The funeral orations in Julius Caesar

By moahmed nadi, Student

The funeral orations of both Brutus & Antony after Caesar's death

An essay hosted at LiteratureClassics.com

The play"Julius caesar" ,Shakespeare's shrotest chronicles the events leading up to julius caesar's assassination and the immediate consequences of his death . After caesar is killed , Antony and Brutus ; both Roman senators eulogize julius caesar . Both speeches had their unique own way of adressing the crowd as well as differing styles and techniques .

According to the dictionnary , Rhetoric means the "art of persuasive or impressive speaking or writing " .
During this Essay , I plan to show how both Brutus and Antony use it in their speeches after Caesar's death .

Brutus was first to speak . He seeks to justify his actions . He says to the crowd to "hear me for my cause " as he tries to explain his reasons for killing Caesar .He reminds the crowd so often that he is an honorable man and that they should keep this in mind when they judge him . To achieve his goals , brutus oratory techniques were simple , logical and rational . His speech is very formal and it seems that all of the sentences are perfectly balanced . In addition to this , Brutus uses equations , assertion and conditional clauses when he tells the crowd that while he loved caeasr dearly , he loved Rome more . " Not that I loved caesar less , but that i loved less but that I loved Rome more " . His tone is one of authority and raw power . His words are filled with intelligence , but he speaks in such a way that one might speak to children . By talking in prose , brutus implies that he is better than the common people and feels they would not understand his normal speech in verse .

Mark Antony's eulogy utilizes a different approach . In contrast to Brutus , Antony speaks to the plebians as if they are his equals . He respects their intelligence to understand a speech given in verse . In a roundabout manner , he needs to use rhetoric to 1) make the people doubt brutus's honor and excuses . 2) to stir pity and increase the achievements of caesar and to 3) incite the crown into mutiny . He starts out by adressing them as "friends" because he wants to come to them as a friend rather than a ruler trying to get power . He then uses a false disclaimer when he says " I come to bury Caesar , not to praise him " , as he will in fact praise Caesar . Later on , he counters what brutus says by providing that Caesar was not ambitious .He repeats 'honorable' so often inregards to brutus and the others , that to the crowd it starts to mean the opposite . The crowd are swayed to him by his dramatics , His underhanded way of making a point and his compelling proof for caesar's concern "the will" .
They find it easily to accept him as an emotional and sincere speaker .

As a conclusion , it is true that the Roman people have emotions that sway with the wind , but that is due to the good oratory skills of both Brutus and Antony . Using different tactics , the speakers are able to play a game of tug-of-war . Antony unexpectedly pulls brutus facedown into the mud .