Mark Antony's Funeral Speech

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“Friends, Romans, Countrymen, lend me your ears;”. With these seven words Mark Antony started his speech that captured the plebeians hearts, and turned them cold. This speech led to chaos, and altered the fate of Rome. By way of example, we know that Mark Antony was a very persuasive man, that could change many people 's beliefs quickly. For example, how he persuaded the crowd in his funeral speech. Overall, this eulogy was anything but heartfelt, and intended to change the hearts of many Romans. Overall, Mark Antony managed to achieve his goal of persuasion by showing the crowd the will, the body, and using sarcasm when speaking of Brutus. “But here’s a parchment with the seal of Caesar; I found it in his closet, ‘tis his will:” Julius Caesar’s will made a debut as one of Mark Antony’s main claims in his persuasion of the plebeians. In addition, Mark Antony addressed the will to the plebeians after they had cheered Brutus on moments before. However, The way this little piece of paper persuades the crowd is how Antony presents the will. “Have patience, gentle friends, I must not read it; It is not meet you know how Caesar loved you.” In this quote Antony uses suspense of what the will says, and tells the plebeians to have patience, they should already know how much Caesar loves them. This suspense helps him in the long run with his goal of persuasion. The plebeians listen to what he has to say, between that time of hearing the will, and start to agree with the pleas Mark