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How Does Brutus Use Ethos In Antony's Speech

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Ben Goldowsky Mr. Olivencia English 9 May 1, 2023 Brutus Vs. Antony: A Fight Over The Death In the second act of William Shakespeare’s play, The Tragedy of Julius Caesar, Julius Caesar is killed by Brutus and his conspiracy. After the killing, Both Brutus and Antony make speeches illustrating their positions. They need to do this because the Roman populace needs someone to believe in and the person who manages to convince the Roman masses will most likely have a big part in the choice of their next leader. Brutus delivered a better speech because of his strong use of Pathos, Ethos, and Logos. One reason Brutus delivered a better speech was his use of Pathos and Ethos. “If there’s anyone in this assembly, any dear friend of Caesar’s, I say …show more content…

“Would you rather that Caesar were living and we would all go to our graves as slaves, or that Caesar were dead and we all lived as free men?”(Shakespeare 3.2.21-22). Throughout Brutus’ speech, he does a very good job in convincing the audience that his motivations for killing Caesar were sound. Notably, he uses the classic strategy of insinuating that something bad could happen, so the very root of that thing should be destroyed. In other words, “rather safe than sorry”. “Then I have offended no one. I’ve done no more to Caesar than you will do to me.” (Shakespeare 3.2.33-34). He also keeps coming back to the fact that none of his reasons are offensively bad, and that there is nobody in the audience who would want what Caesar’s reign threatened, enslavement and a removal of their Roman patriotism. The most effective part of Antony’s speech were his statements as to how Caesar was not ambitious. “You all saw that on the Lupercal feast day I offered him a king’s crown three times, and he refused it three times. Was this ambition? Yet Brutus says he was ambitious.” (Shakespeare 3.2.93-95). This is a good point if his purpose was to get the common people to see Caesar in a good light once more. However, Antony does not take into account that this behavior could merely be Caesar’s social awareness, in that taking the crown would have made him seem like a tyrant or overly

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