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Julius Caesar Rhetorical Analysis Essay

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Getting betrayed is never a good feeling. Especially when it’s someone you trust in your life, and you consider to be a good friend. In the play, The Tragedy of Julius Caesar by William Shakespeare, Julius Caesar’s closest friends both make a speech for his “funeral”. The speeches were made moments after being stabbed to death by his friend, Brutus, who thought he was doing the right thing. Brutus thought that if he didn’t kill Caesar, he might become ambitious and ruin Rome and its traditions. After giving the speech, Antony, another friend of Caesars but also a person who was very fond of him, gave a speech as well. He spoke with respect for Caesar and during his speech he persuaded the minds of the citizens of Rome to see that what happened …show more content…

He keeps using the phrases, “Brutus is an honourable man” and “Brutus says he was ambitious” and sooner or later the audience catches on and notices his sarcasm and how Caesar was actually not ambitious at all. Antony uses evidence from the Lupercal saying, “You all did see that on the Lupercal I thrice presented him a kingly crown, which he did thrice refuse: was this ambition? Yet Brutus says he was ambitious; “And, sure, he is an honourable man” which is a rhetorical question asking if in fact Caesar was really being ambitious. Using the word “honourable” many times during his speech while referring to Brutus changed the tone of the speech little by little and slowly showed his point. The crowd slowly understood what he was trying to say, and it all came together perfectly. This is why Antony has a better speech. He persuaded his audience to look deeper than what Brutus was saying. He changed the mood with only a few words and that really helped him and his speech. Brutus delivers a speech explaining his reasoning on why he felt he needed to kill Caesar before Caesar could do any damage to his ambition. Brutus claims that Caesar was ambitious and that would be the downfall of Rome. Brutus says, “I honour him: but, as he was ambitious, I slew him. There are tears for his love; joy for his fortune; honour for his valour; and death for his ambition.” Explaining that although he honored Caesar, he was ambitious and by killing him there was still joy for him but also death for his ambition. However, Antony’s persuasion and emotion made his speech better because Brutus only used “what if’s” and he couldn’t prove that Caesar would actually do the things he said. While Brutus went on about the possibilities, Antony used evidence of past events that everyone witnessed. Although Brutus spoke what he thought was right, Antony still had more ethos, pathos, and

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Antony tells facts, “implementing logic”, that the people have witnessed and that’s why his speech is better than Brutus’s. Antony giving facts that the people know of using lothos, ethos, and pathos in his speech was a great way for his speech to be much better than Brutus’s. As Brutus is speaking about Caesar during his funeral he remind the people that they did love him indeed, but what Brutus has done is far greater than what Caesar would have done. “did love him once, not without cause: What cause withholds you then, to mourn for him?” (2.2.30-31).

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He states, “when the poor have cried, Caesar hath wept; Ambition should be mad of sterner stuff,” which indicated that Caesar’s kind self should not have been killed for his caring actions. He then says, “Yet Brutus says he was ambitious, And sure he is an honorable man.” Antony was obviously being sarcastic because killing a good friend is definitely not “honorable”. All of the citizens then begin to feel anger towards Brutus’ unloyalty, which is exactly what Antony intended to do. Antony uses the phrase “Brutus is an honorable man,” so many times in his speech.

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