Rhetorical Appeals In Julius Caesar

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Marc Anthony's funeral speech in the tragedy of Julius Caesar uses good persuasion techniques. With his use of rhetorical appeals, Anthony is able to sway the crowd and turn them on the conspirators who murdered Caesar. One of his most effective rhetorical appeals that Anthony uses on the crowd is logos. Through his speech, he repeats the phrase "Brutus is an honorable man" multiple times, each time with a slightly different tone. At first, the logos he uses seems to be a way of praising Brutus, but as the speech goes on, it’s clear that Anthony is using the phrase ironically. By the end of the speech, the phrase has become a way of pointing out Brutus's dishonor and turned the crowd on him. Another powerful rhetorical appeal that Anthony …show more content…

Throughout the speech, he appears to be praising the conspirators, but in reality, he is sort of mocking their credibility and making them look foolish. For example, when he says "But Brutus says he was ambitious, and Brutus is an honorable man," he is using irony to say that Brutus is not actually honorable, and that his claim about Caesar's ambition is false. Another important aspect of Anthony's speech is his use of rhetorical questions. He asks the crowd a series of questions, such as "Did this in Caesar seem ambitious?" and "Who is here so rude that would not be a Roman?" By doing this, he is able to engage the crowd and make them think about the issues he is talking about. He is also able to make them feel like they are part of the speech, which makes them more invested in his opinion. Anthony's use of pathos again is also import. He describes Caesar's emotion, and he also talks about the crown that Caesar refused to accept. By doing this, he is able to create a vivid picture in the minds of the crowd, which makes them more emotionally invested in the speech. He is also able to use the pathos to make a larger point about Caesar's character and the injustice of his