A Rhetorical Analysis Of Marc Antony's Speech

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Sydney Stone Mrs. Paul English 10A 16 October 2017 Rhetorical Analysis Essay William Shakespeare, a very famous writer, tells the story of Julius Caesar. In his play, Marc Antony delivers a powerful speech that uses many different rhetorical devices, appeals, and different styles of writing. Some of these include repetition, rhetorical questions, pathos, logos, ethos, and diction. These help enhance Marc Antony’s speech by persuading the audience towards considering that Caesar was a good man. Marc Antony gives his speech at Caesar’s funeral to the citizens of Rome. The purpose of his speech is to prove to the citizens that Brutus is wrong and Caesar shouldn’t have been killed. The tone of his speech is very ironic. It also gets very dramatic as he talks about Caesar being killed. Marc Antony uses repetition throughout to strengthen his speech. Repetition is the action of repeating something that has already been said or written. Five times during his speech he repeats, “Brutus is an honorable man” (3.2. 94). Antony was not being very serious when he stated this. The statement was sarcastic. However, Brutus was honorable in a way because he let Marc Antony speak …show more content…

This is used to display his emotion. Antony states, “Bear with me; My heart is in the coffin there with Caesar, and I must pause till it come back to me” (3.2. 33-35). From this quote, you can tell that Antony believes killing Caesar was wrong and he wanted the citizens to think that as well. Even though he wanted to be the king, Caesar was still his friend. Antony wanted people to be patient with him. He also says, “When that the poor have cried, Caesar hath wept: Ambition should be made of sterner stuff” (3.2. 100-101). Antony says this to show that Caesar was a good man who cared about the people. It was also to show that Brutus was wrong when he stated that Caesar was ambitious. Antony makes the citizens feel that the conspirators murder was