Julius Caesar Rhetorical Devices

Betrayal. Death. Debate. From the moment that Brutus decided to kill the most powerful man in Rome, there was destined to be a major conflict after his death. Brutus was left to defend himself for why he has killed Caesar. Meanwhile, Marc Antony was ready to verbally attack Brutus for killing Julius, and he was trying to ensure Brutus could not persuade anyone that he was innocent. In Shakespeare’s drama Julius Caesar, Brutus gives a more persuasive speech and stronger argument because of his strong use of rhetorical devices such as dialogue, repetition, and motive compared to Antony. The first persuasive rhetorical device used by both people is dialogue, or verbal communication between two or more people. After Antony speaks about Caesar’s will, the crowd responds by saying “read it Marc Antony. The will, the will” (9). The author gives the crowd this dialogue to show active the crowd is with Antony’s speech. This is smart and effective because it shows how Antony really is getting the crowd’s attention and is getting them on his side of this debate. However, in Brutus’ speech, the crowd says “Live Brutus! Live, Live!” (9). This is really significant because it is a

In part of Antony’s speech, he repeats “Brutus is an honorable man … Brutus is an honorable man” (2). Antony is repeating this phrase to emphasize his sarcasm towards how he feels about Brutus. He despises of Brutus and repeats this as a sarcastic joke because Brutus (in Antony’s eyes), is not an honorable man. However, Brutus uses repetition just to emphasize a point when the crowd says “none, Brutus, none” (5). In this segment, the author is having the crowd repeat “none” to emphasize how much they support him. This shows how the crowd supports Brutus most of his speech. After all, Antony wins this area because the repetition gives him support from humor, dissing Brutus, and gaining the crowds