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Antony's Ethos In Julius Caesar Essay

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In Shakespeare’s play, Julius Caesar, the main character, Julius Caesar, believes he has two good friends in Mark Antony and Brutus, and he has good reason to believe so. That is until Brutus literally stabs Caesar in the back. Now it is time for Caesar’s funeral and both Brutus and Antony are giving speeches. During their speeches, Brutus and Antony use ethos, logos, and pathos, but with very different intentions. Brutus intends to justify his actions, and gain the support of the Roman people. Opposite him, Antony seeks revenge for his friend and aims to make the people feel pity for Caesar and anger for Brutus. Ethos means credibility, and between Antony and Brutus, they have a lot of it. Brutus is a noble, honourable man and Antony was Julius Caesar’s best friend, so they are respected citizens in Rome. Brutus starts out his speech by saying “Believe me for mine honour, and have respect to mine honour…” (III. ii. L 14-15). He is asking the audience, the commoners, to trust his decisions, because after all, he is the very honourable Brutus. Antony starts his speech a little differently. Mark …show more content…

To get their point across to the Roman republic, Brutus and Antony use different kinds of logic, or logos. Brutus approaches the logos part of his speech by pointing out how oppressed the people of Rome would be, had he not killed Caesar; ¨Would you rather that Caesar be alive and you be slaves?¨ (III. ii. L 21-22). Being one of Caesar's best friends, Antony took the angle opposite Brutus; he displayed all the actions that Caesar took to benefit Rome. ¨He hath brought many captives home to Rome… When that the poor have cried, Caesar hath wept… I thrice presented him a kingly crown, which he did thrice refuse” (III. ii. L 86, 89, 94-95). Antony really tries to appeal Caesar to the crowd and all his triumphs, not faults. At this point in their speeches, Brutus and Antony had the crowd swayed the way they

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