From Romeo’s “What light through yonder window breaks?” to Hamlet’s “To be, or not to be,“ William Shakespeare is known for his works and the popular speeches embedded in them. To this day they, the strategies and rhetoric skills that the characters can also be used to examine more modern speeches. In one case, Malcolm X’s speech, “The Ballot or the Bullet” relates to Marc Antony’s speech in the forum in The Tragedy of Julius Caesar due to similar speech structures and appeal to pathos, yet contrast due to them appealing to different emotions. A strong similarity that is easily noticed in the first line of both speeches is the introduction. In Antony’s speech, he says, “Friends, Romans, countrymen, lend me your ears” (III.ii.72). He first …show more content…
Another difference is how Malcolm X directly addresses the issue, which is racism being prevalent in the country, while Marc Antony does not directly state the issue he has with the conspirators. Instead, Antony uses irony to change the views of the citizens by repeating, “But Brutus says he’s ambitious; And Brutus is an honorable man,” (III.ii.85-86) after every evidence that Antony provides for Caesar being a vigorous leader and ruler. It may seem harmful to others because it is not directly insulting Brutus or the conspirators, but the citizens start to believe Antony because the evidence and emotions that he causes in them is stronger than Brutus’ credibility. Antony has provided evidence in which some of the citizens were actually part of it. For example, when Antony said, “When the poor have cried, Caesar hath wept: Ambition should be made of sterner stuff” (III.ii.90-91). X does the opposite in his speech and addresses it multiple times, one of the times he said, “Those Honkies that just got off the boat, they 're already Americans; Polacks are already Americans; the Italian refugees are already Americans. Everything that came out of Europe, every blue-eyed thing, is already an American. And as long as you and I have been over here, we aren 't Americans yet.” The difference in this can mean plenty, especially the emotions that this appeals to. Antony’s speech appeals more to anger, due to the fact
Both speeches use repetition, such as King repeating the phrase “I have a dream”, and Antony repeating that “Brutus was an honorable man” - successfully placing emphasis on what they want the audience to focus on. Even though both speeches use very similar rhetoric to incite change, the type of change they are trying to achieve is vastly different. King is advocating for the end to racial segregation, but he is not calling for violence - in fact, he directly says not to resort to violence. Contrarily, Antony’s goal is quite the opposite - to incite violence in the crowd. As the crowd is leaving with plans of burning down the traitors houses, Antony says, “‘Now let it work: Mischief, thou art afoot, Take thou what course thou wilt” (III.3.260-261).
Mark Antony is trying to win over the people of Rome by his very effective use of rhetoric. In his speech, his overall point is to persuade the Roman citizens that Brutus’s claim of Caesar being ambitious is not true. Antony’s use of rhetorical devices such as a rhetorical question give the people a good message. When he is telling them that Caesar brought many captives to Rome, he asks, “Did this in Caesar seem ambitious” (3.2.18). Antony’s rhetorical question was very effective since he is making the people question Brutus’s claim.
Within Antony’s speech to the Romans he uses anaphoric text to spike a whirl of rage towards Brutus. Repeatedly Antony states “Brutus is an honorable man” emphatically for the duration of his speech to contradict Brutus’s nobility ( March Antony, Lines 83,88,95 ). Before Antony begins his speech he is approached by the Romans with comments to not speak bad on Brutus’s name, which is why he utilized the anaphora to repeat that Brutus is an honorable man therefore allowing him to gain the Romans trust to speak. Antony does not say these lines truthfully but sarcastically to make the people of Rome feel furious against Brutus for taking Caesar to his mortal death.
Antony’s Speech Using Rhetorical Appeals In William Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar, after Caesar’s death, the Romans are conflicted about what should be done. After Brutus’ speech the Romans are ready to crown Brutus king and be on the conspirators’ side. Though Brutus then leaves the crowd while Antony delivers his speech, the crowd realizes what should be done of Caesar’s murder and Antony prevents the conspirators from getting away with the murder of Caesar.
We know that in order to create an effective message whether on speech or paper, the three rhetorical appeals are essential. The Ballot or the Bullet by Malcolm X demonstrates all three appeals superbly. Malcolm X himself builds ethos very well, as well as displays his automatic ethos. He also appeals to logos through an ample amount of solid reasoning and several facts. In this speech pathos is extremely well present and effective.
