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Poetic Devices In Antony's Speech

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Julius Caesar, written by William Shakespeare, encompasses many themes, speeches, and poetry devices that help to further the characters in the play. Leading up to Antony’s riveting speech in act III, scene ii, lines 103-143 to his fellow Roman friends, Brutus and the conspirators committed a horrible crime: the murder of Julius Caesar. This act of taking a life completely changed the way Antony thought. Now that Caesar no longer lives, Antony realized that in order to get revenge, he needed to convince the Roman people that Brutus and his conspirators executed a heinous act. As Antony’s speech occurred toward the middle of the plot, the audience of the play knew an abundance of information about each character. Everyone knew that Brutus’ loyalty …show more content…

This speech affected every single Roman in the Roman Empire. As Antony needed to take a step toward leadership and away from the easy-going lifestyle, Brutus and Cassius realized their mistake of not killing Antony with Caesar, and the people of Rome erupted in chaos. The chaos that erupted from the impact of Antony’s speech alteredchanged the whole plot, as the audience thought the end would come with Caesar’s death, but they may not have thought of the same end as Shakespeare did. Shakespeare used idioms, metaphors, and irony throughout Antony’s riveting speech to further the intensity of the plot, as the people turn against Brutus and lead to the conspirators their …show more content…

Most of Antony’s life and country changing speech was imbedded with irony, and the two examples illustrating this device go hand-and-hand with one another: “I speak not to disprove what Brutus spoke,” (act III, scene ii, line 99) and “I rather choose/To wrong the dead, to wrong myself and you/Than I will wrong such honorable men,” (act III, scene ii, lines 114-116). These two lines from Antony’s funeral speech both consist of not wronging Brutus and honorable men. Contrary to what he says, Antony actually does wrong Brutus, and the conspirators, by successfully turning the Roman people against him. This line is also ironic as not only did Antony wrong the conspirators, but he inadvertently wronged the countrymen of Rome. Another thing that needs to come to light consists of Antony himself. Antony had stated that he would rather wrong himself and the people, than wrong the honorable men. Although Antony said he would wrong himself, he comes out of the war spotless. This portrays irony because instead of wronging himself like he stated to the people, he chose to wrong everyone else, excluding himself. Although this line from Antony’s speech caused a violent outcome, it also helps to further on what the plot could have been. Antony did wrong to the people, as he lead them into a civil war, where many people perisheddied. If he had not

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In William Shakespeare’s tragedy Julius Caesar, Mark Antony uses rhetorical devices such as paralipsis, rhetorical questions, and verbal irony in his speech to the plebeians in order to plot them against the conspirators. During his speech to the plebians, Antony uses paralipsis in order to kindle curiosity and interest in the audience. Antony mentions to the plebians that he had Caesar’s will with him but tells them, “Have patience, gentle friends, I must not read it; It is not meet you know how much Caesar loved you” (3.2.152-153). By drawing attention to Caesar’s will, something Antony desperately wants to show the plebeians, but then dismissing the idea of reading it, Antony uses a type of verbal irony called paralipsis. Antony is aware that the contents

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In Antony’s speech to the people, he speaks about Caesar over his dead body. His words make the commoners feel something, as opposed to Brutus,

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In the play "The Tragedy of Julius Caesar" by Shakespeare, two individuals named Brutus and Antony give a funeral oration to the people of Rome in concern of the justification of Caesars death. Both of them share an opposite view towards the death of Caesar, Antony thinks his death was unjustified, while Brutus believes in the opposite. Despite the fact that Brutus was able to deliver a better ethical appeal. Antony delivers a more persuasive rhetorical speech since he appeals to the crowd more with his emotional and logical appeal Ethical appeal was used by both individuals in their funeral orations, evidently Brutus was able to execute a better ethical appeal than Antony. Brutus wanted to make the people of Rome feel like the death of Caesar was necessary for the sake of Rome.

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After reading excerpts from Julius Caesar by William Shakespeare, write an essay that compares Brutus’ speech with Marc Antony’s speech and argues the effectiveness of the rhetorical devices (ethos, pathos, logos) used in each. Be sure to support your position with evidence from the texts. William Shakespeare writes a play about Julius Caesar’s assassination and the speeches his friends gave at his funeral. In the play, Brutus assassinated Caesar because he thought he was protecting Rome. He was saying that if Caesar got all the power he would most likely become vicious and make everyone his slaves.

