Rhetorical Devices In Brutus's Speech

“But if thought corrupts language, language can also corrupt thought.” (George Orwell, 1984). William Shakespeare intensified his quality of work by insinuating manipulative and persuasive language within his writing. Cassius, a loyal server to Brutus, was easy to coax Brutus into rebelling against Julius Caesar, gaining an additional member to his group of conspirators. Cassius altered Brutus’ thoughts of Caesar’s ruling, within the use of multiple effective rhetorical techniques.

In Brutus' speech he uses logos to try to reason with the crowd whilst Antony uses pathos to control their emotions. Brutus explains that for the betterment of Rome Caesar had to die or else he would ruin the country and destroy the great empire. He at first has everyone on his side, that is of course until Antony speaks. When Antony speaks he gives examples of how Caesar wasn't going to ruin Rome and in fact how he was the best leader they had ever had. He says that Brutus and Cassius are murderers and that's all they are.

Brutus begins his speech in Act III, scene ii, at Caesar's funeral, with an upset crowd questioning his motives for killing Caesar. The crowd’s initial reaction to Brutus is that he is honorable and venerated, but still needs to explain why Caesar was assassinated. Brutus tells the crowd that he did not kill Caesar because he didn’t care for him, but he killed Caesar because he loved Rome more. In addition, that if Caesar were still alive and king, all of the people would die slaves, and claims that he killed Caesar for the good of Rome. Brutus is able to persuade the crowd that he had honorable intentions for killing Caesar through the use of rhetoric-ethos, logos, and pathos.

“Had you rather Caesar were living and die all slaves, than Caesar were dead to live all free men? The last appeal Brutus uses is Pathos to give emotions to his words. Pathos is the appeal to emotion and Brutus uses it to show his feelings towards Rome are immense that he killed Caesar to stop his “ambitions” from controlling Rome. On line 36 Brutus says “With this I depart,--that, as I slew my best lover for the good of Rome.

His acknowledgement of Brutus saying “[Caesar] was ambitious” (III.ii.82) followed immediately by his saying that Brutus “is an honorable man” (III.ii.83) repetitively shows the crowd that Antony is ungrateful for the conspirators allegedly saving Rome. This repetition becomes sarcastic, creating an ungrateful feeling throughout the crowd. He also repeats good traits of Caesar, including how “He was [Antony’s] friend, faithful and just to [Antony]” (III.ii.81) which establishes an emotional connection between him and the citizens. He uses aposiopesis to display how the assassination has affected him, once again using emotion to persuade the crowd to see the murder the same way he views it. He reminds the citizens that “when that the poor have cried, Caesar hath wept” (III.ii.87) which establishes another emotional connection between the fallen leader and the

Both of the deceased leaders, Caesar and Lincoln, were well loved by many, and so the initial reaction of the public was to misunderstand the murderer’s intentions and feel only loss and hatred. Brutus, a prominent member of the Senate and a dear friend of Caesar’s, reminds the Plebeians of his relationship with Caesar. Brutus said, “not that I loved Caesar less, but that I loved Rome more” declaring that he sympathizes with the Plebeians hurting and loss because he too lost a loved one (Shakespeare 45). By establishing the loving relationship between Caesar and Brutus, Brutus relates himself to a beloved leader; this carries those attributes that Caesar was loved for upon Brutus. Brutus is already well-known throughout Rome, and can easily gain respect since he had it from the public at one point.

Also, Brutus explains Caesar has been slain for the welfare of Rome. Anyway, Brutus 's reason for killing Caesar was because of the leaders excessive ambition, then he insults anyone who doesn’t agree with him. Therefore, everyone starts cheering for him and supporting him. Brutus uses pathos to express people’s meaning of love for Rome. also, Brutus committed the crime for

Brutus and Antony’s speech really shows how important rhetoric is to present a good argument. During Act III, scene II of Julius Caesar, Rome is mourning the loss of Caesar after he is stabbed by the conspirators. Antony, Caesar’s best friend, joins the conspirators to seem like he is on their side. Antony’s final goal is to get revenge on them and start a civil war to avenge Caesar. He makes an agreement that he will not accuse or blame the conspirators in his speech at Caesar’s funeral.

In Act 3 Scene 2 Brutus said during his speech, “If that friend then demands to know why Brutus turned against Caesar, this is my answer: Not because I cared for Caesar less, but because I cared for Rome more”. Brutus had courage to kill Caesar, not because he wanted to, but for the good of Rome and its people. During the entirety of the story, Brutus

Brutus then proceeds to say “If then that friend demand why Brutus rose against Caesar, this is my answer: Not that I loved Caesar less, but I loved Rome more.” In this specific spot Brutus uses pathos relying on their emotions to persuade the Romans that Brutus did this for the better good of all people.

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.

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-

His speech heavily favored the ethical side of the mob attending the funeral and contained little to no verbal irony. Instead Brutus stated that he killed caesar not for his disliking of caesar but for his love of rome. He was attempting to impress the mob my saying that he cared more about rome than he did about his own best friend when he said, “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.” he stated his reasonable arguement to the mob by saying that because the assassination of julius caesar was for the betterment of rome, anyone who contradicted the decision to have him killed was someone who didnt love theor country and would be a slave under julius caesar. He also said that those people and only those people were the people of whom he wronged in the killing of Jullius Caesar when he said, “who is here so base that would be a bondman?

Brutus delivers his speech in a laudatory manner by conveying Caesar’s deeds and claiming he was ambitious, although Antony contradicts Brutus’ claims and says Caesar spurned the crown with the intent to merely rule as a de facto dictator. Brutus’ speech reveals his motives were truly for the benefit of Rome given his nationalistic tone and Antony’s speech was merely used to obscure his true motives, which was to embroil Rome in a series of civil wars to attain power. Brutus and Antony’s speeches consisted predominantly of Pathos and Ethos, but it is Antony who ultimately it is Antony who prevails because of his almost disingenuous attitude and even use of Logos which is seen when claims that reading Caesar’s will would dishonor his compeers and even Caesar