Antony is very skilful with using his rhetorical questions to get the crowd to think about what how sincere Brutus really is. For example “did this in Caesar seem ambitious?” This makes the audience think hard about it “was he really ambitious?” Here we see Antony’s style of speaking to the crowd, respects their intelligence and ability to think for themselves unlike Brutus’ which is dogmatic and condescending.
Brutus uses some power of 3 in his speech but he mostly uses power of 4, this is less effective to the crowd. The only power of three he uses in his speech is ‘Romans, countrymen, lovers.’ Brutus uses this to gain the crowds attention when he goes to the pulpit to talk. This power of 3 helps him for a short while only, this is as the crowd is so fickle that when he allows Antony to speak he uses more so they change there opinion.
Antony uses more power of 3 than Brutus, this makes him more effective with the crowd. The powers of 3 Antony uses are ‘friend’s lover’s countrymen.’ Antony uses this at the beginning of his speech. This helps him with respect that the crowd feels towards him. Another one that Antony uses is when he describes Caesar he uses ‘friend, faithful, and just.’ This makes the crowd realize how Antony really felt toward Caesar, and how close they were.
In Antony’s speech he uses 3 very skilful props. One Caesar’s body, In my opinion this helps him get the crowds attention before he starts speaking as they can see what the traitors have done to Caesar. As Brutus finishes his speech we are told that Antony has come out to the pulpit carrying Caesars body. This helps him gain the crowds trust by showing them what Brutus and the other traitors have done to him.
The second prop that Antony uses is Caesars will, in my opinion this also helps him gain the trust as it shows that he wants the crowd to realize how much Caesar loved them, by how much he has left them. Antony uses a cunning way to produce the will, as he is arguing with the crowd over Brutus being an honorable man, he shows them Caesars seal on the letter. This makes the crowd ask him to read it to them which he declines. Although later on after he uses the third prop he shows them the will.
The final prop that Antony uses is the daggered cloak. I believe this also helps him as he tells the crowd which hole was from which traitor. Antony has just shown the crowd the will and has once again gained the crowds trust. Then he shows them the cloak to show them where he thinks they have stabbed Caesar. Although it isn’t true, where they really stabbed Caesar, Antony uses this with the crowd very well, he makes them think how much pain and suffering Caesar was in when they stabbed him.
Antony uses many pauses in his speech. This helps him as it gives the crowd time to sway and realize what he is saying. Antony waits after he shows the crowd the props so that the crowd has time to think and grieve. This helps him gain respect with the crowd.
Brutus’ speech is very different to Antony’s as he decides to not use any props to gain the crowds respect. This makes the speech very weak as it’s less interesting and less appealing to the crowd.
Brutus uses some pauses for effect. He uses his pauses after his 4 rhetorical questions. But he doesn’t just pause he tells them, he said to them ‘I pause for a reply.’ This is very different to Antony as he tells them he will pause where Antony just waits.
In conclusion to this essay I feel that Antony has a stronger speech than Brutus. I feel that Antony has a stronger speech as he uses very strong props to gain the crowds attention, he also uses many different ways to make his point of how he feels of Brutus and Caesar. I also feel that he has a stronger way with the crowd by coming down to their level instead of towering above them. Although Brutus uses more stronger rhetorical questions Antony use rhetorical questions that make the crowd think about what Brutus has said and if it was true or not.
