why his actions to kill Julius were acceptable while Antony contradicted Brutus’s views, arguing why Caesar should not have been murdered. Both speakers used ethos, logos, and pathos to persuade the people of Rome. Brutus’s speech was mainly based on logic, while Antony’s speech took more of an emotional approach . Overall, Antony had a sophistic style, he was much more artful and cunning than Brutus. He reeled in the crowd like a fish and captured them with his compelling diction.

Brutus, a conflicted senator obsessed with his civic duty, convinces the people of Rome that his motives in killing Caesar were just and noble by rhetoric. Brutus is the only conspirator to have impersonal motives in killing Caesar. In fact, his motives are trying to find the best solution for Rome, and in the end, he must make the hard choice of killing his best friend for his homeland. As early as Brutus’ conversation with Cassius in Act I, Brutus exhibits this deep love and respect for Rome and how this love is conflicting with his love for his friend, Caesar: “[P]oor Brutus, with himself at war, / Forgets the shows of love to other men” (I.ii.51-52). Brutus brings up this internal conflict again when he tells the crowds that although he did love Caesar, he loved Rome and its people more. After Brutus’ murder of Caesar, he realizes that the issue of the public opinion of Rome is of the utmost importance. Because of this love for Rome, Brutus uses rhetoric to persuade these plebeians to approve of him and his cause. When Cassius warns Brutus about “how much the people will be moved / By that which [Marc Antony] will utter[!]” (III.i.252-253), Brutus tells Cassius that letting Marc Antony speak “shall advantage us more than do us wrong” (III.i.261). In these cases, Brutus demonstrates his awareness of

The speeches given by both Brutus and Mark Antony in William Shakespeare’s The Tragedy of Julius Caesar are very persuasive to the audience that they are given to, but rhetorical devices were used in different ways in order for each to have an effect on the people of Rome. In Brutus’s speech, he uses devices such as rhetorical question and antithesis to convince the Romans that he and the conpirators did a good deed by killing Caesar. In Mark Antony’s speech, he sways them to believe that Caesar did not deserve to die, and that the conpirators were the real enemies by using rhetorical devices like rhetorical question and apostrophe. Both speeches were very

In this speech in Act lll Antony talks about how Brutus said Caesar was ambitious and explains why he wasn’t ambitious. In that speech at the beginning he starts with “Friends, Romans,Countrymen, lend me your ears” compared to Brutus’s “Romans, Countrymen, and lovers, hear me for my cause”(Holt 831-834). He talks to the crowd more as a friend then Brutus does. He also tells his speech in a manner that the crowd will not only understand but get stirred up. Even though Antony speech wins in the long run, Brutus’s would’ve down better if he would’ve interpreted his crowd better.

Even the starting line of his oration is a powerful use of rhetoric. By referring to the plebeians as “friends” and “Romans” he creates a sense of emotional connection with them and shapes a feeling of citizen-like connection, which is use of pathos. Calling them “countrymen” creates the feeling that Antony is simply a fellow Roman like the plebeians and he is alike to them. Antony then uses the rhetoric device of conduplicatio in his speech, repeating that Brutus is an honorable man. This is also a use of irony. He says in a sarcastic manner that Brutus is honorable after pointing out contractions to what Brutus had said about Caesar and why he needed to be murdered (Gradesaver). Antony also mentions that Caesar’s declining of the crown three times showed that he was not ambitious. Antony causes himself to appeal to the crowd even more with another device of rhetoric— the understatement. He claims his modesty and contrasts his speaking skills with those of Brutus, when his persuasive skills are actually more powerful than Brutus’s in the lines:

Two of the most powerful and persuasive things Antony did was showing the corpse of Julius Caesar and putting himself at the level of the plebeians. Antony persuaded the plebeians further, by putting himself at their level. He even asked for permission to come to their level, “Shall I descend? And will you give me leave?” (Julius, 3.2.158). The one-act that truly made the crowd gasp was when Antony uncovered Caesar's corpse and explained, “You all do know this mantle. I remember...Through this the well-belovèd Brutus stabbed./And as he plucked/his cursèd steel away,/Mark how the blood of Caesar followed it,/As rushing out of doors, to be resolved/If Brutus so unkindly knocked, or no./For Brutus, as you know, was Caesar's angel” (Julius 3.2.165-176).