In the book Julius Caesar, written by William Shakespeare, persuasion and manipulation are used to convince the readers of how the characters make decisions and how they feel about differing situations. Throughout the play, different characters are trying to convince each other of different ideas. Cassius, Brutus, and Mark Antony use persuasion and manipulation throughout the book to get their way. In the story, conspirators against Caesar are jealous of his success and create a plan to attempt to terminate his power. They convince Caesar's friend Brutus to be on their side and help assassinate Caesar. A character's convincing approach to an issue, and a display of fake empathy, is how Shakespeare showed persuasion and manipulation.
Cassius
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Brutus was chosen to address the crowd of Romans. The conspirators killed Caesar because of his growing power and strong ambition, they didn't do it for the citizens of Rome, they did it because they were jealous of him and his influence. When Brutus starts to address the audience it seems as though his intentions were to protect Rome, but once Mark Antony spoke later on it was shown that jealousy was the main motive for the assasiantion. Brutus says, “Who is here so vile that will not love his country?” (3.2.34-35) He's implying that Caesar was killed for the good of their country, and he knew that nobody would stand up to defend Caesar because that may imply they do not love and appreciate their country. Brutus took a very manipulative approach to the situation, saying that if anyone disagreed with his decision to murder Caesar, they did not love their country and wanted to see it fail under Caesar’s rule. Brutus tried to front as caring for his country and still loving Caesar by saying, “Not that I loved Caesar less, but that I loved Rome more” (3.2.20-21). Brutus manipulating the Roman public into believing that he assassinated Caesar for the country he loves is a prime example of Shakespeare using persuasion as well as implementing the use of rhetorical appeals and