Julius Caesar Brutus Speech Analysis

Confrontation is an important skill that people desire, yet are uncomfortable with. Being able to confront things that happen on the spot is not something many people are able to achieve. In “The Tragedy of Julius Caesar” by William Shakespeare, Brutus is able to sway the people to believe that Caesar’s assassination was for their own good by using a single analogy. However, Antony is able to confront that belief right after Brutus’ speech, swaying the Roman citizens to trust him rather than Brutus. By being able to merge voices and speaking to the people colloquially, Antony has an automatic linguistic advantage over Brutus. With this advantage, voice merging and emotional delivery, Antony is easily able to sway the crowd from Brutus and confront
Before his speech begins, the whole crowd is going wild with overwhelming support for Brutus. Knowing this, Antony is quickly able to capture the attention of the people by saying, “For Brutus’ sake, I am beholding to you” (64). By starting off with saying that Brutus endorses whatever Antony is able to say, they are suddenly more curious to hear what he say and what exactly their beloved Brutus approves of. By saying this, Antony is able to borrow Brutus’ honest reputation and use it as his own. Towards the end of his speech, Antony borrows Caesar’s renewed ethos, once again merging voices and giving Antony even more credibility. He asks the audience, “Wherein hath Caesar thus deserved your love?” (234). Antony successfully borrows Caesar’s great reputation and increases his credibility for the people to trust him. All things considered have given Antony a great advantage over Brutus’ speech. While Brutus gave a lecture to the crowd, Antony was able to pour his true feelings and used smart diction to give himself credibility. Brutus’ confrontation of the people was uncomfortable, cheesy and awkward, while Antony was confident and clear about all of his points, changing the audience’s perspective to side with