Lend Me Your Ears “Friends, Romans, countrymen, lend me your ears,” begins Marc Antony in Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar. He cleverly appeals to the audience using an anti-ethos tactic towards Brutus discrediting his “honorable” judgment. Marc Anthony uses repetition of “honorable man” with a negative connotation to create antithesis in which it discredited Brutus. Antony himself appeals to the crowd by building his credibility through him being loyal to Caesar,” He was my friend, faithful and just to me,” says Antony. He continues to make himself seem loyal to Caesar as he uses hyperbole in his statement, “My heart is in the coffin there with Caesar, / And I must pause till it come back to me…” One thing that is particularly notable in Antony’s
Antony is saying he knew Caesar, and that Caesar was always fair and true. Ethos is also a strong appeal but the strongest of three is
In one situation he shows Caesar’s dead body and in the second he talks about the will of Caesar to gather the people’s attention, but he claims he isn’t calling attention to it. Unlike Brutus, Antony utilises a “prop”, Caesar’s bloody body, and in doing so he allows his words to be far more effective by calling attention to each and everyone of his wounds and claiming to have seen where each of the conspirators placed their daggers (Shakespeare III. ii. 140-165). To begin with, Antony had not witnessed Caesar’s stabbing, but he incorporated this part into his speech, because he knew it would affect the people’s hearts. Here, he utilises pathos by bringing out the people’s emotions and ethos by robbing Brutus and the conspirators of their credibility. Throughout Antony’s speech there are also instances of paralipsis, for instance, Antony states, “’Tis good you know not that you are his heirs,/For if you should, O, what would come of it?” (Shakespeare III. ii. 114-115). Antony is clearly drawing attention to the supposed will in an attempt to sway the people to his side. This technique is incredibly effective, because not only is he talking about the people receiving an inheritance, but he’s also showing them that Caesar cared deeply for them. Antony is also causing the people to question the purity of the conspirators’ intentions by showing the people that Caesar never wronged
There are two sides to every story. Each side tries with tooth and nail to convince their audience that they are right, but unknowingly, both sides use some of the exact same methods. In William Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar, the characters are racing to fix what they believe is a government corruption. Cassius uses major pathos along with ethos and logos to convince his friend to join him in the conspiracy to turn against Caesar, for the good of Rome. While many examples of both logos and ethos are demonstrated, Cassius predominantly uses pathos.
By contrast Antony from Julius caesar heavily relies upon the power of language and its ability to exploit the human flaw that is emotion, and by doing so manipulate ones perception through a emotionally (pathos) driven argument. Antony has a greater understanding of the people and knows that they are passionate people who will be swayed by such talk. Also Antony unlike Brutus uses iambic pentameter this shows that he has a higher authority which would make the audience listen more carefully. After each argument Antony produces in Caesar’s defense, he uses irony through the lines “But Brutus says he was ambitious, and Brutus is an honorable man”. This line is repeated a number of times creating an anaphora. As well as slowly dismantling Brutus’
Julius Caesar Funeral Speech Analysis There are many different ways to appeal to an audience or any group of people. One very clever way of doing this would be to use logos, pathos and ethos. Logos uses inductive or deductive reasoning by citing facts as evidence, therefore proving their point using logical evidence. Another technique that an author can use is Pathos, when using pathos the author tries to appeal to the emotions of the audience by describing the effect of a situation, essentially trying to affect the audience’s emotions. When using Ethos it is important for the author to establish themselves as a trustworthy, respectful, and knowledgeable person.
All throughout Rome, Brutus is known as being nobleman, yet, in his funeral speech to Caesar, he purposely talks in prose, a way of speaking or writing that is not formal. Brutus’ ethos of nobility is so strong that patricians, noblemen, and plebeians, commoners, directly address Brutus as “the noble Brutus” (III.ii.11) Being as noble as he his, the commoners have a difficult time relating to him; yes, they may respect him, but believing or being convincing in what he says is more difficult for Brutus than Antony. In contrast, Antony can relate to the commoners and is not seen to have an overruling ethos; so, this is why Antony ultimately has a more persuasive speech. At the beginning of his speech, he is presented as not being at all against the conspirators, the group Brutus was apart of. He repeatedly kept reassuring the crowd that the conspirators were "all honorable men" (III.ii.81). By reassuring that the conspirators are honorable, the commoners believe in Antony's statement, which increases his authority power. Noticing that his authority is becoming more powerful, Antony decides to secretly turn against the conspirators. He questions on Brutus’ statement, again, on his reasoning for killing Caesar; yes, Antony is well aware that “[Brutus] is an honorable
“A superior man is modest in his speech, but exceeds in his actions“ -Confucius. This quote is relevant because in Shakespeare’s play, Julius Caesar, Brutus and Antony gave speeches after Caesar’s death. A speaker has to make connections with the audience, use creativity, and have passion. Antony was rhetoric, cunning, and used pathos to connect with the people of Rome. Brutus was also rhetoric, honorable, and used logos and ethos to influence the audience. Overall, Brutus did not influence the crowd like he hoped to. Antony knew how he was going to persuade the people before he gave his speech.
