Julius Caesar Speech

Julius Caesar Essay
In Julius Caesar, a play written by William Shakespeare, a character by the name of Mark Antony makes a funeral speech after his “friend” Brutus allows him too which would become Brutus’s undoing. While Brutus’s speech focused on using loyalty to Rome and Logos, Antony uses mainly Pathos to gain the crowd’s favor. And extremely effective it turns out to be, Antony manages to have the citizens of Rome revolt and mutiny against the ones they almost cried Caesar against. Antony implements very exact but simple words to convey his message. He uses tone to use his emotion to gather in the people showing his sincerity through his words and actions and uses syntax especially repetition and parallelism to draw the reader in. In Antony’s speech, his word choices are simple but effective to convey his message to the citizens of Rome. He especially uses two words throughout his speech, the words “ambition” and “honorable” in which the words take on exactly what they are the opposite of. Ambition which we usually think of a bad thing, and Brutus said was one of Caesar’s faults. But rather than Antony list ambition as a negative quality he uses it to paint Julius in a kind light. He asks how is ambition filling Rome’s coffers and bringing wealth to its people, how he sympathized with the poor and wept with them, and how he refused to crown thrice. Antony also used the word “honorable”, a word we associate with respect, dignity, integrity- to describe Brutus and Cassius. Several times does Antony describe Brutus as “honorable” and that he will not speak badly against Brutus though each time he speaks of Brutus he becomes more of an insult than a compliment. That this honorable man stabbed Julius Caesar his friend, and Antony shows the corpse of Caesar- show the dead body and the many stab wounds that the Senators inflicted and how “honorable” Brutus was doing this deed. How honorable Brutus was by literally and figuratively stabbing Julius in the back and letting his blood run down the steps of the Senate. He poses this question if Brutus is really “honorable” and was Julius Caesar really “ambitious”. Antony also manages to use tone or more exact pathos to reach the masses and he expertly uses the situation of Caesar’s death to his full advantage. He paints himself as a heartbroken man afflicted by Caesar’s death and the humility that is a simple man and will only tell the Romans what they already know. Antony uses his tears to convince the people of his real emotion, that he loved Caesar as a dear friend and that Caesar loved him and the people of Rome. He says, “And men have lost their reason and I must pause till it comes back to me,” Antony has had to stop his speech in order to control himself, as the second citizen remarks, “Poor soul! His eyes are red as fire with weeping.” This truly affects the people- that his emotion manages to convince them to listen to him – to continue his speech as the third citizen says, “There’s not a nobler man in Rome than Antony”. Antony also manages to use his standing as a simple man, using humility to convince the people to listen to him, he is only repeating what they already know and not what “Honorable” Brutus has told them, he remarks about himself, “I am a plain, blunt man…for I have neither wit, nor words, nor worth, action, nor the power of speech” Even though he is a master politician to be able to convince the masses, he uses Ethics and Pathos to say that he is nothing special, that his words are not meant to manipulate nor to put flawed logic in their head but to tell them the simple and plain truth, that Caesar loved Rome, had loved its people and was tragically murdered for his ambition by “honorable men.” Finally the last component of Antony’s funeral oration, he uses syntax to structure and form his essay, he specifically manages to use repetition and parallelism to gauge the public, to get his point across and for them to remember what he has said. He uses parallelism and repetition in this phrase, “To wrong the dead, to wrong myself and you/ Then I will wrong such honorable men.” Antony would rather say horrible things about himself, about the dead and to the public then saying horrible things about such “honorable” men. The parallelism is to repeat the point that Antony would never, ever say anything bad about “honorable” men – but he doesn’t and uses syntax to say his point in a sarcastic manner. And Antony uses the word “wrong” to make the word reverberate in their minds. That the word “wrong” does not belong to Antony for Antony is noble and a plain man to the people. But rather “wrong” is being taken to describe Brutus, for his actions were “wrong” that he killed Julius Caesar and it takes away from Brutus being “honorable.” But more repetition seem to be all over the place- especially with Antony’s favorite, almost mocking words by the end of the oration, “ambition” and “honorable”. Ambition always follows after “honorable” as it always follows Brutus. Therefore using the same words over and over gets a point across. The repetition becomes mocking and sarcastic the more Antony uses it, that he says “Yet Brutus says he was ambitious; / And, sure he is an honorable man. I speak not to disprove what Brutus spoke, But I am here to speak what I do know…” Antony does not wish to speak dishonorable words against “honorable” Brutus but he speaks the truth and this is all through the oration. Therefore in Antony’s speech, his rhetorical skills are that of a master, he manages to use components of language, diction, tone and syntax to form a valid argument that pierces the heart of the reader and of the republic of Rome to whom the speech is directed. He asks through these components that is Brutus is honorable for killing Julius Caesar, that Julius Caesars ambition true or was it love for his people. The use of diction and word choice effectively asks these questions with the proper tone accompanying them. And the usage of syntax to place these questions in the hearts and minds to actively make the republic think make this speech a masterpiece of literary accomplishment. Through this speech, Mark Antony manages to create havoc, inspire mutiny and command the minds of the Republic- even if for a short period of time.