Compare the style and impact of Brutus and Antony’s orations in Act 3 Scene 2 of “Julius Caesar”.

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Salmaan Bhutta 10.1

English literature coursework

Julius Caesar

The Question

Compare the style and impact of Brutus and Antony’s orations in Act 3 Scene 2 of “Julius Caesar”.

The answer

Julius Caesar is a play written by William Shakespeare sometime between 1596 and 1599ad. The play is set in ancient Rome and starts just after Caesars return from defeating Pompey. Cassius leads some other patricians in a plot to kill Caesar. They plan this because they feel Caesar is becoming too ambitious and fear for the good of Rome. Cassius gets Casca, Cinna, Trebonius, Mettellus Cimber, Decius Brutus, Cauis Ligarius and the almighty Brutus together. They go to kill Caesar but decide not to kill Antony. They all decide to stab him in the Capitol. After this Brutus and Cassius go to the pulpits to explain themselves and convince the people of Rome that this was good for them. Antony then comes to speak but he doesn’t want to convince the crowd he wants to stir up resentment and hatred against the conspirators so they are compelled to kill them.

In this essay I will be comparing the style and impact of Brutus and Antony's speeches in the pulpit. I will compare them by looking at the tone, language, the effect on the crowd, the effect on the audience and what is revealed about the characters of the speakers.

The aspect of their speeches I am comparing is the language they use. Both Brutus and Antony use language in different ways to make their speeches effective. In my opinion Antony's use of language totally outshines Brutus’. They both use the words “honourable” and “ambitious” but use it in different ways. Brutus uses “honourable” to explain himself and “ambition” and “ambitious” as his reasoning to murder. Brutus use “honourable” to remind the crowd about his reputation as he comes from a very famous roman family who created the roman republic. He does this so the crowd listen and respect him. This becomes obvious at the beginning of Act3 Scene2 because he starts talking about “mine honour”. He says, “Believe me for mine honour, and have respect to mine honour that you may believe”. I think this is also one of his downfalls because he is expecting the crowd to respect him because of his reputation. The crowd do this but he also seems to think the crowd are cleverer than they actually are by expecting them to remember what he has said rather than going along with the last thing they heard which, will be Antony. As I said before Antony's use of language is far better at convincing or moving the crowd than Brutus’s. This is partly because it is a lot subtler, the crowd are unaware that he is inciting them and creating uproar. He also uses the word “honourable” in a totally different context to Brutus.

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Antony uses “honourable” in a negative way against Brutus. He does this by talking about how Caesar was killed and how great Caesar was in his life but then says, “And Brutus is an honourable man.” This insights hatred in the crowd and the plebeians are changed from, “the noble Brutus has ascended, silence!” to “They were traitors, honourable men!” this shows the power of Antony's language. Not only does Antony's use of words stir the crowd but also his uses of imagery. He refers to Caesars wounds as “dumb mouths” there he is saying that Caesars wounds are ...

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