After this he uses flattery, “censure me in your wisdom” He does this to try to calm the angry crowd down; this works because it makes the crowd feel that they are wise and have valid opinions and are capable of making very rational opinions which the crowd like. Almost immediately after this Brutus makes use of pronouns “You may the better judge”
This is important because the effect of this is that it tries to identify a relationship between Brutus and the crowd.
Brutus then goes on to say “Brutus’ love to Caesar was no less than his” This is stating opinion as fact; he uses this to show that although he was a great friend of Caesar’s and that he would do anything for him, the assassination had to take place for the general good. Brutus reinforces this by going on to say
Not that I loved Caesar less, but that I loved Rome more
This contrasting pair means that although Brutus loved Caesar he took part in the murdering for the good of the crowd and Rome. Brutus continues to praise Caesar by using emotive language:
“As Caesar loved me, I weep for him; as he was fortunate, I rejoice at it; as he was valiant, I honour him: but, as he was ambitious, I slew him.”
This is said to get the message across again that he dearly loved Caesar and that he respected him in all ways, but ambition got a grab of Caesar an it was not good for him; in this statement there are the techniques of contradicting himself (a paradox), ‘I honour him’ and ‘I slew him’. These nouns are used to imply the highest quality, and all of this is emotive language.
After Brutus said this, he could see that the crowd were getting angry. Therefore he says
“I have the same dagger for myself, when it shall please my country for
myself”
Here he tries to sway the crowd because he is reinforcing what he said previously about that the assassination was for the good of Rome. He also appears to be making himself out to be a ‘martyr’ be appealing to the crowds more sympathetic side
The very fist thing that we notice about Mark Antony’s speech is that he opens with a triple:
“Friends, Romans, countrymen”
This is effective because it gives the crowd an extra boost of wanting to hear his speech. Also flatters the audience by relating them to people of Marks friend and companion. Then directly after this he uses the metaphorical phrase:
“Lend me your ears”
This is effective because, although the people respect him for being a mighty war hero, he shows sensitivity by asking and not demanding. In the next line there is a contrasting pair of “bury” and “praise”; this is significant because it makes the crowd think that although Caesar has been assassinated he still deserves respect and praise.
Throughout the speech he uses repetition of “ambitious”, like in his rhetorical question of “was this ambitious?”. He uses this to make his main theme of “Caesar’s ambition” stand out in the speech, because this was Brutus’s main accusation against Julius Caesar.
However he constantly refers to Brutus being an “Honourable man”
This is repeated to suggest the respect that he has for Brutus although he doesn’t agree. Also it is said in a sarcastic way to subtly hint out that he doesn’t agree with the assassination of Caesar. Then after this, to hit out again that Caesar was a good man Antony says the words ‘friend’, ‘faithful’ and ‘just’. He says this about Caesar to subtly express that Caesar’s assassination was wrong
“Brutus is an honourable man”
He also repeats this and this although flattering Brutus it is at the same time ridiculing him because he is over flattering him.
To make the crowd think at the same time as listening to what he has to say, Mark uses rhetorical questions:
“What cause withholds you then, to mourn for him?”
By saying this, using subtle and simple words, it gives the effect that Antony is demanding for the crowd to mourn for Caesar. Also again whilst he asks for their mourning he is flattering, again, Caesar and implying that the conspirators should not have acted in the way that they did, because although Caesar had his bad point the good far outweigh the bad. After this another phrase to flatter Caesar, which is:
“My heart is in the coffin there with Caesar, and I must pause till it come back
to me.”
This is emotive language because it is said with noticeably soft flattering terms such as “my heart is in the coffin”. Following this there is the technique of irony which is “than I will wrong such honourable men.” This is irony, because just previous to this he was mocking ‘such honourable men.
After this Mark Antony gets the crowd on his side; however straight after this he calms the down, so that he can get all of his reasons put to the audience without havoc, and to calm the down he uses flattery language by saying “have patience, gentle friends’ the use of ‘gentle friends’ gives the crowd a feeling of sensitivity on Brutus’s behalf, which gives the crowd a secure feeling. Prior to reading the ‘will’ Antony puts the crowd under suspense by not reading the ‘will’ before a pause. When the crowd get rowdy he uses the rhetorical question:
“Will you be patient? Will you stay a while?”
The effectiveness of this is that although Antony knows that the crowd will stay, he tries to build the ‘will’ up to be something the crowd do not want to hear. Then immediately after this he uses irony of “I fear I wrong the honourable men”; this is ironic because although he says this, however he means directly the opposite.
Mark then describes the killing of Caesar as:
“the most unkindest cut of all;”
In this there is a double superlative ‘most’ and ‘unkindest’, to emphasise how brutal the act was.
This is referring to the over sixty stab wounds inflicted on Caesars body, and although Antony himself has probably killed somebody himself with a knife, he is saying that the murdering of Caesar was unacceptable.
Just before the end of Mark Antony’s speech, he uses a triple saying that he had:
“neither wit, nor words, nor worth”
This is ironic because he says that he has none of these qualities; however he knows that he does. Also the crowd know this.
The very final line that he uses has the technique of emotive language which states that Caesar’s death should cause:
“The stones of Rome to rise and mutiny”
This means that every life form in Rome should up rise and mutiny against the conspirators. I think that he uses this technique finally because it is powerful due to it being directly after a series of emotive language.
The similarity between the two speeches is that they both open with flattery towards the crowd and both open with a triple. The reason that they both do this, is to try to identify a relationship between themselves and the crowd, and give the crowd the state of mind where they think that they are in control and that they think that they have power and authority. It is also noticeable that the technique that is used most in both speeches is. [They use this most so that they can firstly say something bad that they know will stir the crowd and then to calm them back down the speakers use the flattery language to make the feel again that everything had happened for a reason and the crowd think that they have regained authority, by being almost bowed down to by important people also there is a great deal of antithesis.]
This is saying contrasting words in the same sentence, in both speeches in order to win the crowd over.
The differences between each speech are that Brutus opts for the short sharp speech in the hope that if he can densely pack techniques into a small speech the crowd may turn in his favour, he also uses in this short sharp speech many opinions that are in the context of facts. However Mark Antony chooses to do a longer speech, were techniques are more spread out, and in this long speech he can keep hinting out that Caesar was honourable and should not have been brutally murdered, the crowd may sway in his favour The techniques that Mark uses the most are rhetorical questions, this is to always keep the crowd alerts and agreeing with what he says, and repetition, this is to keep reinforcing what he wants to mostly express.
However overall it was Mark Antony who won the crowd over. In my opinion the reason that he won was because as the speech is longer, more detail of true account can be told, the way that Antony gets his points across is by firstly saying why he acted the way he did, but then he explains the way that it benefits Rome. Also Mark uses one of the most powerful techniques right at the end of emotive language immediately after words that he knew would stir the crowd. Whereas Brutus uses noting, but in my opinion if Brutus used a rhetorical question at the end which summarised all of his speech then I believe that the crowd may have swayed towards Brutus’s direction. I believe that a key method Antony uses throughout his speech is euphony, this is because it will make the crowd want to listen to more because not only is he speaking of words that they wont to hear, but it sounds good at the same time.
By James Perry
