Preview

Mark Antony's Mistakes

Good Essays
Open Document
Open Document
856 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Mark Antony's Mistakes
Act III, scene ii, lines 164-192 of Julius Caesar displays how easily Antony can persuade a crowd against Brutus and Cassius. Mark Antony really relates to the Roman people and sarcastically compliments the conspirators with the intentions of infuriating the crowd. This particular scene takes place right after the murder of Caesar in the capital by the conspirators. After Brutus explained why Caesar had to die he let Antony speak to the crowd after him and left. This eventually will be one of Brutus’s largest mistakes throughout the entire play. Shakespeare uses Irony, mood, metaphors, and personification everywhere in Antony’s speech to establish how Mark Antony exactly wins the hearts of the Roman people after the murder of his beloved Caesar. …show more content…
Antony’s speech has major significance on how he is able to relate and be meaningful to the crowd of confused citizens is the reason on how Antony won over and eventually convinced them that the conspirators were traitors and should be punished. This changes the plot drastically because right after Brutus stepped off and left he reassured the rest of the conspirators that Mark Antony would not destroy them or go against their will. After the speech that all changes as now the conspirators are marked for death for the sole reason of avenging the great Caesar. This forces a battle between Antony and the two leading conspirators Brutus and Cassius in Philippi. That is an important part of the plot because eventually that is where Antony defeated Brutus and Cassius where they both had to take their own lives. All of that could’ve been avoided if Brutus denied Antony a chance to speak to the crowd after the death of …show more content…
First Octavius Caesar was affected in a positive way because he fought alongside Antony in the war which both of them won. Also Octavius becomes the next heir to the Throne of Rome after the war too. A Character that was affected negatively to the extreme was Brutus. Brutus before they carried out the murder of Caesar chose not to kill Antony because he didn’t believe he was capable of destroying him or any other conspirator. But after Brutus makes a huge mistake allowing Antony to speak to the people of Rome after Caesar’s death. This lead to a war between him and Antony where he ended up taking his own life. However this speech truly shows how Antony felt about Caesar’s death and how loyal he was to Caesar. He became an entirely new person after the death of Caesar, a tyrant the conspirators feared Caesar would’ve became. Antony brings to light the theme of death in his speech. He does this by starting out talking and mourning over Caesar’s murder, but then alludes to the justice him and the people of Rome are required to carry out for the crime of Caesar’s death as well. Ultimately his speech is what leads to the deaths of Brutus and

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Good Essays

    After the assassination of Caesar, Brutus explains his reasons for committing such an act. Antony deceives Brutus into believing that Antony understood their reasons and would join them as an ally. By becoming a supposed ally, Antony gains the advantage of trust, as Brutus trusts him to speak at Caesar’s funeral. At Caesar’s funeral, Antony goes against Brutus’ trust, and reveals Caesar’s will, and incites the plebeians to come to the conclusion that Caesar had been a good man, and that Brutus was in the wrong. Antony reveals his true intentions when he says to himself, “Mischief thou art afoot; / Take thou what course thou wilt” (III. iii. 275-276). Antony had taken advantage of the trust bestowed upon him by pulling off a brilliant act on his part, that effectively persuaded Brutus. Not only that, Antony also takes advantage of the trust that the plebeians had given him. His ulterior motives are revealed when he criticizes Lepidus’ ability to stand besides them and asks, “Is it fit, / The threefold world divided, he should stand / One of the three to share it?” (IV. i. 15-17). This shows how Antony has no intention of fulfilling his promise made to the plebeians to uphold Caesar’s will. Instead, he wants to gain power for himself, and gets rid of Brutus and the other conspirators to get his way. He had acted as a perfect friend/ally to the plebeians as he acted to Brutus, and he also took advantage of them as well.…

    • 862 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    Mark Antony speech was more effective because he reminded the plebeians that Julius Caesar was not ambitious due to that fact he rejected the crown three times. Brutus tells the plebeians the reasoning behind why he were to kill Caesar - that if he were not to kill Caesar, then everyone would die as slaves. Then he said “But, as he was ambitious, I slew him. “(III,ii, 28). In other words, Brutus says the reasoning behind why he killed Caesar was due to the fact that Caesar was ambitious. However, when Mark Antony…