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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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The Tragedy of Julius Caesar- Rhetorical Analysis In the novel, The Tragedy of Julius Caesar by Shakespeare, after Brutus brutally executes Caesar in Act 3 Scene 2, Antony is allowed to give a speech to the people of Rome whom have seen witnessed this fatal tragedy in Scene 3. Antony uses anaphora, connotative diction and details throughout his speech to persuade the Romans to change their perspective of Caesar and Brutus. The way Antony speaks about both Caesar & Brutus are a dispute of what he is actually trying to announce to the Romans. At the end of his speech, Antony hopes to reach the Romans emotionally (pathos) by enraging them against Brutus’s false statements against Caesar.

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Antony’s Speech Using Rhetorical Appeals In William Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar, after Caesar’s death, the Romans are conflicted about what should be done. After Brutus’ speech the Romans are ready to crown Brutus king and be on the conspirators’ side. Though Brutus then leaves the crowd while Antony delivers his speech, the crowd realizes what should be done of Caesar’s murder and Antony prevents the conspirators from getting away with the murder of Caesar.

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In William Shakespeare’s play Julius Caesar, Marc Antony appears to be a strong advocate for Julius Caesar’s triumphs and increasing power. However, like Caesar, Antony is extremely manipulative and powerful. After Caesar’s death, Antony manipulated the conspirators into believing he was on their side before requesting to speak at Caesar’s funeral. While Brutus and the conspirators remained fooled by Antony’s innocence, Antony took the initiative to inform the Roman citizens of the conspirator’s horrendous actions towards their beloved leader, Julius Caesar. Caesar’s funeral was a time of reflection for the citizens of Rome, as Marc Antony caused them to question their allegiance to Brutus.

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Brutus delivers his speech in a laudatory manner by conveying Caesar’s deeds and claiming he was ambitious, although Antony contradicts Brutus’ claims and says Caesar spurned the crown with the intent to merely rule as a de facto dictator. Brutus’ speech reveals his motives were truly for the benefit of Rome given his nationalistic tone and Antony’s speech was merely used to obscure his true motives, which was to embroil Rome in a series of civil wars to attain power. Brutus and Antony’s speeches consisted predominantly of Pathos and Ethos, but it is Antony who ultimately it is Antony who prevails because of his almost disingenuous attitude and even use of Logos which is seen when claims that reading Caesar’s will would dishonor his compeers and even Caesar

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Antony is trying to find out whether they believe if Brutus had a valid reason to assassinate Caeser. He achieves his goal of making the murder seem unethical by using his convincing argument. Overall, Mark Antony’s speech was helpful in trying to convince the Plebeians. By the end of his speech, the Plebeians believed that the murder of Julius Caesar by the conspirators was an unrightful doing. The conspirators might’ve gotten away with the murder, but will never be seen the same by the

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In this scene Caesar has been murdered by the conspirators including Brutus. Brutus is one of Caesar's good friends who is driven by honor; who thought Caesar’s ambition was going to be the end of Rome. Antony is a very loyal friend of Caesar’s who does not agree with the conspirators. Brutus and Antony are both smart well thought out characters. They desire to persuade the commoners to their side of the situation.

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Marc Antony gives his speech at Caesar’s funeral to the citizens of Rome. The purpose of his speech is to prove to the citizens that Brutus is wrong and Caesar shouldn’t have been killed. The tone of his speech is very ironic. It also gets very dramatic as he talks about Caesar being killed.

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In William Shakespeare 's play The Tragedy of Julius Caesar two speeches one from Brutus a honorable , an a conspirator ,the second speech from antony Cesar 's best friend for the people of Rome .about Caesar 's death in act 3 scene 2. Brutus and Anthony try to sway the minds of the Roman toward their view ,Brutus tries to convince the Roman people that he had to do what 's best for Rome ,.that Caesar was murdered for A noble cause . Brutus and Marc Anthony funeral speech ,their personalities and characteristics were aposit is obvious in the speech . Caesar has just been murdered stabbed to death by his close friends , Brutus who loves him greatly the conspirators have bath their hands and arms on Caesars blood, and have the

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Towards the middle to the end you can finally tell he is being sarcastic, also supported by the other points he is making about Brutus. The other point Antony making is he is also trying to convince the citizens to rebel against the government.

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There are two reasons why Antony gave this speech. The first was to get back at Brutus for murdering his beloved friend, and making him pay for it. The main reason Antony gave this speech is because he had a greed for power. He thought that if he could get all the plebeians on his side, that they would attack the conspirators and trust Antony, therefore making it easy to take on the spot for power. “Our course will seem too bloody, Caius Cassius, To cut the head off and then hack the limbs, Like wrath in death and envy afterwards, For Antony is but a limb of Caesar.

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