Antonys' approach to the speech is far different from Brutus, his first sentence is “Friends, Romans, Countryman” this gives the order of importance, it emphasized that “Friends,” were more important than “Romans,” this is because Antonys speech was based on emotion, rather than Brutus’ speech which focused on patriotism.
Throughout the speech Brutus mentions honour and ambition several times. He talks about how Caesar had too much ambition and that it was his own fault that he died. He tries to manipulate the crowd by telling and asking them if they love Rome and that if they do then they should be grateful that Caesar died.
In Antony’s speech he also refers to honour and ambition many times. However, unlike Brutus, he uses the references in differently, under inappropriate circumstances, this has the result of lowering the words meaning in Brutus’ speech, creating a opposite meaning for the word, “honourable men whose daggers stabbed Caesar,” it causes the crowd to associate honour with deceitfulness and dishonour. We can see this achieved its effect when a plebeian remarks, “They were traitors, Honourable men!
“Who is here so rude that would not be Roman?” was a ploy made to invoke empathy and a sense of honour from the crowd-that to be truly Roman, would be to want the best for Rome and, from Brutus’ argument, this was the murder of Caesar. However, honour and ambition is mentioned too many times in Brutus’ speech and loses its effectiveness in trying to evoke the feeling of comradeship Brutus is trying to achieve amongst the crowd.
“Who is here so vile that will not love his country?” is further support in Brutus’ effort to have the sense of honour and pride in being Roman prevail above all else. This is a tactical method in trying to manipulate the crowd into agreeing with his reasoning of Caesar’s death being for the good of Rome and Romans everywhere. “I have the same dagger for myself when it shall please my country to need my death.” He justifies this here by offering his own life if he has done wrong, this proves to the crowd, by using reverse psychology, that if Brutus is so sure of himself that he would risk his own life he must be right.
“Had you rather Caesar were living, and die all slaves, than that Caesar were dead, to live all freeman?” In this sentence Brutus is giving the crowd a mental ultimatum, as nearly all the crowd were slaves or subjects of Caesar all the crowd would have agreed with Brutus, the sentence is also very clear and balanced with only two opinions the crowd could choose from, “Caesar were living, and die all slaves,” or “Caesar were dead, to live all freeman,”
The speech is written in prose and gives it a more formal unbiased rhythm. The crowd however do not understand the speech fully and want Brutus to be like Caesar when the whole speech was about not having too much ambition. The pause in the speech is for Brutus to assess how his speech has been received by the plebeians, they comment on his speech and it shows Brutus the outcome of his work, it also lets Brutus know whether to say anything else after the speech which may jeopardise the minds of the crowd. Directly after the speech the crowd hail him as a hero and the next Caesar, which was not the response which Brutus was looking for, nevertheless it was positive, it does not mean much however as they haven’t heard Antonys’ speech.
Antony’s speech is vastly different from Brutus’ and in many ways is more complex, where Brutus tries to persuade the crowd by trying to talk to them about honour, patriotism and history Antonys’ speech is more emotional, by being emotional it manages to be more powerful and stir the crowd.
As a condition for doing the speech, he is not allowed to blame the conspirators, Antony gets around this by subtly changing meanings of words such as honourable. Antony talks about Caesar very passionately to give the impression that Caesar is a hero and causes the crowd to think about how they lost such a great man. Antony says he won’t do many things which he does do, “I will not stir you up,” when he does. “If it were so, it was a grievous fault,” this gives the impression that Antony doesn’t agree, or doubts Brutus, he tries to make the crowd think that too.
Antony starts off by telling the crowd that Caesar was not perfect and that he had made many mistakes, “The evil that men do lives after them,” but after he begins his attacks on Brutus’ speech, he manages to tackle Brutus’ points on why Caesar should die with ease. His first point was Caesars ambition, Antony argues that Caesar wasn’t ambitious, “I thrice presented him with a kingly crown, which he did thrice refuse,” he also talks about Brutus being honourable at the same time, this has an effect of causing the crowd to believe Brutus is lying and maybe everything he has said may be questionable.
Antony uses many dramatic devices which Brutus doesn’t use, he first gathers everyone around Caesars body and points out the wounds that were made by each conspirator, “look in this place ran Cassius’ dagger through; see what a rent the envious Casca made; through this the well well-beloved Brutus stabbed,” this gives the crowd a sense of how Brutus could do this to someone who loved him and to make the death seem as much a crime as possible.
In Brutus’ speech Brutus hastily goes through how Caesar died, he points out,” the question of his death is enrolled in the Capitol,” because he knows if the crowd were to have a close insight of how Caesar died they would ask what part Brutus played. At this point (lines 175+) the speech has a faster rhythm and is recited much more emotionally to build up the crowds’ anger until he tells them to mutiny. This is to try and provoke the crowd that something terrible had happened and they had to act. Antony now mentions what he thinks should be done, “whilst bloody treason flourished over us,” he tries to motivate the crowd, that treason cannot be tolerated, all the traitors must die. The crowd follow and are in a rage that they let the traitors get away, “let not a traitor live,” says a plebeian and they are about to leave, but Antony stops them.
“I am no orator as Brutus is,” he uses false humility to show the crowd that although he isn’t as honourable as Brutus, he is like the crowd, and the crowd can easily relate to him. Antony subtly incites the crowd to mutiny “If I were as good a speaker as Brutus, I would, be able to stir you up to mutiny,” this causes the crowd to think if they should mutiny, and the outcome of one.
Antony tells them about Caesar’s will, “tis his will,” to show the crowd that Caesar loved the people of Rome so much that he would give them things in his death, Antony does not tell the crowd what is in the will though, this is called known as negatio, this causes the plebeians to really want to know what was in the will and encourages them to mutiny, only when they are nearly out of control he tells them what is on the will, at this point the crowd is so motivated be Antony that it has forgotten all about the will. Antony uses reverse psychology, “have patience,” by saying this it makes the crowd want to hear the will impatiently, causing the effect Antony intended. Antonys speech is written in verse rather than prose to give an informal approach than Brutus’ so that the crowd can associate to what he is saying.
Antony and Brutus both delivered a captivating speech, they differed however in many ways, this was evident by the outcome of each speech, it shows though, that the crowd easily fall for some rhetoric tricks which both Antony and Brutus use. It can be seen the crowd are not completely aware of what is being said, such as when the crowd mistake Brutus for wanting Caesars position when he did not. Brutus’ speech ultimately was not as well-written as Antony, this was why they mutinied, Brutus however had a harder message to put across. After the end of Brutus’ speech the crowd have agreed with there allegiance with Brutus, but after the end of Antonys' he has turned their whole minds away from that and has turned them against Brutus. This ultimately shows the fickle minds of the crowd.
