Julius Caeser and Persuasion

Persuaded To Kill
Persuasion is something that happens everyday. Persuasion is used through the media, politicians, family, friends, and even right now. There is not single day persuasion isn’t used to stray people from their beliefs or convince them to do or say things for the benefit of a particular group. In Shakespeare’s tragedy “Julius Caesar” persuasion, in the form of ethos and pathos, is used by senate members on others and on themselves in order to achieve the goal of killing Julius Caesar. Early in Act 1 Cassius is trying to convince Brutus that he is someone with good intentions, he says, “Were I a common laughter, ... and after scandal them... then hold me dangerous.” Cassius is trying to show Brutus that he is trustworthy and would never stab someone in the back or betray him or her through ethos. Cassius ends up getting his way and Brutus is persuaded to hear what Cassius’s has to say. During their conversation, Cassius uses ethos in the form of an anecdote that involved both himself and Caesar. During a storm, “The troubled Tiber [was] chafing with her shores... leap into and awful flood... help me Cassius or I sink...” Cassius is trying to show Brutus that Caesar is weak, unfit to rule, and does not deserve the title of “God”. Cassius then uses Argumentum ad Antiquitatem by bringing up Brutus’s father and reminding Brutus that his father had over thrown a king once. Cassius is trying to convince Brutus by using his honor as a weakness. This affects Brutus because he is always trying to make his choices to benefit the good of the people and Cassius reminded him of his father who overthrew a king for the good of the people. Cassius is making it look like overthrowing kings is a tradition and a right of passage in Brutus’s family. Although Brutus is not completely convinced to follow Cassius at this point, the conversation gets Brutus thinking that maybe Caesar is actually just a normal person, maybe even less. Continuing his manipulative ways, Cassius then moves to try and convince Casca to join him through the use of Pathos. Discovering Casca’s fear of storms, Cassius uses it against him while trying to convince him to side with the conspirators. Cassius uses pathos in the form of false cause and effect to grab Casca’s attention by saying that the storm is caused because our government [The Roman Empire] is corrupt and weak. He is trying to scare Casca into joining the rebellion against Caesar. Cassius’s argument is extremely effective in convincing Casca to continue to listen to what Cassius has to say. Cassius continues to sway casca by pointing out that, “ Our fathers minds are dead and we are governed by our mothers’ spirits...” He is using Argumentum ad Antiquitatem by saying that the way Rome once was is gone. The tough and glory filled empire has been replaced by a civilization that acts like woman. This hits home to Casca because he is currently frightened by the storm and him being scared helps prove Cassius’s point. To finish his argument and completely convince Casca to join him, Cassius finishes with an argument by analogy. He says that Caesar is a wolf because all Romans allow themselves to be sheep, basically saying that every Roman has the power to overthrow Caesar and be free, but that they allow him to take power and rule over them. He is showing Casca that if they stand together, the conspirators can easily defeat Caesar. This completely convinces Casca to take the side of the rebellion and stand against Caesar. Brutus, after being convinced by Cassius, goes home to think over what he would be agreeing too. He is trying to convince himself to turn on his best friend. Brutus, “...has no personal cause to spurn at him [Caesar], but for the general [public].” Being stoic, Brutus has to convince himself what he is doing is rational and the best thing to do. He is telling himself that what he is doing is for the good of Rome and the people, even though he would be turning on his best friend. Brutus uses argument by analogy on himself by calling Caesar, “...a serpents egg which [when] hatched, ... grow mischievous and kill him in his egg.” By comparing Caeser to a serpents egg, he is trying to show himself that he will grow into something more dangerous if let to grow and hatch. Caesar will soon become a snake and cause destruction and injustice unless stopped by Brutus and the conspirators. Brutus is putting responsibility on himself and the conspirators, making it seem like killing Caesar is the only honorable and right thing to do. Once Brutus has held a meeting at his house he makes sure they do not say an oath. This shows that he doesn’t want to be bound to anything because he is not happy about killing his best friend and may back out. He also thinks that an oath would do nothing but serve as something for the conspirators to break. Overall, the persuasion Cassius used on Brutus, plus the persuasion he did on himself, was enough to convince Brutus to join the conspirators. In conclusion, persuasion was used in the form of Ethos and Pathos to convince someone or themself to sway their opinion a certain way or to get them to agree to take action. Although this was written hundreds of years ago, the same type of persuasion still occurs constantly in our modern world.