Have you ever wondered how Antony was able to persuade the people to seek revenge on the senate in Act III of The Tragedy of Julius Caesar? To summarize the part in the play, after Caesar dies, they hold a funeral for him where Brutus invites Antony to speak his thoughts on Caesar. However, this soon turned into a debate to win the crowd over. In the end, Antony’s speech was victorious. Antony was able to persuade the people that Caesar was a great leader through rhetorical devices such as ethos and pathos. The first rhetorical device that Antony uses is ethos. When he steps up in front of the crowd he is faced with a crowd that hates him and his beloved friend Caesar. The layout of this situation is similar to a game of chess …show more content…
He then goes into explaining Caesar’s wrong-doings as a leader which gets the crowd to side with him leaving Antony at risk of a checkmate, if he does not make the appropriate move. During Antony’s speech, he says “Yet Brutus says he was ambitious, and Brutus is an honorable man” (III.ii.90-91). Basically, Antony is giving credit to Brutus for crediting Caesar as an ambitious leader. And since Antony spoke highly of Brutus in front of a crowd that was “pro-Brutus”, they want to listen to him now. Now that Antony has the crowd listening to him, he uses pathos as his next move. In a “chess” perspective, previously, Brutus won the crowd over which left Antony in check. Antony uses credible ethos to pull his way out of a checkmate and prepares to make a move that will set him up to win. …show more content…
The final piece of evidence that helps Antony get the people on his side is hidden in Caesar’s seal. Antony opens the seal and reads the evidence as follows: “To every Roman citizen he gives to every several men, seventy-five drachmas” (III.ii.237-238). Antony uses this evidence to emphasize the point that Caesar cared about his people and that he wanted them to live wealthy and prosperous lives. The end result is, Antony’s speech gets the people wanting to seek revenge on Brutus and the senate. Checkmate! Antony beats Brutus in a debatable game of