Who Is Brutus In Julius Caesar

Brutus from The Tragedy of Julius Caesar, Act 3 Scene 2, reminds me of the term, “judge, jury, and executioner,” the person in command of every decision made and has the power to get rid whomever he chooses. Brutus thus disposes of Caesar, and he perhaps would have gotten away with his crime, except for a miscalculation; he permits Antony to give a “eulogy” of Caesar right after his own convincing speech. Antony plays the shrewd prosecutor, persuading the same mob of Romans that they, as well as their beloved Caesar, were wronged. The angry jurors have spoken. Brutus and Cassius, the two head conspirators, instantaneously lose the support of the people and will lose the larger fight that they initiated. For in the resolution of the play, Brutus

We imagine his manner on the pulpit as emotionally level-headed (cold-blooded for someone who has just stabbed a close friend?). His repetitive rhetorical questions he poses display his limber mind:

Who is here so base, that would be bondman? If any, speak, for him

have I offended. Who is here so rude, that would not be a Roman?

If any, speak, for him have I offended. Who is here so vile that will not

love his country? If any speak, for him have I offended. I pause for

Antony uses a number of rhetorical devices to stir the ire of the crowd. They are like verbal slight of hands, which appeal to the Romans’ emotions, presently running high. In this sense, he relies on pathos, more than the logos or ethos (credibility factor) that Brutus relies on, to persuade his listeners. Moreover, he is as conniving and manipulative as a clever lawyer. Look how he draws attention to Caesar’s will by seeming to not want to bring it up! This strategy of paralipsis excites the crowd to demand his reading Caesar’s will. When the truth of Caesar’s generosity and kindness is indisputably revealed by the Emperor’s bequeathing money, private arbors, walks and orchards to all his countrymen, the recipients now turn on Brutus for good.

Clearly, both Brutus and Antony commanded the stage and each completely swayed the Plebeians. When Brutus rapped up his shorter speech, the crowd wanted to hail him as the new emperor! But Brutus, ironically, granted the last word to Antony; the sympathy that Antony was able to evoke with his wonderful use of pathos won his case. How could you not be stirred by the visual aid Antony shows them?; that is, the dead body with its bloody stab wounds still fresh! Preying upon the already frazzled emotions of a confused and alarmed group of common people, he secured the “execution” of Brutus and his cohort,