Julius Caesar Rhetorical Devices

“Friends, Romans, countrymen, lend me your ears,” Antony tells the people of Rome during his passionate funeral speech. After Brutus and his conspirators assassinate Caesar, Brutus gives a speech saying his actions were just. Antony is not a proponent of Brutus’s actions and therefore tells the people why what Brutus did was immoral. Both men give meaningful and long speeches, and although Brutus is sincere in his defense, Antony uses more emotional, logical, and ethical appeal to the people, making his speech stronger. Although Brutus uses logos in his argument, he weakens its meaning but creating it a fallacy.

Scene two of act three in The Tragedy of Julius Caesar shows two orators, consisting of Mark Antony and Brutus, giving speeches to a crowd at Caesar’s funeral. Both of them want to convince the audience that their position on the assassination of Julius Caesar is correct. The two both use rhetorical devices to backup their positions. In the end, Antony is victorious. Even though the two speeches have similarities, they also have many differences that made Antony’s speech just that little bit better.

Both Brutus and Antony successfully incorporate a variety of rhetorical techniques into their speeches when addressing the crowd at Julius Caesar’s funeral. Brutus uses pathos to justify his rebellion against Caesar. He claims, “If then that friend demand / why Brutus rose against Caesar, this is my answer: / --Not that i loved Caesar less, but that I loved / Rome more” (III.ii.20-23). Brutus makes the people feel like Caesar’s death was for the good of Roman society and they become proud of Brutus for making a decision to benefit a movement bigger than himself.

He starts off similar to Brutus with “Friends, Romans, and countrymen”. Notice how Brutus mentions Romans first while Antony says friends to match a more emotional tone his speech takes on. He brings up how Brutus said the Caesar was ambitious and that if he was it was a fatal flaw. Antony says Caesar was a just and good friend, but Brutus said he was ambitious and Brutus is an honorable man. This is seemly mocking Brutus and saying he made a mistake in judging Caesar.

Antony didn’t sugar coat how the death of Caesar happened. Shakespeare uses many literary terms in his play Julius Caesar, in the play Brutus and many of his acquaintances are plotting Caesar’s, the future ruler of Rome, death. When death comes for Caesar the people of Rome are furious, that is until Brutus gives a persuasive Funeral speech convincing that the death of Caesar was done in Rome’s favor. Antony, who loved Caesar very much, had nothing to do with his death; he gave a very long speech that then re-convinced the romans that Caesar was an asset to their nation. In order to convince the Romans, Antony used many rhetorical devices such as, Verbal Irony, repetition, and Rhetorical Questions.

He also points out Caesar’s fatal flaw: “But, as he was ambitious, I slew him” (III.II.25-26). He wishes to persuade the audience to believe that he saw Caesar’s flaw and thought it would harm the country—and the only solution was to remove him permanently. Antony attempts to counter these claims, stating that “The noble Brutus hath told you Caesar was ambitious” (III.II.75-76) and following his statement with things Caesar did to benefit Rome, such as “He hath brought many captives to Rome” (III.II.86). In context, though, his statement could actually benefit Brutus. Brutus claimed that Caesar would make the people slaves, and Antony proved that he has brought captives and conquered others during his time as general.

Julius Caesar was one of the best known historical figures to come out of ancient Rome; he is also the basis of William Shakespeare’s tragedy called Julius Caesar, although this is very different from the actual events. It takes place in ancient Rome; when the main character of Brutus begins to fear for the future of Rome when he learns that his arrogant friend, Julius Caesar, could possibly become king. In response to this he goes along with a plan to kill Caesar. After Caesar has died Brutus, and Caesar's close friend Antony speak at his funeral. Brutus gives a speech about why Caesar needed to die, while Antony gives of speech about why it was awful and unneeded.

Even though Brutus had a great first speech and had the crowd on his side to begin with, but by allowing Antony go after Brutus let Antony get the final say and he used pathos and logos to win over the crowd. Logos was a strong way to persuade the people of Rome at the funeral of Julius Caesar. Antony and Brutus had a speech and Antony used logos a lot better than Brutus did. For example when Antony said “But Brutus says he was ambitious, And Brutus is an honorable man. He hath brought many captives home to Rome whose ransoms did the general coffers fill” (III.ii.85-88).

In the play Julius Caesar, Antony’s speech was more persuasive than Brutus’s speech. Antony persuaded the people of Rome not by what he said, but by how he said it. Pathos and logos were used as a means of persuasion throughout his speech. He also used lots of literary devices in his speech like irony, bandwagon, strawman, appeal to pity, and symbolism. The most common type of irony used was verbal.

Antony’s Speech Using Rhetorical Appeals In William Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar, after Caesar’s death, the Romans are conflicted about what should be done. After Brutus’ speech the Romans are ready to crown Brutus king and be on the conspirators’ side. Though Brutus then leaves the crowd while Antony delivers his speech, the crowd realizes what should be done of Caesar’s murder and Antony prevents the conspirators from getting away with the murder of Caesar.

Rhetoric in the Speeches of Brutus and Antony The death of Caesar is a controversial topic and was even more controversial at the time of his funeral when when senators were trying to benefit from his death by getting the Roman citizens on their side. At Caesar’s funeral, two senators gave speeches as an attempt to get the roman people on their side. Out of the two speeches, Marc Antony’s speech was more effective because of his use of appeals and biases, being 100% true and had a larger variety of rhetorical devices.

In the play The Tragedy of Julius Caesar one of the main characters Caesar is killed in Scene 3 act 2.Then Brutus and Antony both give speeches about how bad they feel. Brutus gives a good speech by using all three of the rhetorical appeals to persuade the crowd to want to listen to what he say by using logos,ethos,pathos to his advantage. Brutus gives a better speech that draws the audience attention,Antony not as much. Therefor here are some very valid points on why Brutus’s speech used the Rhetorical Appeals better.

Leaders derive their power from a range of sources – military force, wealth, rank. However, leaders that we most admire win followers through the skill of persuasion. The ability of a speaker to persuade his listeners to agree with him signals that he is a powerful and astute figure. In the play Julius Caesar by William Shakespeare, the character of Cassius attempts to convince Brutus that Caesar should be assassinated. Brutus, however, cares deeply for Caesar and is hesitant to kill the beloved hero of Rome.

Brutus 's speech: Brutus speaks to the people of rome why he killed caesar so they will not turn on him. He talked about how he didnt kill him because he didn 't love him but because it was for the better of rome. He also tells the people of rome that letting caesar become king would mean the government type would change and all the wars and hard work his family had put into the government would go away. He also states, for the welfare of rome that he would die for rome if rome demands his death Rhetorical devices: Brutus used questions, logos, parallelism, and pathos to stir the people of rhome. Question-

As Caesar loved me, I weep for him; // as he was fortunate, I rejoice at it; // as he was valiant, I honour him: // but, as he was ambitious, I slew him” (JC, 3.2.20-30), leaves the mob more disturbed and bitter than ever before they succumb to Antony’s appeal to emotion as he continues to exploit their self-love. Brutus’s naïve belief that he has successfully justified his actions in the eyes of the Romans with such a short speech lacking any self-love is a sign of his naivety – a form of foolishness that lacks folly. On the other hand, Antony’s long speech is brave and fearless – a sign of a fool who embodies folly. According to Folly, “I [folly] is also the champion of prudence” (Folly, 27) as prudence is derived from experience, and men who lack