Mark Antony Speech Analysis

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“It is in vain, sir, to extenuate the matter. Gentlemen may cry, ‘Peace! Peace!’ — but there is no peace. The war is actually begun!”. This is a quote from Patrick Henry’s “Liberty or Death” speech, which he used to try and persuade the legislature of the 13 colonies to declare war and launch a revolution against the British. In this quote, he used pathos, or an emotional appeal, to try and get the audience to believe what he is saying and persuade them into taking action on his thoughts. Marc Antony, as he spoke in the funeral of Julius Caesar, turned a mourning crowd into a raging angry mob determined to avenge the death of Caesar through only his words. Embedded throughout his speech, Antony used three types of methods of persuasion, which …show more content…

“You all did love him once, not without cause: What cause withholds you then, to mourn for him? O judgement! Thou art fled to brutish beasts, and men have lost their reason. Bear with me; My heart is in the coffin there with Caesar, and I must pause till it come back with me.” In this excerpt, Antony questioned why they are not mourning Caesar, even though before they loved him greatly. He also showed that his emotions toward Caesar has affected his process of thought and what he was saying at the time. This enabled thoughts of sadness in the crowd and they begun to feel bad about Caesar’s death. “Look, in this place ran Cassius' dagger through. See what a rent the envious Casca made. Through this the well-beloved Brutus stabbed. And as he plucked his cursed steel away, mark how the blood of Caesar followed it, as rushing out of doors, to be resolved if Brutus so unkindly knocked, or no. For Brutus, as you know, was Caesar’s angel. Judge, O you gods, how dearly Caesar loved him! This was the most unkindest cut of all.” Antony decided to show the crowd the body of Caesar to correctly show what happened to him, but to also create emotion amongst the commoners. He created a sense of anger towards the people who stabbed Caesar, especially Brutus, as he was the one conspirator that Caesar never thought would betray him. Antony presented this as Brutus and the rest are traitors, and that is the way the commoners viewed it. This, amongst other reasons through their emotions, provoked them into taking revenge against the