Alobaidi 1 Naeem Alobaidi Ms.

Agoranos English 3 20 May 2013 MARK ANTONYS SPEECH ESSAY To start off with, the play by Shakespeare, Julius Caesar has many different speeches and parts, which use rhetorical devices to get the intended message across to the reader. The most rhetorically concentrated part of the play was Mark Antonys speech to the citizens of Rome after Caesars death as it had all of the readers thinking. The readers believe that the ones who killed Caesar will get away with their actions due to Brutuss speech following the assassination, until Antony steps up and presents his speech. The reason that Antonys speech was so overwhelming and effective was mainly due to its extensive use of rhetoric and essential literary devices. All started at Julius Caesars funeral where Brutus allows Antony to give his speech but Antony agrees to not trash talk the conspirators in which Antony doesnt do in his speech but dodges the agreement by turning the citizens of Rome against the conspirators instead of directly trash talking them. He starts off the speech challenging the excuse Brutus made in his speech saying Caesar was too powerful and was going to lead Rome to the ground. (1.24.5) He uses logos when challenging Brutuss claim by referring to a time where Antony offered Caesar the crown multiple times and he refused it showing he did not just care about power, using that example is using logos as he logically showed that Brutuss claim was incorrect. Mark Antony also uses Pathos in the very begging of his speech when he refers to the Roman citizens as friends, romans, and

Alobaidi 2 countrymen! (1.1.1) as it is appealing to everyone in the crowd as in that time everybody wanted to be considered a roman Antony also uses ethos at one point of the speech when he states For Brutus is an honorable man (3.5.22) this is showing that he is a good trustworthy person as he doesnt hate or despise Brutus in any way but in fact honors him. This shows he isnt just creating this speech out of hate but in fact truth which is how it uses ethos as hes using ethics to show how he is a good person. Another way he gained the audiences attention is using pathos multiple times. At one point he states My heart is in the coffin there with Caesar (24.3.5) which is appealing to the audiences emotions and is showing his grief for Caesar. All of these methods are what created such a strong speech. As you can see, Antony uses many rhetorical devices throughout his speech in order to appeal to the audiences attention. He does a good job in using logos, pathos, and ethos multiple times during his speech.