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Julius Caesar Rhetorical Analysis Essay

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"It is the bright day that brings forth the adder" (5 IIi). This proves to be especially true for the most powerful man in Rome, Julius Caesar. In Shakespeare's play "Julius Caesar", Julius Caesar was assassinated by members of the Roman senate during the reign of the Roman Republic. Among these senators was Marcus Brutus, who was one of the leaders in the plot. Brutus had a close relationship with Caesar as they worked alongside each other and even married Caesar's daughter. After the killing of Caesar, Brutus went out to speak to the Roman pulpit about why they had just murdered the most popular man in Rome. Following his speech, Marc Antony stepped up to speak before the gathering of Romans. Marc Antony ran a marathon in honor of Caesar, …show more content…

Both speakers are appealing to the audience's sense of reason through their questions. "Who here is so base that would be a/ bondman? " (Brutus 20-21 IIIii). Brutus is conveying that if Caesar were to live that he would have so much power that every other Roman would be a slave under Caesar, and by killing Caesar, this enslavement would have been avoided. He is attempting to convince the Roman public that they should have feared Caesar and that they were imbecilic if they did not. "I thrice presented him a kingly crown, / which he did thrice refuse: was this ambition?" (Antony 24-25 IIIii). Marc Antony says Caesar rejected a position of power on multiple occasions which portrays his lack of a desire to gain authority. By doing so, Marc Antony makes the audience realize that Caesar had no hunger for power. Marc Antony had a more effective argument because it was backed up by evidence in the event that had happened. Brutus' argument was totally based off a hypothetical …show more content…

Brutus appeals to the audience's ethics and judgement of character. "...any dear friend of/ Caesar's, to him I say, that Brutus' love to Caesar was no less than his" (Brutus 7-9 IIIii). By explaining that he had a friendship with Caesar, Brutus portrays that he had to have had a just reason for killing Caesar since he would not want to kill a friend otherwise. "You all did love him once, not without cause" (Antony 33 IIIii). By reminding the Roman people of their previous love for Caesar, Antony incites guilt into his audience, because they were calling Caesar a tyrant, yet only one day before, they all loved Caesar. Antony's argument was more effective than Brutus' was because Antony's argument sparked emotion in the spectators, and it exposed the hypocrisy that the pulpit was exhibiting. All Brutus said is that Caesar was his friend. This hints that there may be a reasonable cause for Caesar's murder, but does not place such a strong emotion in the audience as Antony

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Antony says, “look in this place ran Cassius’ dagger through… See what a rent the envious Casca made… Through this the well-beloved Brutus stabbed.” These images stir up emotion, Antony wants the people of Rome to be infuriated with Brutus and mentally paint a picture of what they did. Brutus takes a different approach and for a testimonial, “any dear friend Caesar’s, to him I say, that Brutus’ love Caesar was no less than his.” The similarity between the two speeches shows a goal both men wanted to achieve, which is to appeal to the heart and emotion.

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First off in the speech, Antony comes right out and tells the people listening that them and himself are friends. He does this when he states “Friends, Romans, Countrymen”. He also tells them that they all loved Caesar at one point in time, so why aren’t they moarning him now? “You all did love him once, not without cause: what cause withholds you then, to mourn for him?” By making all of these points, he makes the audience feel bad and be sorry for the brutal death of Caesar.

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Antony is refuting Brutus’ argument that Caesar was too ambitious and that is why he needed to be assassinated. He brings up the time when Caesar denied the crown several times and asks the audience, “Did this in Caesar seem ambitious?”

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. . " and that "as he was fortunate, I rejoice at it"(act 3, scene 2, 2). He humanizes himself to the crowd and swears that he loved Caesar just as they did. He also builds upon his existing reputation of honesty and nobility. Antony appeals to his own credibility by reminding the crowd of Caesars, reminding them of when "[he] thrice" offered to Caesar a crown and that "thrice [Caesar] refused" (Act 3, Scene 2, 4).

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Throughout Brutus’ speech, he uses both scesis onomaton and rhetorical questions to help resonate his actions to the Roman citizens. In the beginning of his speech, Brutus says, “Romans, countrymen, and lovers” to appeal to everyone (III, ii, 14). He wants all the citizens to be involved and although scesis onomaton is repetition of two or more words that have the same meaning and are repeated in the same sentence, he wants the citizens to believe that he is talking to different people. When in reality, countrymen and lovers are both referring to Romans, because throughout his speech, Brutus tries to explain that he loves Rome and that he killed Caesar for Rome because it was the right thing to do. He also asks them to, “Censure [him] in [their] wisdom . . .

