How Does Brutus Use Ethos In Julius Caesar

William Shakespeare, an English poet, playwright, and actor, wrote in Hamlet “To thine own self be true, and it must follow, as the night the day, thou canst not then be false to any man.” In the play The Tragedy of Julius Caesar, Brutus was complex, gullible, and easily influenced. Brutus is not a virtuous character because he does not have high moral standards. Brutus overlooked his opponent, Mark Antony, which led to his own demise. Brutus is the tragic hero in The Tragedy of Julius Caesar.

Through the entirety of their speeches Brutus and Antony had two main rhetoric styles of talking to the Plebeians: Logos and Pathos. Brutus appealed to the logical, logos side of the Plebeians by giving them justification on why caesar had to be killed. Brutis states, “Who is here so vile that will not love his country?... The question of his death is enrolled in the Capitol. His glory not extenuated wherein he was worthy, nor his offenses enforced for which he suffered death” (3 ii 32-33, 37-40) By using Logos he is asking people: Who wouldn’t stand up for their country? And the only logical answer to that is, nobody. People would stand up for their coundty if it meant keeping them safe. Antony on the other hand uses a lot of pathos in his speech. He uses pathos to describe a memory of

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. By using situational irony he wins the crowd by a landslide, igniting a war and

Marcus Brutus’s fatal flaw in Julius Caesar shows in his naïve idealism. It clearly shows that Brutus thinks too highly of his fellow man, believing them more good at heart than what they are proven to actually be. Firstly, he believes that, as long as they keep the number of deaths to a minimum, everyone will go along with their assassination of Caesar. He is so convicted of this that he declares after denying the suggestion to kill Mark Antony as well as Caesar: “We shall be called purgers, not murderers. / And for Mark Antony, think not of him; / For he can do no more than Caesar’s arm / When Caesar’s head is off” (II.i.193-196). This evidently proves not the case, when Mark Antony leads a mutiny against the conspiracy directly after Caesar’s death.

After the death of Julius Caesar, the people of Rome demanded an answer. An audience gathered to hear both the speeches of Brutus and Mark Antony, since Brutus allowed Antony to speak. Brutus went first, trying to persuade the crowd to realize this was a necessary evil. Mark Antony went after Brutus and took a different approach. He used pathos, which means he appealed to the audiences emotions and feelings. Brutus on the other hand used logos, using reason and facts to get his point across to the audience.

Act I, scene II, lines 180-252 of Julius Caesar shows the effects of jealousy and how it causes someone to become evil and manipulative. Cassius shares his thoughts on Caesar, trying to convince Brutus that Caesar is a weak ruler who doesn’t deserve the power and fame he has. This scene takes place right before Antony offers Caesar the crown three times, and Caesar refuses every time. A soothsayer has recently warned Caesar to “beware the ides of March” and act carefully because some people don’t want him to rule Rome. Throughout Cassius’ speech, Shakespeare uses imagery, similes, metaphors, and allusion to reveal and demonstrate Cassius’ manipulative nature.

Brutus first addresses the crowd to calm them down drastically and to explain that if Julius became king, the power could have went to his head and became a bad guy. In his speech Brutus uses logos and ethos. Brutus says many times during his speech that he loves Rome and he would even kill himself if Rome would be better off without him. He said “not that I loved Caesar less, but I loved Rome more.

Brutus's speech does not help him by winning a victory over the crowd because he is not connected to them, or understand them. His failing speech begins with, "Censure me in you

To get their point across to the Roman republic, Brutus and Antony use different kinds of logic, or logos. Brutus approaches the logos part of his speech by pointing out how oppressed the people of Rome would be, had he not killed Caesar; ¨Would you rather that Caesar be alive and you be slaves?¨ (III. ii. L 21-22). Being one of Caesar's best friends, Antony took the angle opposite Brutus; he displayed all the actions that Caesar took to benefit Rome. ¨He hath brought many captives home to Rome… When that the poor have cried, Caesar hath wept… I thrice presented him a kingly crown, which he did thrice refuse” (III. ii. L 86, 89, 94-95). Antony really tries to appeal Caesar to the crowd and all his triumphs, not faults. At this point in their speeches, Brutus and Antony had the crowd swayed the way they

By appealing to logic, Brutus says “Would you rather that Caesar be alive and you be slaves?” He deduces in this excerpt that it is only logical that he be killed, otherwise his power would have overtaken Rome. Antony applies this same strategy when he says, “Caesar was a war hero who brought back captives for ransom that benefitted Rome.” Antony draws attention to the fact that Caesar benefited Rome, so logically, it makes no sense to kill him due to these benefits. Brutus then tries to establish credibility with the line “Believe me for mine honor.” Antony in turn does something similar when he says “Friends, Romans and countrymen…” By starting this way, Antony attempts to persuade the audience that he is one of the common man and should be trusted as their own. Finally,

Cassius a talented general and long time acquaintance of caesar whose jealousy grew as caesar 's power grew making him almost god like in the eyes of the roman people , and in the end his jealousy would be his ultimate downfall.

During the start of his speech, Brutus appeals to the humane side of the crowd by calling them friends to explain the reason behind Caesar’s murder. “Not that I loved Caesar less but that I loved Rome more. Had you rather Caesar was living and die all slaves, than that Caesar were dead to live all free men?” implies that Brutus killed Caesar for a good reason. Brutus uses “if” and “then” as a method to support his argument (3.2.23-26). Brutus gives everyone a scenario that could have happened if Caesar was still alive weakening his argument. It makes the audience doubt for the chance that Caesar might not have been ambitious. Differing from Brutus’ argument, the citizens “think there is much reason to his (Antony’s) sayings…Caesar has had a great wrong” (3.2.118-120). He is arousing opinion towards the arguments Mark Antony makes. The quote given is a response of the citizens to Mark Antony’s argument for Caesar which seems to have a positive effect. Mark Antony contains a good, well-structured argument that has a triangle of arguments in which people can relate to giving their validation of Mark Antony and Caesar. Again, Mark Antony has a better argument against Brutus swaying the crowd to the side of Mark

“What we wish, we readily believe, and what we ourselves think, we imagine others think also.” In Julius Caesar, Antony puts the words of his beloved belated leader into action, utilizing an amalgamation of techniques to incite an otherwise ambivalent crowd against the conspirators. His masterful rhetoric allows him to capitalize on the opportunity presented to him by Brutus. Accordingly, the three modes of persuasion construct an unequivocal path for the public to follow: ethos provides them a reason to listen; logos offers a rationale to distrust the conspirators; pathos ignites the fire for war.

Joyce Maynard once said, “ a person who deserves my loyalty receives it”. Maynard explains that a person shall earn loyalty from another individual by expressing their actions and commitment. In act one, Brutus has a choice on whether he wants to join the conspiracy or tell Caesar about the evil plan that’s bestowed upon him. In act two, he finally commits to the group and the members begin to design their strategy to assassinate Julius. Brutus did the right thing in joining the conspiracy because he’s loyal to the people of Rome, he believes that Julius will become corrupt and forget about the people, and he believes that Caesar is arrogant towards others.

Betrayal. I never experienced such disrespect until now. The people of Rome should feel the same about what they did to Julius Caesar; they should be disgusted and mad at Brutus, and the people who helped him. Caesar would have been a great king by now if they didn’t revolt against him, blame Brutus! I as a follower of Caesar, maddened because of the followers of Brutus. The reasons that make Brutus dishonorable are because of three of his characteristics: Being gullible, judgemental, and cunning. I guarantee you Roman people that Brutus shouldn’t be followed and be respected by all of you just by these reasons.