Brutus Versus Antony William Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar is an extremely intricate play, full of important events. The two speeches of Brutus and Marc Antony, which revolve around the topic of Caesar’s murder, are no exception. Although both succeed in stirring up the commoners, one of them greatly surpasses the other. First of all, the audience is at two very different standpoints at the beginning of both speeches. On one hand, Brutus’s crowd dislikes his cause and Caesar’s killing at first. Although, the plebeians grow to support his cause by the time his speech has come to an end. They even go so far as to suggest a statue of Brutus to be made. When Antony begins his speech the plebeians are very riled up for Brutus’s cause. Then throughout the second speech, the listeners slowly change their minds from one extreme to another because of Antony’s strategic public speaking. By the time Antony has finished, he has set them on a course to destruct Rome out of vengeance. Furthermore, this shows how fickle the crowd was and how skillful Antony’s speech was. Although both men use the appeals, Antony’s are considerably more powerful. Brutus uses Lagos and Ethos to justify the murder of Caesar. However, Antony makes better use of emotional (Pathos) appeals. For example, he carries Caesar’s body …show more content…
On one hand, Brutus admits that he loved Caesar, but loved Rome more, so he “sacrificed” his friend to keep his beloved country well. Antony takes another approach. He proclaims that if Caesar was ambitious, he received what he deserved. Also, Antony follows up every accusation against Brutus with remarking that the conspirators are “honorable men”. Every time this is said, the intonation becomes more and more sarcastic. He also asks the commoners if he can step down from the “podium” to speak to them more directly. This action causes Antony to appear more like them. These are all examples of