Compare And Contrast Marc Antony And Brutus Speech

In Shakespeare’s play, Julius Caesar, Brutus has a part in the assassination of Julius Caesar which has given him more power to be a Senator of Rome. In Brutus’ speech, he convinces citizens that he had every reason to kill Caesar because he was too ambitious and had plans to turn the citizens into slaves for Rome. Marc Antony, another senator of Rome, responds to Brutus’ speech at Caesar’s funeral. Antony had no part in the assassination and he was Caesar’s friend. He tries convincing the audience that Caesar was not ambitious in a bad way and he did not have any negative plans for Rome. Between the two speeches, Marc Antony was more persuasive due to his use of verbal irony, repetition, and logos. After Brutus’ speech, Marc Antony has to calm the citizens down and find a way to convince them that Brutus was wrong about Caesar. Verbal irony helps Antony achieve this goal. He sarcastically addresses Brutus as an “honourable man” throughout the speech. He provokes the crowd to think about how if Brutus is such an “honourable man” then why did he kill Caesar? Antony says, “And sure,

While he does use pathos to create the feeling that Caesar was his dear friend and that he does “mourn” for him, Antony mainly uses logos to create a more logical explanation of why Brutus was wrong. He says, “He hath brought many captives home to Rome whose ransoms did the general coffers fill: Did this in Caesar seem ambitious?” Antony is trying to make the crowd see that Caesar helped Rome and made Rome wealthy. Brutus claims that Caesar wanted to turn all the citizens into slaves but why would Caesar go from someone who helped and cared for Rome to someone who takes on cold-hearted ambitions? This is what Marc Antony is trying to get the citizens to ask themselves. It is illogical for Caesar’s intentions with Rome to completely take a