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Comparing Machiavelli's The Prince And Julius Caesar

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The pursuit for power and political stability often challenges leaders on whether or not to adhere to traditional concepts of morality. This interplay between power and personal morality is a common idea in Niccolo Machiavelli’s 1513 political treatise “The Prince”, and William Shakespeare's 1599 tragedy “Julius Caesar”. The Prince reflects the context of political turmoil in which Italy (Florentine republic) was dominated by the Catholic Church and threatened by external powers. Shakespeare’s drama is set in Elizabethan England where there was political and monarchical upheaval due to foreign invasion and the insecure future of England. Both composers value for nationalism enabled them to reveal similarities in their ideas to gain and maintain …show more content…

Both composers reflect on the idea that the easiest way to gain support, is through the manipulation of the populace. Machiavelli states that successful leadership is attributed to being able to manipulate people’s perspective and appear desirable to them, as the Renaissance Italy’s Humanist movement led to people supporting those who benefitted them. “if the people turn hostile (…) they will desert him” through high modality and syntax, Machiavelli is able to claim the detrimental impact of not acquiring public support on power. He gives the example of the Spartan King (Nabis), another successful leader observed by Machiavelli, who was “besieged by forces from all over Greece (…) all he had to do was take precautions to deal with a few internal enemies but if he’d had the people against him, this wouldn’t have been enough.” And addresses the ease in maintaining power when the public had his …show more content…

Queen Elizabeth’s skills of rhetoric and expertise in public relations, enabled economic welfare to remain steady. Her ability to maintain public relations led to her success as a leader and served as one of Shakespeare’s intents of composing the play. Through the incompatible perceptions of conspirators and the people of Rome, in terms of monarchical power, Shakespeare emphasizes that without a mutual agreement, and manipulation of the populace, it is hard to obtain success. Antony displays how political power is dependent on manipulative rhetoric through his oratorical confrontation to the antagonistic plebeians. “When that the poor have cried, Caesar hath wept (…) (weeps)”, his first attempt at winning over the crowd is portrayed through the stage direction of him weeping amidst his speech. Implementing pathos, which Caesar had supposedly done himself, enables him to convey his good intentions for the plebeians. Moreover, after being given the epithet of “blocks” and “stones” by Murellus, earlier in the play, Antony is able to empower the crowd by valuing their presence as humans rather than objects “you are not wood, you are not stones, but men.” Finally, the balanced combination of logos and pathos in order to connect with his responders is utilised by Antony in his oration through the staging, “(Antony descends from the pulpit.)” This new positioning places

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Castiglione’s The Courtier and Machiavelli’s The Prince both had great philosophies in which could still be used in the 21st century. However, their beliefs differ based on the audience Castiglione believe in peace and calmness. Castiglione believe men and women should be able to rule themselves if only they knew how.

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Antony, through the use rhetorical devices of diction and verbal irony, develops an argumentation in order to turn the Plebeians against the conspirators and persuade them to avenge Caesar. Specifically, Antony declares, “Have patience, gentle friends, I must not read it; / It is not meet you know how Caesar loved you. / You are not wood, you are not stone, but men; / And, being men, bearing the will of Caesar, / It will inflame you, it will make you mad: / ‘Tis good you know not that you are his heirs; / For, if you should, O, what would come of it!”

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There are many things in Orson Scott Card’s life that has affected Ender’s Game. Those things affected our lives in the process, by changing the story. Orson Scott Card thought of Ender’s Game as a concept when he was 16, and it stuck to the back of his mind until he wrote it. He first wrote it as a short story. The short story won the 1977 John W. Campbell Award for best new writer.

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Mark Antony's speech on the death of Julius Caesar is a great piece of sympathy that serves as a very important moment in William Shakespeare's play "The Tragedy of Julius Caesar. " Delivered with great power and manipulation, Antony's speech showcases his strengths in delivering speeches. This essay will analyze the key rhetorical devices used by Mark Antony, examining their strategic intent and their impact on the audience's perception and emotions. The first thing we will be talking about is ethos.

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Antony’s Rhetoric In The Tragedy of Julius Caesar by William Shakespeare, rhetoric plays a powerful role. One of the most powerful users of rhetoric is Mark Antony. At no other time is Antony’s knowledge of rhetoric unleashed than during his speech at Caesar’s funeral. During his speech, Antony uses many different rhetorical strategies to persuade an entire crowd of Romans to turn against Brutus, a person who they loved and respected, and drive him out of Rome.