    • 1238 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    One of the greatest english authors, Shakespeare, had developed a play called, The Tragedy of Julius Caesar which contains various writing methods. In Act III, one of the main characters, Caesar was killed by Brutus, his companion Antony had constructed a speech for the Romans about Caesar’s death. By comparing Brutus’ and Antony’s speeches, many rhetorical appeals and devices can be seen. Antony was able to gain the trust of the Romans by using Brutus’ loyalty to Caesar. The main goal of Antony’s speech is to persuade the plebeians that Caesar was not ambitious by using ethos and staying calm and emotional as he delivered his oration.…

    • 259 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    In, Act III Shakespeare pits Mark Antony’s famous rhetorical speech, “Friends, Romans, and Countrymen” against Brutus’ “Romans, Countrymen, and Lovers”. The play is driven by Persuasion. Cassius convinces Brutus that Caesar must die, setting the…

    • 368 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    In his speech during Caesar's funeral, Mark Antony tries to persuade the Plebeians that what the conspirators did to Caesar was not acceptable and something must be done, and this creates a critical and disappointed tone. During the beginning of Antony’s speech, he established his main ideas, and showed that he was different from Brutus. In fact, his first line, “Friends, Romans, countrymen, lend me your ears”(3.2.82) tells a lot. Antony uses the word “friends” first, and this differs from Brutus because he said “Romans” first. This shows what Antony thinks is most important, which is friendship.…

    • 1022 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    First off, Antony was a genius in how he presented his speech to the populous with how he sparked so many different emotions in them. In the beginning of his speech Antony sparks impatience in the Roman people by making them want to hear what Caesar has left them in his will. And when he finally tells them what he included in it, he made them feel melancholy towards their deceased leader who was described by Antony as a noble and respectable man who cared only for the people and the country that he was about to rule over. But very quickly after that, the audience of Antony’s became enraged towards the men who had called themselves his friends and killed Caesar. They wanted to murder them all and avenge their beloved leader. Antony told them not to be angry, but he clearly did this on purpose because he too wanted to avenge Caesar’s death. He very skillfully manipulated these people’s feelings and made them vengeful as he wanted them to be.…

    • 582 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Mark Antony deftly speaks to his audience in a way that requires them to challenge their preconceived characterizations of Brutus and Cassius. He intentionally expresses the deliberate opposite of what he genuinely wishes and excessively compliments the people to the point that they forget their own seemingly unwavering convictions. His finesse and dexterity in bending words and minds ultimately works to his favor. Antony accomplishes his initial goal to convince the Roman people to revenge Caesar’s demise. This achievement in and of itself exhibits…

    • 613 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Antony had the better of the two speeches in the play, “The Tragedy of Julius Caesar.” By William Shakespeare. Antony does a very good job of molding the crowds mind about Brutus and to even show his sympathy about the death of Caesar. Brutus knows that he will lose this battle with Antony, yet he holds onto the hope that maybe, just maybe, that the crowd will believe him instead of Antony. “Et tu…

    • 565 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Antony loved Caesar and was completely against his murder, so he used rhetorical strategies to persuade the Romans to be against the perpetrators. For example when Antony says “Yet Brutus says he was ambitious, and Brutus is an honorable man” he is using the mix of sarcasm and logos. Antony repeats this same thing over and over again until the Romans start questioning if Brutus truly is an honorable man. His sarcasm and repetition were both great rhetorical tactics that were used to manipulate and confuse the Roman’s minds. Antony brings together the perfect amount of ethos and pathos when he states, “ ‘Tis his will. Let but the commons hear this testament- which pardon me, I do not mean to read- And they would go and kiss dead Caesar’s wounds And dip their napkins in his sacred blood,” (III,ii,127-132). This is essential because it shows that Antony is credible and trustworthy because he has Caesar’s will. This also appeals to the people’s emotions because they become saddened over Caesar’s death. Antony used his tactics to make the Romans trust him and his views, which led to them rioting against the perpetrators. His use of ethos, pathos, and logos convinced the people that the assassination of Caesar was a cruel act and that Brutus, Cassius, and the other perpetrators are…

