How Does Antony Use Ethos In Julius Caesar

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The play “Julius Caesar,” by William Shakespeare, is about a controversial, political situation taking place in ancient Rome, where the main character, Julius Caesar, is killed for his “ambitious ways.” After Caesar’s death, his two friends, Brutus and Antony, both give very persuasive and meaningful speeches on the death of Caesar. However, it was the stronger speech from Antony that won the crowd over, leading to a chaotic protest against Brutus. With the help of his remarkable skills of persuasion, Antony was able to use ethos, logos, and pathos to win the crowd and avenge the death of his beloved friend Caesar. First, Antony uses ethos to attack the credibility of his adversary, Brutus. Antony exclaims,”But Brutus says he was ambitious, and Brutus is an honorable man” (III. ii. 103-104). In this example, Antony shows the crowd …show more content…

Antony says,”Come I to speak in caesar’s funeral. He was my friend, faithful and just to me;” (III. ii. 91-92). By using his friendship and faithfulness in this speech, it creates some sort of sympathy for Antony with the loss of Caesar. This is then also created with the crowd, which makes them realize that Caesar was actually a very loyal Roman. Their feelings now change from hatred of Caesar, to sadness that he is gone. At the end of Antony’s speech, after the addition of Brutus’s decision of murdering Caesar, he says,”My heart is in the coffin there with Caesar, And I must pause till it come back to me” (III. ii. 113-144) This quote shows the citizens of how sad their trusted supporter, Antony, feels about the murder of Caesar. Since this crowd is obviously easily influenced, they begin to share the same feelings of Antony. However, after few minutes of discuss, their sadness begins to turn to anger towards Brutus, for killing the leader of Rome, Caesar. Their feelings were completely changed because of Antony’s intelligent use of pathos in his