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Julius Caesar Rhetorical Analysis Essay

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Mark Twain, an American writer, once said that “actions speaks louder than words but not nearly as often.” This certainly holds true in William Shakespeare’s play, The Tragedy of Julius Caesar. In this play, after conspirators led by Brutus succeeds in killing Julius Caesar, the dictator of Rome, Mark Antony, Caesar's friend, is given a chance to speak at his funeral. Although through verbal words instead of actions, Antony is able to manipulate the plebeians to seek revenge and revolt against the conspirators. If we examine Mark Antony’s funeral oration, we can see that he persuades the crowd to his side by applying the three rhetorical devices, ethos, pathos, and logos. The first device Antony uses in his oration is Ethos, the appeal to ethics or credibility. For example, in the beginning of the speech, Antony prove his credentials by stating that Caesar “was my friend, faithful and just to …show more content…

For instance, in the middle of the speech, Antony chokes up and tells the crowd that his “heart is in the coffin...with Caesar,/ and... [he] must pause till it come back ”(III, ii, 108-109). By purposely choking up during his speech, Antony obtains the plebeians’ sympathy and makes them feel guilty for betraying Caesar so quickly. The usage of pathos to sway the crowd is clear as Antony appeals to emotions such as guilt and sympathy. In another instance, Antony holds Caesar’s will but refuses to read it. However, later on, Antony intentionally tells the mob that “hearing the will of Caesar...will inflame you/…” and that it is good that “you know not that you are his heirs/…” (III, ii, 145-148). By purposely saying the context of the will, Antony is able to manipulate the crowd to riot against the conspirators and seek revenge for Caesar by appealing to the emotional feeling of anger. By appealing to feelings such as guilt, sympathy, and anger, Antony uses pathos to manipulate the crowd to his

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Anthony's many times throughout his speech mocks brutus to show the audience how they shouldn’t trust brutus. “and brutus is an honorable man” (III.ii.83-85), antony using pathos to show facts on why not to trust cesar. Throughout the speech antony uses literary devices to appeal to the audience and to show the connection in the speech so that the romans will find the antony's one more persuavies since he is appealing to

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In the book, Julius Caesar, an adaptation of one of William Shakespeare's famous plays, there are many key strategies used by the characters, including rhetorical strategies and persuasive techniques. One of the characters, who is a key contributor to this fact is Antony. A piece of his diction that can be analyzed for this is Antony’s speech to the civilians of Rome after Caesar was brutally murdered by their own people. Just a few key rhetorical strategies and persuasive techniques that we can take away from his speech are the use of personification, parallelism, and his act of using emotional appeal to the crowd, in other words, Pathos. Every one of these three things listed helped Mark Antony achieve his goal against the angry mob of citizens believing him.

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Antony appeals to pathos when he says, “If you have tears, prepare to shed them now” (3.2.170). This is pathos because he is trying to get emotional with the crowd. What he said was effective because he got the crowd to feel pity for Caesar. Antony appeals to pathos again when he starts to talk about Caesar’s mantle (3.2.171-177). This is pathos because he making the plebeians remember all the good times Caesar had, and how they were taken away.

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In Act III, Scene 2 of The Tragedy of Julius Caesar by William Shakespeare, Marc Antony is able to change the mood of the crowd. The commoners transform from a confused, depressed group of people to an angry mob wanting to get back at the conspirators for their despicable action. Antony manages to do so by using ethos, pathos, and logos. These three persuasive techniques all appeal to the audience in a different way. Ethos are phrases that relate to ethics or morals and make oneself sound fair and unbiased.

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Nathan Schwartz Mrs. Comm Honors English 10 13 April 2023 Mark Antony (Pathos Ethos Logos) Persuasive Essay In Antony’s deceptive speech to the peasants he establishes his argument by use of ethos that Caesar was, in fact, not ambitious, by explaining Caesar’s empathetic nature he then develops his argument by displaying the contents of Caesar’s will to appeal to pathos, and the peasant’s sense of loss, and ultimately concludes his speech by explaining how the peasants will decide their own fate in an impressive display of logos. Mark Antony, in this way, masterfully disguises a manipulative rally of violence and chaos as a passionate funeral speech, in doing so he turns a crowd of shocked people into a horde of rampaging beasts.

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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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In the play Julius Caesar by William shakespeare, Caesar is murdered by the senators of rome, to prevent his power hungry ego from destroying their beloved city. During Caesar's funeral, both Marc Antony and brutus give speeches. Both speeches contain athos, which appeals to emotions, and rhetorical questions, these emphasize both of the speeches in different ways. Although Brutus is a convincing orator, Antony's uses a more effective form of rhetorical questions and pathos, which evokes feelings in the audience.. Pathos is a technique used in writing in order to appeal to the reader's emotions.

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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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(3.2.73).Then Antony continues to talk to the crowded about how he thought that caesar will be remembered for the bad he did and will be buried with the good that he did for people around the town. ”The evil that men do lives after them;The good is oft interrèd with their bones. So let it be with Caesar”.(3.2.74).He has yet to use one of the Rhetorical Appeals in his speech to use to get the crowded on his side backing him up. It is not till later on in the speech he uses Pathos to play with their Emotions “When that the poor have cried, Caesar hath wept”.(3.2.90).Saying how he is sad to see that Caesar was killed,Stating that he misses him and that he will cry about this moment. He does not focus on how he cares he just states three or four lines that show he cares the rest of the time he is talking about what caesar had done.

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Sydney Stone Mrs. Paul English 10A 16 October 2017 Rhetorical Analysis Essay William Shakespeare, a very famous writer, tells the story of Julius Caesar. In his play, Marc Antony delivers a powerful speech that uses many different rhetorical devices, appeals, and different styles of writing. Some of these include repetition, rhetorical questions, pathos, logos, ethos, and diction. These help enhance Marc Antony’s speech by persuading the audience towards considering that Caesar was a good man.

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