If your friend was murdered, do you think that you would have more passion in your speech rather than the murder? In William Shakespeare's The Tragedy of Julius Caesar, Brutus, a Roman citizen, is convinced that killing the potential king of Rome would cause nothing but good to the Roman citizens and city itself. What he didn’t know was what would actually happen. Him and a handful of others murder Julius Caesar so that he wouldn’t become a tyrant. After Caesar's best friend Antony finds out about the murder, he sets out to get revenge for his friend. Before he goes on an escapade to defend his friend’s honor, he wishes to say a speech to the Roman people at his funeral, in which he effectively uses pathos, logos, and ethos to convince them to despise the murders of his friend.
The final demonstration of the theme is when Antony, a follower of Caesar, cleverly uses pleasant words against Brutus and the conspirators. In the scene where Antony speaks, Caesar is already dead and Antony could publicly speak only if he did not dirtied Brutus’s name or Caesar’s. He blatantly calls the conspirator honorable: “The noble Brutus/ Hath told you Caesar was ambitious. / If it were so, it was a grievous fault, / And grievously hath Caesar answered it. / Here, under leave of Brutus and the rest/ (For Brutus is an honorable man, / So are they all, all honorable men), / Come I to speak in Caesars’ funeral” (3.2. 912-13). The power of Antony’s speech and the manner her referred to his enemies was fabulous. He achieved the plebeians’ ultimate approval and will succeed in avenging Caesar’s death. He did so by using wise and well-chosen words.
Mark Antony’s use of emotional appeal is one of his strongest uses of rhetoric. First, he puts himself on the same level as the commoners and then begins to attack the sentiments of the Roman people. Antony uses a plain folks appeal to put himself on common ground with the commoners, “Friends, Romans, Countrymen, lend me your ears;” (3.2. 74). This is an important strategy because in this period of time aristocrats would not dare speak to commoners yet alone call them a friend. To show the commoners how much Antony actually adored Caesar he says, “My heart is in the coffin there with Caesar” (3.2. 107). This makes the commoners have a
After Brutus finishes his speech, Antony speaks about his opinion on the issue; unlike Brutus, Antony acts slyly and communicates a very manipulative tone to persuade the Romans to rebel. Because of Antony's use of parallelism, he creates vivid reasoning for his speech. He states, “ I come here to bury Caesar, not to praise him” (III.ii.44). By using this device, he shows the people of Rome that he isn't praising Caesar, he is putting the leader to rest. This particular line creates a very manipulative tone, because his speech is all about what great this Caesar has done and how he wants to rebel against the conspirators. Further more, Antony uses a lot of irony to slyly get his point across. One example that he uses throughout the speech is “Yet Brutus says he was ambitious, and Brutus is a honorable man” (III.ii.44). Because of the repitition of this ironic statement, the meaning of it changes and intensifies. At first, his tone was sincere, but as the speech progresses, you can see his sarcastic tone increases. Antony does this because he has to use this device to surpass the regulations of Brutus, as well as make the romans listen. Lastly, he uses personification to give life and further meaning to a word. Early in the speech, Antony says, “The evil
Right after Caesar had been killed, the conspirators had encountered Antony. Antony, being heartbroken with the death of Julius Caesar, had a simple request, which was to speak at Caesar’s funeral. Little did the men know the malevolent plan that Antony had in mind. When the day of the funeral came, and Brutus had finished speaking, Antony came up and began his speech declaring, “Friends, Romans, countrymen, lend me your ears… For Brutus is an honorable man; so are they all, all honorable men.” (Julius Caesar. II. ii. 70-79). Antony clearly does not believe the men that killed his beloved friend are honorable, yet he continues to call them this. Antony is demonstrating verbal irony by filling his words with sarcasm. Besides verbal, situational, and dramatic irony, Shakespeare also used the powerful tool of symbolism within The Tragedy of Julius
Consequently, the citizens of Rome are starting to realize that the murder was corrupt and not justifiable. Another appeal Mark Antony utilizes is logos, or logic. To elaborate, Antony temps the citizens with the will of Caesar, “Here’s a parchment with the seal of Caesar./ I found it in his closet; ’tis his will” (3.2.125-126). The use of the parchment is to entice the citizens into wanting to know more about Caesar. His will is very generous and makes him look like a gracious and giving ruler, which is the exact opposite of what the conspirators thought. The factual evidence presented in the will provides the citizens with the rage they need to revolt against the conspirators. In brief, Pathos, Ethos, and Logos help Antony gain the citizens support and convey his counterpoints to the audience of his speech.
William Shakespeare, one of the most profound writers in all of history, skillfully used the character of Mark Antony in his play, Julius Caesar, in order to verify true the theme that loyalty and respect are two of the most extremely convincing tactics. He demonstrates the power of speech as he is manipulating words in order to prove a certain point in the speaker’s favor, whoever that may be. Mark Antony was a man who enjoyed spending the majority of his time at extravagant parties and receiving everything he wanted at his sudden demand. Shakespeare created Antony to be an expert in speech manipulation, which ended up making Julius Caesar to be what