How Caesar hath deserved to lie in death,’
Then he asks the conspirators to kill him, knowing that they wouldn’t kill him in cold blood. He says that there would be no better place to die than here alongside his master, Caesar. Finally Anthony convinces the conspirators that he accepts the reasons behind the death of Caesar by shaking the bloody hands of each of the conspirators, addressing each by their names, to show that he knows them and is on the same level as them.
‘First Marcus Brutus, do I take your hand;
Now Decius Brutus yours; now yours Metellus;
Yours Cinna; and my valiant Casca, yours;
Though last, last, not least in love, yours good Trebonius.’
Before the murder Brutus’ mind is not made up on whether he should commit the murder of Caesar or not,
‘And Caesar doth not change’
He acts as if he is in two minds about whether or not he should kill Caesar, and what the right thing to do would be. Questioning his co-conspirators on why they are going to commit the murder.
Caesar’s response to Brutus, as he kills him shows that Caesar thought of Brutus as a loyal, trustworthy friend, but sees now that he is not, and that Brutus has betrayed him,
‘Et tu Brute? Then fall Caesar!’
After the murder Brutus tells his co-conspirators to go and tell the people of Rome what has happened and that Rome has been saved. Then again Caesar tries to justify the murder by telling his friends to wash their hands in the blood that has saved Rome.
‘And let us bathe our hands in Caesar’s blood…
… Let us all cry, ‘Peace, freedom and Liberty!’’
Anthony, on the other end of the tragedy discovers the death of Caesar and begins to plot against the conspirators. At the end of the first scene of Act three Anthony acts as a soliloquist when talking about how he plans to take revenge on the conspirators with the aid of his good friend, Octavius. He tells of how he will manipulate the crowd at the market place to his side and convince them that the conspirators are ‘bloody men’.
The speeches of both Anthony and Brutus contrast greatly. Both address the crowd in similar ways at the start of the speech, except Brutus addresses the crowd more as a group of people, Whereas Anthony addresses the crowd as ‘Friends’. As Brutus speaks he praises the crowd because of their wisdom. Then in a plea to gain their support he addresses those who liked Cesar and says how he loved him as well. Brutus then justifies his killing of Caesar by saying how he saw that Caesar was endangering Rome which he loved more. His methods of getting across his point to the crowd work well, as he uses lots of examples, and he repeatedly says how he loved Caesar as much as them,
‘As Caesar loved me, I wept for him; as he was fortunate, I rejoice at it …but as he was ambitious I slew him.’
By use of rhetorical questions Brutus uses a similar method to the one above to question the crowd and get them to think of how they feel about Rome or Caesar,
Who is here so rude that would not be a Roman…Who is here so vile that will not love his county?
Brutus lacks emotion in his speech, and delivers it as just a speech with know compassion behind it. He is constantly justifying his actions by means of repetition, this shows abstemiousness in Brutus and that not only is he trying to convince the crowd that the killing was necessary but also himself. Brutus is over-confident that the crowd will support him when he makes the speech and as a consequence includes little force behind it carrying only one real message, which is repeated.
Anthony uses similar methods in addressing the crowd to that which Brutus uses. Anthony also uses repetition in getting points across to the crowd. Anthony’s main point is that Brutus is not honourable and should not be trusted. Every time Anthony repeats the word, ‘honourable’ he says it with a greater degree of sarcasm. Then after telling them of how he thinks that Brutus is not an honourable man he directs the question toward the crowd as Brutus had done.
And Brutus is and honourable man. You did all see that on the Lupercal I thrice presented him a kingly crown, which thrice he did refuse. Was this ambition?
Anthony cunningly gives the crowds time to consider what he is saying by telling them that he is still in shock from the death of Caesar. In this time he allows the crowds to set aside what Brutus has said and then dismiss it entirely. This shrewd method gives Anthony the crowd’s attention and allows him to focus on gaining their support.
Another ability of Anthony is that of his use of props and imagery to emotionally move and manipulate the crowd. Whilst showing the crowds the body of Caesar he uses imagery to horrify them of how Caesars death came about. He tells them of the trauma Caesar went through before he was stabbed and shows them places where blood poured from him, whilst keeping the irony of Brutus being an ‘honourable man’.
‘See what a rent the envious Casca made.
Through this the well-beloved Brutus stabbed;
And plucked his cursed steel away,
Mark how the blood of Caesar followed it’
He also manipulates the crowd by the use of Caesars will. He gets them to think that he would not be so cruel as to tell them the horrifying things that are written in it, but still gets across the message in the will.
‘Let but the commons here this testament-
Which pardon me I do not mean to read…
…‘Tis good you know not that you are his heirs’
The contrasts between Brutus and Anthony can also be seen across the play. Brutus is shown as indecisive yet as a thinker at the start of the play by his reluctance to join the conspirators in the killing of Caesar.
‘Vexed I am
Of late passions of some difference’
Then in Act Two Scene One Brutus’ justification for a murder can also be seen he says, ‘Let us be sacrifices, but not butchers’. This is the same justification Brutus uses throughout the play - that the killing of Caesar is a duty to Rome.
On the other hand in Act Four Anthony’s pragmatic side can be seen with him as a mercenary out to get revenge on Brutus and his co-conspirators.
‘Brutus and Cassius
Are Levying powers; we must straight make head.
Therefore let our alliance be combined,
Our best friends made our means stretched’
Anthony can also be seen as a Mercenary in Act five Scene One when he confronts Cassius on the battlefield.
Villains, you did not so, when your vile daggers
Hacked one another in the sides of Caesar.
This shows that Anthony had not forgotten what they had done to Caesar and was out seeking revenge for the death of Caesar.
Act Three can be seen as the high point of the play as this is the point when Caesar is murdered and Brutus makes the fatal mistake of letting Anthony make a speech at the Marketplace in an appeal to find revenge for Caesar.
‘There shall I try
In my oration, how the people take
The cruel issue of these bloody men’
Brutus uses oppositions and balances to persuade the crowds over to his side in his speech and Anthony takes advantage of these and uses the similar repetition but also irony. Anthony shows his emotion to the crowd by his having to have a break, but Brutus centres the speech on justifying the murder of Caesar and lacks any emotion or compassion.
‘not that I loved Caesar less, but that I loved Rome more.’
Anthony also has the ability to manipulate the crowd with the use of pops and imagery. However Brutus lacks this talent and can only offer himself as a sacrifice.
