He portrays himself as Ceasers friend; “ not that I love Ceaser less, but that I love Rome more”. He presents himself as a servant of Rome, he makes out that Ceaser was a great friend, and he made a big sacrifice for Rome. He then tells the people that if necessary, that he would kill himself, which gets them saying, “live Brutus, live”.
He is very successful with his audience; he turns them from being angry and demanding to know what happened to their beloved Ceaser, to caring about what happens to him, and accepting him in Ceasers place.
Mark Antony- Brutus has just exited the stage having wont he audience over, having tipped the balance from Ceaser to himself. He has asked the audience to listen to Mark Antony and the (reluctantly) agree. The problem he now faces is that the audience is pro-Brutus and anti-Ceaser. His aims are to avenge Ceasers killing by turning the audience back against Brutus, but he can’t do it by singing Ceasers praises (yet) because the people won’t have it. He has to slowly ease them into it he has to slowly ease them into it, and he uses a few methods to do this.
Firstly, he tells the audience that “he came to bury Ceaser, not to praise him”, because he knows that the people didn’t like Ceaser. Then on line 84, and again on line 85 he used the word honourable for the first of many times. He turns this from being true in the eyes of the people, to debatable, to sarcastic by the end. He tells the people that Ceaser did things for Rome such as helping the poor and bringing in money. He uses repetition after saying this, “yet Brutus says he was ambitious, and Brutus is an honourable man”, which is the same as lines 88 and 89. This is where he starts using the word dishonourable in a negative way. He says it in a way that indicates that the honourable men are bad. He then reminds the people that Ceaser removes the crown, and then gives them a rhetorical question. “What is ambition” and again uses repetition and the word honourable in an increasingly debatable or sarcastic manner.
Portia is trying to continue a troubled Brutus to tell her what’s on his mind. He has been being unfriendly to her and she wants to help him.
She has to get past his worries and lack of wanting to tell her and at first she pleads to his side that feels sorry for her because he’s been being unfriendly “you star’d upon me with ungentle looks”. Then she pleads to him on the basis of their marriage vows, and on the fact that she is an honourable woman and she says that she can take whatever secret he has. (Which proved very wrong) finally, she tells him that if she has given him a “voluntary wound”, and tells him that if she can take that, she can take his secrets.
By now the audience is totally with her as she is seen a devoted wife (if not a little nuts) The wound would make a good impact on stage her language is based on emotional feelings.
