Caesar Speeches Essay, Research Paper

Emotional Speech Analysis William Shakespeare’s “Julius Caesar” is a

well-written stage play. Shakespeare included many good speeches in his plays; one of

the best was the one delivered by Antony. Antony’s speech came very shortly after Julius

Caesar’s death, and the city was in much chaos. The crowd had just heard Brutus’s

speech. Brutus was one of the murderers of Caesar. Antony was trying to raise the crowd

to mutiny.

His speech appealed to ones emotions and used many rhetorical devices. Antony

uses repetition to appeal to a common folk’s emotions. He repeats the words “Brutus is

an honorable man”. The statement, however, was really being said with a sarcastic tone.

Brutus is really not an honorable man. This restatement is emphasizing the importance of

the sarcasm. The word honorable becomes a bad word by the end of his speech. This

played directly on the emotion of patriotism and not to appear stupid. Another use of

repetition and rhythm would be him describing Caesar as ambitious. He also turns the

mean of ambitious around. In this case, however, he turns it from bad to good. Antony

says that he does not wish to disgrace Brutus’ honorable name. “ But Brutus says he is

ambitious, and Brutus is an honorable man” (insert line #’s ). This quote proves how

Antony kept mentioning about Brutus and the Concpirators. Although he mentions that

Brutus is an honorable man, he means the opposite. Antony wants mutiny against the

Conspirators. He wants revenge. Antony’s technique of repetition proves originalnality.

This appealed to the emotion of appearing not foolish. This is a good emotion to

appeal to, because one wants to always feel smart and educated and have an opinion on

something. Antony also used rhetorical questions. The most prominent question was

whether the people thought Caesar was truly ambitious. He was not expecting a reply

when he would ask whether Caesar was ambitious. The emotion of appearing not to be

foolish would probably best go along with this statement and rhetorical device. The

people would probably just nod and agree, without thinking twice. Antony’s speech was

filled with rhetorical devices affecting the emotions of one. His speech was directed to

the common people of the city. His speech swayed the entire crowd from siding with

Brutus to side with him. Antony made use of mentioning that Caesar was not ambitious

for three reasons: he refused the crown three times, he did not pocket the money, rather,

he put it in the treasury, and he wept for the poor. By saying this, Antony hoped to get the

attention of the crowd counteracting Brutus’ statement of Caesar being ambitious. He

shows that an ambitious man would of done none of the things that Caesar did. He

proves to the people that he was not an ambitious man, because he truly cared for the

people and did not just want power. Through logos, he logically shows that Caesar was

not ambitious because he left behind a kind and caring legacy.

Through many techniques that are used in everyday life, Antony persuasively

sways a hostile audience his way. He uses his sense as an orator and his genuine

knowlege of human nature to convice the crowd Caesar’s death was wrong. He brings the

crowd to a mutiny through words.