In Antony’s speech to the people, he speaks about Caesar over his dead body. His words make the commoners feel something, as opposed to Brutus,
While Brutus spoke well, but had no real factual standpoint, Antony gave many examples of Caesar’s achievements. In his speech he uses Pathos, Logos, Ethos, and Situational Irony to sway his audience. He uses Brutus’ and Cassius’ precious honor and Caesar’s achievements against them, saying, “When that the poor have cried, Caesar hath wept./ Ambition should be made of sterner stuff./ Yet Brutus says he was ambitious,/ And Brutus is an honorable man” (3.2.90-93). In this statement and many other statements following the same pattern Antony degrades the honor and the arguments of Caesar’s ambition that were made by Brutus and the other conspirators.
The appeals in Antony’s speech were persuasively better than the use of them in Brutus’s speech. Marc Antony uses all three appeals in his speech to make a very sturdy argument. An example of logos in his speech is when he states, “He hath brought many captives home to Rome Whose ransoms did the general coffers fill: Did this in Caesar seem ambitious?” This speech is Antony stating facts of Caesar’s work which proves that he is not ambitious and does not deserve to be killed. Antony also uses ethos and pathos when he says, “He was my friend, faithful and just to me.”
In the play The Tragedy of Julius Caesar one of the main characters Caesar is killed in Scene 3 act 2.Then Brutus and Antony both give speeches about how bad they feel. Brutus gives a good speech by using all three of the rhetorical appeals to persuade the crowd to want to listen to what he say by using logos,ethos,pathos to his advantage. Brutus gives a better speech that draws the audience attention,Antony not as much. Therefor here are some very valid points on why Brutus’s speech used the Rhetorical Appeals better.
Analysis Of Julius Caesar Funeral Death Speeches Julius Caesar was like a god to his people because he was the leader in Rome, and he influenced numerous individuals. People were shocked when Caesar was murdered by Bursitis because they lost their hero. During Caesar’s funeral, as described in Shakespeare’s play Julius Caesar , there are two speeches given by Brutus and Anthony. Some of the rhetorical terms that are used in the death speeches are antithesis, metaphor, chiasmus, and alliteration which will be explained in the body of this essay.
Antony wanted people to be patient with him. He also says, “When that the poor have cried, Caesar hath wept: Ambition should be made of sterner stuff” (3.2. 100-101). Antony says this to show that Caesar was a good man who cared about the people. It was also to show that Brutus was wrong when he stated that Caesar was ambitious. Antony makes the citizens feel that the conspirators murder was
Antony then steps up to the plate to give his speech. “The noble Brutus hath told you Caesar was ambitious… He hath brought many captives home to Rome Whose ransoms did the general coffers fill: did this in Caesar seem ambitious? When that the poor have cried, Caesar hath wept:... I thrice presented him a kingly crown, Which he thrice refuse: was this ambition?”
In the beginning of his speech, he attempts to gain their trust by saying, “Friends, Romans, countrymen, lend me your ears” (3.2.82). This remark now makes the Romans feel as they are all one, as well as Antony. It also confirmed to the Plebeians that he was on their side and was trustworthy. Also in his speech, Antony questions them by asking, “ Did this in Caesar seem ambitious?” (3.2.99).
Brutus claims were the opposite of Antony. Brutus claims was to convince the citizens that Caesar was a communist type of leader. Brutus says in his speech “Not that I loved Caesar less, but that I loved Rome more”. He is claiming that Caesar was not good enough for Rome. Brutus makes another of the same claim, saying that Caesar is not enough for Rome saying, “with this I depart— that, as I slew my best lover for the good of Rome, I have the same dagger for myself, when it shall please my country to need my death”.
Brutus delivers his speech in a laudatory manner by conveying Caesar’s deeds and claiming he was ambitious, although Antony contradicts Brutus’ claims and says Caesar spurned the crown with the intent to merely rule as a de facto dictator. Brutus’ speech reveals his motives were truly for the benefit of Rome given his nationalistic tone and Antony’s speech was merely used to obscure his true motives, which was to embroil Rome in a series of civil wars to attain power. Brutus and Antony’s speeches consisted predominantly of Pathos and Ethos, but it is Antony who ultimately it is Antony who prevails because of his almost disingenuous attitude and even use of Logos which is seen when claims that reading Caesar’s will would dishonor his compeers and even Caesar