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Julius Caesar Rhetorical Devices Essay

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Rhetorical devices are the fundamentals needed for persuasion. Authors incorporate rhetorical devices by appealing to logic, emotion, and ethics through ethos, logos, and pathos. Such rhetorical devices are seen throughout many Shakespearean plays. In William Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar, rhetorical devices such as Antony’s speech, are used to persuade the Roman people to go against Brutus and the conspiracy and start a rebellion. The opening rhetorical device seen in Julius Caesar is ethos, which is used to convince someone of another person's character or trustworthiness. In Antony’s oration at Caesar’s funeral, Antony uses ethos to establish credibility for Brutus. The first glimpse of ethos in Antony’s speech is in the line, “The noble …show more content…

Logos is used to convey a message with supported reasoning and factual information. Logos appears in Antony’s speech to prove that Caesar's death was unjustifiable. The first example of logos is when Antony states, “ I thrice presented him a kingly crown, which he thrice refuse, was this ambition?” (III.ii.47) This quotes takes the audience back to act 1 scene 2. In this scene Antony presents a “kingly” crown to Caesar, at which he declines all three times. Antony adds this example to show that since Caesar denied the crown he is refusing to accept power, hard work, and authority. Thus making him an unambitious person. The second example of logos in the oration is when Antony states, “ When that the poor have cried Caesar hath wept” (III.ii.47). This statement is very logical of Antony since it connects the audience to Caesar wept for to the audience due to the fact that they aren’t the richest people in Rome. Through this connection the audience gets the implication that Caesar cared and had sympathy for them so his death was wrongful and savage. Although Caesar had his flaw, he can be considered a “good” person who cared for others and was not always power hungry. Thus Caesar death can be seen now by the Roman citizens as a brutal murder without reason, making the conspirators motives

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