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Julius Caesar Rhetorical Analysis

847 Words4 Pages

Blake Brennan
F 9CP2 English
Ms. Bradley
March 23, 2023
Julius Caesar Rhetorical Analysis Essay

Having strong persuasive language will compel people to change their views about a topic. The play Julius Caesar, by William Shakespeare, follows a group of conspirators and the aftermath of Julius Caesar's assassination. During Caesar's funeral, Brutus, a conspirator, makes a response that manipulates the plebeians' to rebel against Caesar. By saying this, Brutus persuades the plebeians to trust him and not Caesar. However, Caesar’s right-hand man, Mark Antony, does not like the conspirators nor Brutus, so he desires revenge. Throughout Antony's speech, he manipulates the plebeians to avenge Caesar's death and overthrow the conspirators by emphasizing rhetorical strategies like word choice and tone. At the beginning of his speech, Antony tricks the plebeians …show more content…

During Caesar's assassination, Brutus delivers the final blow, "the most unkindest cut of all" (3.2.195). The plebeians desire to burn Rome after Antony guilt trips and portray Brutus as a villain. By guilt-tripping, Antony persuades the plebeians to feel bad for siding with Brutus. As the plebeians are listening and getting ready to be let loose, Antony tries to calm them down "Let me not stir you up/ To such a sudden flood of mutiny" (3.2.222-223). He acts like he does not want to get them riled up, but in reality, he wants them to burn Rome. Antony is being two-sided and uses diction to make sure his statement succeeds in working. The room gets quiet, and as Caesar's body gets brought in, Antony exclaims, "Show you sweet Caesar's wounds, poor poor dumb mouths, And bid them speak for me" (3.2.237-238). As Antony wraps up his speech, he lowers his tone and makes the plebeians ashamed of Caesar's death. As Antony finalizes his speech, he lowers his tone, and since the plebeians respect Antony, they do the

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He is trying to get the Romans to be angry at the conspirators because of what they did to Julius Caesar. The goal of his speech is to get the schemers caught because of their crimes as well as avenge his friend, Caesar. The intended audience is agreeable with what Antony is telling them. Although the audience is

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Antony, through the use rhetorical devices of diction and verbal irony, develops an argumentation in order to turn the Plebeians against the conspirators and persuade them to avenge Caesar. Specifically, Antony declares, “Have patience, gentle friends, I must not read it; / It is not meet you know how Caesar loved you. / You are not wood, you are not stone, but men; / And, being men, bearing the will of Caesar, / It will inflame you, it will make you mad: / ‘Tis good you know not that you are his heirs; / For, if you should, O, what would come of it!”

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“But if thought corrupts language, language can also corrupt thought.” (George Orwell, 1984). William Shakespeare intensified his quality of work by insinuating manipulative and persuasive language within his writing. Cassius, a loyal server to Brutus, was easy to coax Brutus into rebelling against Julius Caesar, gaining an additional member to his group of conspirators. Cassius altered Brutus’ thoughts of Caesar’s ruling, within the use of multiple effective rhetorical techniques.

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Antony entrances the crowd by utilizing pathos in his speech. He uses this strategy when he speaks about how he was great friends with Caesar and it causes him great sorrow to see him gone. “My heart is in the coffin there with Caesar…” (3.2.103). By noting that Antony’s heart is with Caesar, he evokes a sense of sadness within the audience.

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Near the beginning of his candid speech, he uses several rhetorical devices to sadden the crowd. Antony talks about his friendship with Caesar: O judgement, thou art fled to brutish beasts, And men have lost their reason! — Bear with me; My heart is in the coffin there with Caesar, And I must pause till it come back to me.

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By refusing to read the will several times and admitting that what it contains will cause the people to have such a great love for Caesar that knowing he is now dead will be unbearable, Antony ignites curiosity in the people and furthermore, a subconscious feeling of respect and graciousness toward Caesar. Basically, Antony uses Caesar’s will to convince the people that Caesar was a selfless, kind-hearted man and those who killed him should be ashamed and punished for killing an innocent man. Through Antony’s use of paralipsis, he is able to plant a seed of admiration for Caesar and one of hate for the conspirators in the hearts of the plebeians. In his speech to the citizens, Antony also asks many rhetorical questions to cause his audience to pause and reflect on how they really feel, or how Antony wants them to feel, about certain people and events that have recently become important. In one instance.

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During the second half of the speech Antony states, “And, being men, bearing the will of Caesar, It will inflame you, it will make you mad.” He is using Caesar’s will and saying that it will make the people mad to manipulate the crowd into wanting to hear Caesar’s will and listening to Antony’s side of the argument, wanting the conspirators to be held accountable for Caesar’s death. Marc Antony later also uses Caesar’s body and the robes he was stabbed in as props. While gathering the crowd tight around him Antony states, “Look, in this place, ran Cassius' dagger through See what a rent the envious Casca made: Through this, the well-beloved Brutus stabbed.” When only reading the text it might be hard to see at first but Antony is holding the body of Caesar while saying this.

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In the Tragedy of Julius Caesar written by William Shakespeare, Caesar's greatest supporter Antony expertly utilizes repetition and pathos to incite a once-peaceful crowd of mourners to a violent angry mob. In the beginning of Antony’s funeral oration for Julius Caesar he says “Here, under leave of Brutus and the rest - / For Brutus is an honorable man; / So are they all, all honorable men” (3.2.81-83). Antony begins by acknowledging that he has been given the permission to speak at the funeral and he notes that they are “honorable men”. However, as the speech progresses, Antony subtly alters his tone each time he repeats the phrase. Every time Antony repeats that phrase he adds a note of sarcasm.

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William Shakespeare, in his tragedy Julius Caesar, uses the rhetorical devices of a rhetorical question, repetition of the word ambitious, and direct reference in Antony 's speech to instigate the plebeians and persuade them to rebel against the conspirators. Antony pulls on the pathos, ethos, and logos of the audience to get them to exile the conspirators. Shakespeare uses a rhetorical question in Antony’s speech to get the plebeians to notice the wrongdoings of the conspirators and excite them to rebel. Antony discusses the money that Caesar left to the countrymen, and with sarcasm he states, “Did this in Caesar seem ambitious?” (3.2.99).

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There are two reasons why Antony gave this speech. The first was to get back at Brutus for murdering his beloved friend, and making him pay for it. The main reason Antony gave this speech is because he had a greed for power. He thought that if he could get all the plebeians on his side, that they would attack the conspirators and trust Antony, therefore making it easy to take on the spot for power. “Our course will seem too bloody, Caius Cassius, To cut the head off and then hack the limbs, Like wrath in death and envy afterwards, For Antony is but a limb of Caesar.

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