    • 940 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Vengeance is a powerful. Caesar’s slaying by Brutus sets Antony in motion to deceive his murderers into allowing him to speak to Rome. In his speech to the Romans, Antony turns Rome against Brutus using repetition to convey the irony in his own speech and discredit Brutus, as well as, applying meter to add emphasis to the mutiny, and contrast Brutus’s speech allowing him to connect with his countrymen.…

    • 517 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Everything that was said by Brutus was completely blown away by what Antony says even though he never said anything bad about Brutus. Brutus and Antony are both very good at ethos, pathos and logos, but with the length and persistence of Antony, he won the crowd. By the end of the speech the people of Rome wanted to kill everyone that was in the conspiracy including…

    • 575 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Before his speech begins, the whole crowd is going wild with overwhelming support for Brutus. Knowing this, Antony is quickly able to capture the attention of the people by saying, “For Brutus’ sake, I am beholding to you” (64). By starting off with saying that Brutus endorses whatever Antony is able to say, they are suddenly more curious to hear what he say and what exactly their beloved Brutus approves of. By saying this, Antony is able to borrow Brutus’ honest reputation and use it as his own. Towards the end of his speech, Antony borrows Caesar’s renewed ethos, once again merging voices and giving Antony even more credibility. He asks the audience, “Wherein hath Caesar thus deserved your love?” (234). Antony successfully borrows Caesar’s great reputation and increases his credibility for the people to trust him.…

    • 684 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The overlook of Brutus’s and Antony’s speeches are not similar at all in my eyes. Brutus’s speech was trying to show the citizens that there was no harm in killing Julius Caesar, which there was. Brutus partially manipulates the citizens by saying how much he really loved Caesar, but loved the city of Rome even more. The citizens were moved by his speech because of how protected they felt by his words. Brutus talks good of Caesar, saying how there are tears for his love, joy for his fortune, honor for his bravery, but then death for his ambition. He shows the crowd how it was for the better of them. On the other hand, Antony’s speech rowled up the citizens more than they were passionate about Brutus’s speech. Antony put more of an emotion in his speech to the people. He showed how incredible of a man Caesar was and even showed proof of his will. Obviously the crowd easily changed their opinions about the whole situation and Antony knew just what to say and do. Antony was calm about the whole speech even when the crowd was begging for him to read Caesar’s will. Antony blamed Caesar's murder…

    • 497 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    rhetorical appeals

    • 363 Words
    • 2 Pages

    Mark Antony used the three persuasion tools to turn the roman crowd against Brutus. The most convincing use of ethos in Antony’s speech is in the first line of the speech; “Friends, Romans, countrymen, lend me your ears!” This shows that Mark Antony is trying to get in to the Roman crowd’s hearts. He uses rhetorical irony throughout the speech constantly questioning the ethos of Brutus. “When that the poor cried, Caesar hath wept; ambition should be made of sterner stuff: yet Brutus is an honorable man.” Mark Antony repeats the phrase “yet Brutus is an honorable man” then he says logical statement that proofs Caesar did nothing wrong. Which led the crowd to turn on Brutus, without Antony actually saying that what Brutus did was wrong. Mark Antony uses a lot of facts throughout the course of his speech. One of the key facts in his initial speech is; “When that the poor…

    • 363 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    Rhetorical Analysis

    • 611 Words
    • 3 Pages

    By depicting Brutus’ speech he starts to create doubt and begin to inquire about the logic behind Antony argument against the conspirators. Once he had aroused this feeling of doubt in the plebeians Antony was able to continue with his argument with much more strength and confidence. A point extremely important in Antony's eulogy is persuading the crowd to view Caesar not as a the ambitious man Brutus made him out to be. The evidence that Antony gave the crowd which persuaded them into believing that Caesar was not indeed ambitious, was that "He hath brought many captives home to Rome, / Whose ransoms did the general coffers fill/.. I thrice presented him.a kingly crown/ Which he did thrice refuse. Was this ambition?/ Yet Brutus says he…

    • 611 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays