Brutus Speeches In Julius Caesar

Act III, scene ii, the “funeral” scene in Julius Caesar by William Shakespeare contains powerful speeches by both Marcus Brutus and Mark Antony, two powerful men in Ancient Rome. These men speak to the people of Rome, and both have goals to sway the Roman people to their side of the argument. In the way that they use their words to bend the civilians’ views, each of their speeches becomes extremely memorable.
The civilians are in an uproar when Brutus approaches them to give his speech. They wish to be “satisfied;” they wish for an explanation of why their new leader was slain. This builds tension, making the reader wonder whom, Antony or Brutus, will the crowd believe? Both men answer the crowd’s question with conviction in an attempt to

The repetition aided in ensuring that neither the civilians nor the reader would forget what he so desperately tried to convey. Lastly, at the very end of his speech, Brutus holds out the dagger, still coated in Caesar’s blood, and offers it to the public to be used on himself when the time comes. In this one line, the reader learns quite a lot about Brutus, such as that Brutus truly did not want power from killing Caesar; he only ever wanted what was best for his beloved country. Foreshadowing is also at play here, for when Brutus does take his own life in Act V, the reader is forced to come back and remember when Brutus offered a bloody dagger to the crowd when it would “please my country to need my death.” While at the time of Caesar’s reign (or lack thereof) this would be seen as an honorable quality. Now it would be viewed as melodramatic, even overly so. Should a political leader stand in front of a crowd and offer their death in this time, they would lose favor, not gain it as Brutus did. However, this is part of what made his finale

In act III, scene i, Antony is made to promise that, should he be allowed to speak at Caesar's funeral, he absolutely would not speak ill of the conspirators. At the end of Antony’s speech, he truly plays on the crowd’s emotions. Antony states that the crowd “did love him once,” and “my heart is in the coffin with Caesar.” Human emotions tug on heartstrings and sway minds far more than morals and logic can, and Antony uses this to his advantage by swaying the public opinion with their emotions. Antony ends his speech pretending (or maybe not) that he was truly wounded by Caesar’s death. This makes the end of Antony’s speech very memorable because it displayed to the commonfolk that Caesar deserved to be grieved over, as well as that strong, sturdy political leaders can have emotions and are human, as the commonfolk