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Throughout his speech, Brutus makes use of rhetorical questions to appeal to the emotions of the crowd. He asks the people of Rome to consider whether Caesar was ambitious, to which the crowd responds that he was. Brutus then asks whether it is nobler to let Caesar live and let the consequences fall where they may or to take arms against a sea of troubles and end them (3.2.13-16). This rhetorical question effectively portrays Brutus as a man of noble character, acting in the best interest of Rome. Moreover, Brutus also makes use of parallel structure in his speech.

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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 a direct reference in Antony 's speech to persuade the plebeians to rebel against the conspirators. Antony appeals to 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 revolt. Antony discusses the economic dominance and vigor that Caesar brought to Rome, and with sarcasm he states, “Did this in Caesar seem ambitious?” (3.2.99).

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Brutus wants to make the crowd feel like he is in a way the victim. In order to do that he says "As Caesar loved me I weep for him" so in a way the people feel bad for him. This emotional appeal did not persuade the audience considering the fact that he was if he truly did love Caesar as much as he said he would, then he would have tried to find a different route in getting rid of Caesar as emperor. Antony goes with the approach of making the people of Rome feel guilty. He tells the citizens "You all love him once not without cause what cause withholds you then to mourn for him" so they could reflect on their attitude towards his death.

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This pulls on the pathos of the audience because the rhetorical question pulls on their conscience. Their conscience is questioning whether the murder of Caesar is justifiable, since he was not all the ambitious according to Antony. This allows for Antony to take advantage of the easily pliable minds in the audience and flip their introspections to vanquish the conspirators. Shakespeare uses the repetition of the word ambitious in Antony’s speech to instigate the plebeians, and fill their minds with enough doubts to get them to rebel against the conspirators. Talking about how Caesar refused the crown three times at the Luperical, Antony proclaims, “Which he did thrice refuse; was this ambition. /Yet

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Antony’s Speech Using Rhetorical Appeals In William Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar, after Caesar’s death, the Romans are conflicted about what should be done. After Brutus’ speech the Romans are ready to crown Brutus king and be on the conspirators’ side. Though Brutus then leaves the crowd while Antony delivers his speech, the crowd realizes what should be done of Caesar’s murder and Antony prevents the conspirators from getting away with the murder of Caesar.

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In this scene, Brutus allows Marc Antony (Caesar good friend) to speak for Caesar's death to the Romans. Marc Antony makes the Romans believe him over Brutus. Because to them Brutus was in the right, Until Antony Spoke the truth saying how Caesar was not ambitious. He feels Brutus is wrong for what he did to Caesar.

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Erasmus, a Renaissance humanist, portrays folly as a character named so in The Praise of Folly to show his appreciation for the role foolishness plays in the human life. For all earthly existence, Erasmus’s Folly states that “you'll find nothing frolic or fortunate that it owes not to me [folly]” (The Praise of Folly, 14). Moreover, she states that “fools are so vastly pleasing to God; the reason being, I suggest, that just as great princes look suspiciously on men who are too clever, and hate them – as Julius Caesar suspected and hated Brutus and Cassius while he did not fear drunken Antony at all…they take delight in duller and simpler souls” (Folly, 115). Folly, indeed, plays a major role in determining the fate of Antony and Brutus after

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In Cassius’s eloquent speech against Caesar, he primarily utilizes persuasion through tools such as pathos, rhetorical questions, and compare and contrast. Cassius uses pathos to begin his monologue when he claims, “I know that virtue be in you, Brutus, / As well as I do know your outward favor” (Shakespeare 1.2.95-96). By expressing that Brutus has “virtue” and “outward favor”, Cassius appeals to Brutus’s emotions, but not to an exaggerated extent. This emotional appeal is a persuasion technique because it is used in moderation and in pertinent locations. The context is appropriate since rather than using it as a tool to feed on Brutus’s emotions, Cassius only uses it to get Brutus’s attention as an appropriate hook.

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848 Words | 4 Pages

This may have been true but Brutus did not really believe it. Even though this was a little stronger than that of Brutus’, Brutus speech was still on top because his speech won in ethos and

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Antony wanted people to be patient with him. He also says, “When that the poor have cried, Caesar hath wept: Ambition should be made of sterner stuff” (3.2. 100-101). Antony says this to show that Caesar was a good man who cared about the people. It was also to show that Brutus was wrong when he stated that Caesar was ambitious. Antony makes the citizens feel that the conspirators murder was

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