Essay On Rhetoric In The Tragedy Of Julius Caesar

Plato once said,”Rhetoric, it seems, is a producer of persuasion for belief, not for instruction in the matter of right and wrong”. What did he mean by this, well we would take a trip down to Rome to find out what he meant by that. There once was a story written by William Shakespeare that told the story of Julius Caesar. An ordinary man who risen to stardom after returns from a victorious battle in Pompey. His power took an unexpected fall when a tragedy struck him. It all started with a man who envied him named Cassius that persuaded Brutus a so called friend of Caesar to betray Caesar. From that point on other men who had bad blood running in their veins helped execute Caesar to purge Rome. Unfortunately, this story was titled,” The Tragedy of Julius Caesar” written in 1599 to demonstrate the use of rhetorical devices that helped spice up Shakespeare’s writing and to teach the power of rhetoric. In the passage, at Caesar’s funeral, two individuals get to read their speeches. Antony uses repetition, pathos, and ethos to connect with

Apparently, the reason behind him killing Caesar was to protect people of Rome to prevent them from being enslaved by his ambitious character. As mentioned in the passage it states,”Would you rather that Caesar be alive and you be slaves?’ Brutus discuss this question to give facts to everyone for why he executed Caesar using a form of logos and rhetorical question.Also in the text, he applies pathos as he reads, “Not that I loved Caesar less but I loved Rome more.” When Brutus announces this he tries to make a valid point to the audience to make them be aware of how much loyalty he has for Rome over his friendship. This evidence suggests that Brutus convinces people on his side by being noble and honorable for everyone but when it comes to the life of his friend Caesar he is