preview

Julius Caesar Power Of Speech

Decent Essays

Marissa Cheslock
Mrs. Satchwell
Honors English 9 B3
9 October 2017
The Power of Loyalty 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 …show more content…

On a slightly different note, Antony later expresses an opinion that causes the reader to question the validity of his earlier statements. “This is a slight unmeritable man, / meant to be sent on errands” (JC 4.1.13-14). While speaking directly to Lepidus, Antony seems to be remotely kind and friendly. However, once Lepidus leaves the room to complete Antony’s requests, Antony complains about him endlessly to Octavius... If he is capable of being that secretive of his true opinions about Lepidus, who is to say that he is not doing something of a similar manner whilst speaking of Julius Caesar? How can he be sure that his cover, word and plot manipulation, will keep everybody happy forever? There seems to be no one-hundred percent certainty that Mark Antony is truly a whole, good, and honest man. Finally, at the very end, Antony makes one last scholarly remark, truly convincing the audience that he is deserving of respect, simply because of his own policy of loyalty. “This was the noblest Roman of them all” (JC 5.5.74). In this line, Antony is referring to Brutus, after he had killed himself alongside the assistance of Strato, who held his sword as he ran into it aggressively, because Brutus would rather have died than remained with the gruesome thought that if he and Cassius had lived, they would simply be forced into slavery if they returned home. Shame, in

Get Access