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In his play, “Julius Cesar” William Shakespeare uses effective rhetorical devices to demonstrate the skills one must have in order to persuade an audience. In the play, Cesar is murdered by some of his closest acquaintances, one of them being Brutus. After killing him, Brutus decides to give a speech to all the citizens of Rome, explaining why he and some other senators decided to kill Cesar. By the end of the speech, it is clear that he has successfully manipulated the plebians into believing that what had been done to Cesar was justified. Though Antony, the closest and most trustworthy ally of Cesar gave a speech directly after Brutus.

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Mark Twain, an American writer, once said that “actions speaks louder than words but not nearly as often.” This certainly holds true in William Shakespeare’s play, The Tragedy of Julius Caesar. In this play, after conspirators led by Brutus succeeds in killing Julius Caesar, the dictator of Rome, Mark Antony, Caesar's friend, is given a chance to speak at his funeral. Although through verbal words instead of actions, Antony is able to manipulate the plebeians to seek revenge and revolt against the conspirators. If we examine Mark Antony’s funeral oration, we can see that he persuades the crowd to his side by applying the three rhetorical devices, ethos, pathos, and logos.

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Rhetorical Strategies in Shakespeare's, “The Tragedy of Julius Caesar” Marc Antony’s funeral speech was the turning point of The tragedy of Julius Caesar. Due to the know closeness of Antony to Caesar he was the one chosen to speak. Throughout Marc Antony’s funeral speech there are several cases where he uses the rhetorical appeals of ethos, pathos, and logos to persuade the crowd to turn against the conspirators. The target audience for Antony’s speech in The Tragedy of Julius Caesar, is those who chose to attend his funeral.

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The Charlton Heston version of the speech enhances understanding of contextual authority effectively in the presentation of the speech and the way he speaks, Heston puts a large amount of emphasis on the word “Ambition” when he asked the crowd “Was this ambition?” then he praises Brutus for being honourable this is a rhetoric technique that appeals to Ethos, making the audience believe Antony and find credibility in Brutus as he is an honourable man. Logos is used also in Mark Antony’s speech where he makes the audience see the logic behind Brutus being an honourable man and how Ceaser was not as ambitious as they had thought. Pathos is the last of the trio to be used in Mark Antony’s speech, pathos is used when Antony says “you all did love him once” appealing to the audiences feelings and emotions which in turn made them trust Antony and Brutus even

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The Tragedy of Julius Caesar- Rhetorical Analysis In the novel, The Tragedy of Julius Caesar by Shakespeare, after Brutus brutally executes Caesar in Act 3 Scene 2, Antony is allowed to give a speech to the people of Rome whom have seen witnessed this fatal tragedy in Scene 3. Antony uses anaphora, connotative diction and details throughout his speech to persuade the Romans to change their perspective of Caesar and Brutus. The way Antony speaks about both Caesar & Brutus are a dispute of what he is actually trying to announce to the Romans. At the end of his speech, Antony hopes to reach the Romans emotionally (pathos) by enraging them against Brutus’s false statements against Caesar.

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The Prince, written by Machiavelli, is a candid outline of how he believes leaders gain and keep power. Machiavelli uses examples of past leaders to determine traits that are necessary to rule successfully. Leaders such as the King of Naples and the Duke of Milan lacked military power, made their subjects hate them, or did not know how to protect themselves from the elite, causing them to lose power. He says that these rulers should blame laziness, not luck, for their failures. By looking at these historical successes and failures, Machiavelli is able to develop his own thoughts on how politics and leaders should be in the future.

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Machiavelli states rulers should gain and maintain power by whatever means possible, even brutality and manipulation. Machiavelli also believed that commoners were only loyal to their leaders when their needs were met. He thought manipulation should be used to convince the commoners that their needs and interest were met. Overall, Machiavelli viewed the commoners as an essential source of power for leaders, felt they were somewhat challenging to control, and must be carefully governed to gain stability in the state and avoid insurrection (Machiavelli, 1532/2003).

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A leader’s cruelty enables him to make the decisions necessary for the kingdom, while also being miserly to keep the people happy. I think that Machiavelli’s advice provides a sound basis on how leaders today can lead. On other hand, others may argue that Machiavelli’s advice leads rulers astray and rather rulers should be kind and generous because morally that is the right thing to do. No matter the interpretation of how a ruler should lead, Machiavelli's analyst of a leaders provides insight into everyday life and causes leaders today to think about how they

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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.

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