“I am no orator as Brutus is.”- Do You Agree With Antony’s Self Assessment?
This scene, the second half of the great double climax of the play, is almost entirely made up of the short speech of Brutus and the long speech of Antony. The speeches are often contrasted and it could be said that Brutus’s speech appeals to reason, whereas Antony’s appeals to emotion. Not only does Brutus’s speech appeal to reason, but to the spirit of liberty and dignity in the crowd. Brutus’s style of speech is logical, well balanced and classical. His argument is built up in clear strong lines.
Antony on the other hand, moves from mood to mood, from style to style and from argument to argument, in no obvious pattern or format.
In order to examine whether Mark Anthony is a good orator we must look at his character in Julius Caesar. A friend of , Antony claims allegiance to Brutus and the conspirators after Caesar's death in order to save his own life. Later, however, when speaking a funeral oration over Caesar's body, through buying his way into he hearts and minds of the plebs he persuades the audience to withdraw its support of Brutus and instead condemn him as a traitor. With tears on his cheeks and Caesar's will in his hand, Antony engages in a masterful (in terms of powerful emotive speaking) rhetoric to stir the crowd to revolt against the conspirators. This is where we see Antony’s weakness of style: His emotional speaking doesn’t match up to that of Brutus’ commanding dialogue.
