Julius Caesar's Funeral Speech Essay

The death of Julius Caesar was an arguable topic, especially at the time of his funeral

when senators were trying to benefit from his death by getting the Roman citizens to be on

their side. At Caesar’s funeral, two senators gave their own speech in hopes to get the roman

people on their side. Between the two speeches, Marc Antony portrayed a more effective and

persuasive speech because of his use of rhetorical appeals, biases, and being true to himself.

The appeals used in Antony’s speech were persuasively superior over Brutus’s

speech. Antony used all three appeals in his speech in order to provide a well built

argument. An example of how Antony uses logos effectively would be when he mentioned,

“He hath brought many captives home to

Antony’s claim that Brutus is not an honorable man is supported by Brutus’s lying

and backstabbing acts, his biggest one being him killing his “friend” Caesar and trying to claim

that he did it for the good of the people. In short, Marc Antony stays true in his argument while

Brutus lies as an attempt to get the roman citizens on his side.

Along with the other superiorities, Marc Antony also brings to the table more rhetorical

variety. He uses verbal irony, personal anecdotes, counterarguments and many other

rhetorical devices. An example of personal anecdotes used by Antony would be, “I thrice

presented him a kingly crown, Which he did thrice refuse: was this ambition?” This is Antony’s

personal experience with Caesar that Antony uses to prove once again, that Caesar was not

ambitious and did not deserve death. He also uses counterarguments in his

speech/argument, Antony states, “The noble Brutus hath told you Caesar was ambitious:

If it were so, it was a grievous fault, and Caesar hath grievously answered it.” This is

Antony countering Brutus’s claim which makes it a counter argument incorporated