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How Does Brutus Use Ethos In Julius Caesar

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In The Tragedy of Julius Caesar written by William Shakespeare, there are several occassions in which the speaker must convince an audience to do something or react in a certain way. Persuasion and rhetoric are powerful tools that Brutus utilizes to manipulate the Roman citizens and his fellow conspirators. The three main components of rhetoric are ethos, pathos, and logos. Each one appeals to something different. Ethos is the appeal to ethics. It can be used to convince an audience of the speaker’s credibility. Pathos is the appeal to emotion and aims at manipulating an audience to feel a certain way. Lastly, logos is the appeal to logic and is essentially convincing an audience using reason. There are many instances in the play in which …show more content…

In both his speeches and one-on-one conversations, he uses rhetoric and persuasion to sway people’s opinions. Brutus is convincing the other conspirators to let Antony live using logos when he says “Antony is but a limb of Caesar” (2.1.165) and “he can do no more than Caesar’s arm/when Caesar’s head is off” (2.1.182-183). He tells them that Antony is a limb of Caesar and will be no threat to them because once Caesar dies, Antony hypothetically dies with him and becomes powerless. Brutus would also like Antony to live because he does not want the citizens of Rome to view them as butchers. Another instance in which rhetoric is utilized is when Brutus uses pathos while speaking to Antony after he finds Caesar’s body. Brutus attempts to justify the conspirators’ actions and frame them in a good light when he says “Though we now appear bloody and cruel,/as by our hands and this our present act/you see we do, yet see you but our hands/and this bleeding business they have done./Our hearts you see not; they are pitiful:/and pity to the general wrong of Rome-/as fire drives out fire, so pity pity-/hath done this deed on Caesar. For your part,/to you our swords have leaden points, Mark Antony:/our arms in strength of malice, and our hearts/of brothers’ temper, do receive you in/with all kind love, good thoughts, and reverence.” (3.1.164-176) By saying this, Brutus is defending their actions and telling Antony that they will not hurt him. Lastly, in Brutus’ funeral speech he uses ethos to connect with the crowd and shape their reaction to Caesar’s murder. He addresses them as “Romans, countrymen, lovers” (3.2.13), which identifies that he is one of them and establishes some credibility for himself among the citizens. In his speech, Brutus does an excellent job of persuading the citizens to react in a certain way, preventing a major uproar and

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