Brutus Speeches At Caesar's Funeral
These excerpts from act 3 of Julius Caesar by William Shakespeare shows a lot about the art of persuasion. This is due to many things that are said in both Brutus’ and Antony’s speeches at Caesar’s funeral. Despite this similarity, both of the speeches are very different from one another. While Brutus is trying to sympathize with Caesar’s fan while still trying to reason with them, Antony is very aggressive and mentions how Caesar didn’t deserve to be betrayed.
In Brutus’ speech, he tries to reason with Caesar’s fans without trying to offend them. He said, “it’s not that I loved Caesar less, but that I loved Rome more.” He is trying to persuade Caesar’s fans that he truly loved Caesar but he did what he did for the better of Rome and it’s
people. “Would you rather that Caesar were living and we would all go to our graves as slaves, or that Caesar were dead and we all lived as free men?” This is another example of Brutus trying to persuade Caesar’s people that he has to be killed for their good or else the future might have been dangerous and dark.
On the other hand, we have Antony’s speech. His speech uses passion as a way to persuade people to hate Brutus for killing Caesar instead of using logic and reasoning. “For Brutus, as you know, was Caesar’s angel. The gods know how dearly Caesar loved him!” This is telling and persuading the people that Brutus should be viewed as a violent traitor for killing Caesar when Caesar valued him so highly. All in all, both of these speeches use persuasion, but each one has a different form of expressing it. While Brutus tries to reason and sympathize with Caesar’s followers, Antony represents the passion that he has for reason and the resentment he has for what Brutus did to him.
In Brutus’ speech, he tries to reason with Caesar’s fans without trying to offend them. He said, “it’s not that I loved Caesar less, but that I loved Rome more.” He is trying to persuade Caesar’s fans that he truly loved Caesar but he did what he did for the better of Rome and it’s
people. “Would you rather that Caesar were living and we would all go to our graves as slaves, or that Caesar were dead and we all lived as free men?” This is another example of Brutus trying to persuade Caesar’s people that he has to be killed for their good or else the future might have been dangerous and dark.
On the other hand, we have Antony’s speech. His speech uses passion as a way to persuade people to hate Brutus for killing Caesar instead of using logic and reasoning. “For Brutus, as you know, was Caesar’s angel. The gods know how dearly Caesar loved him!” This is telling and persuading the people that Brutus should be viewed as a violent traitor for killing Caesar when Caesar valued him so highly. All in all, both of these speeches use persuasion, but each one has a different form of expressing it. While Brutus tries to reason and sympathize with Caesar’s followers, Antony represents the passion that he has for reason and the resentment he has for what Brutus did to him.