Ethos Pathos Logos In Julius Caesar

Rhetoric in one form or another, has been around for an incredibly long time. It is a cornerstone of political and persuasive speech. Rhetoric can be broken down into three different elements: logos, pathos, and ethos. In Julius Caesar by William Shakespeare, rhetoric is used heavily by many characters. Two excellent examples of this are the speeches of Brutus and Mark Antony. Both men make appeals to the people of Rome in order gain support from them; however, it is obvious that Antony gives the best speech. He accomplishes this through a more frequent use of logos, pathos, and ethos. Not only does he use them more, Antony also uses them more effectively. Antony’s speech is the clear winner, mostly because it achieves the intended result

Antony specifically uses logos to counter the arguments made by Brutus about Caesar being bad for Rome. Antony points out the good Caesar did for Rome:“He hath brought many captives home to Rome / Whose ransoms did the general coffers fill” (Shakespeare 3.2 88-89). Caesar had increased Rome’s wealth and power during his reign. which is why Anthony explains that if Caesar makes Rome better, than killing him might make things worse. By highlighting the good that Caesar did Antony reminds the crowd that Caesar had been a hero to Rome. After arguing that Caesar was in fact good for Rome, Antony still needed to address his ambitions. The very idea that Caesar was ambitious at all is called into question:“When the poor have cried, Caesar hath wept: / Ambition should be made of sterner stuff” (Shakespeare 3.2 91-92). Caesar cared about the people of Rome, which makes it unlikely that he would become the tyrannical emperor that the conspirators feared. This part of Antony’s speech helps to weaken to Brutus’s speech and strengthen Antony’s own argument. Brutus’s argument that Caesar was ambitious is refuted: “I thrice presented him a kingly crown / Which he did thrice refuse: was this ambition” (Shakespeare 3.2 96-97). Caesar had the chance to become a king and did not take it. Therefore, he had no ambitions of becoming a king or else he would have taken the crown. By

He uses ethos to convince the crowd of his trustworthiness and that he has good intentions. At the beginning of his speech, Antony proclaims, “Friends, Romans, Countrymen, lend me your ears; / I come to bury Caesar, not to praise him” (Shakespeare 3.2 73-74). The purpose of this is to connect with the crowd and set the tone of his speech. He needs the crowd on his side so he uses this to build his credibility. Appealing to the crowd he says, “Good friends, sweet friends, let me not stir you up / To such a sudden flood of mutiny” (Shakespeare 3.2 208-209). Building on his credibility, Antony claims to be a friendly messenger when in reality he is acting as an instigator. This allows him to deliberately turn the crowd against Brutus in a careful way. As the crowds anger reaches his peak Antony states, “I come not, friends, to steal away your hearts: / I am no orator, as Brutus is” (Shakespeare 3.2 216-217). He acts humble while using sarcasm to further mock Brutus. This gains him admiration from the crowd and builds his credibility. Through the use of ethos in his argument, Antony successfully paints himself as a trustworthy friend of the people and rounds out his overall