The main part of the play involves Julius Cæsar being stabbed by the conspirators and Brutus and Mark Antony give their speeches. In his speech, Brutus uses prose in order for the plebeians to feel like he is one of them. Brutus starts his speech by saying “Romans, countrymen and lovers,” which shows that he was patriotic towards his country. Mark Antony uses blank verse because he was brought up with the language. His first words were “friends, Romans and countrymen” which shows that he too wants them to feel that he is one of them.
One of the most important and significant parts in the play is the funeral speeches given by both Brutus and Mark Antony. These lead into a war that breaks out at the end of the play. Through the speeches, we are able to consider a number of points. Brutus’ speech is one of justifications and explanations, while Antony's is one of manipulation and skill. It is known that both Brutus and Antony desire to appeal to the common people. However, the way in which each man goes about it differs greatly. The speeches influence the events at the end of the play.
Brutus has a hard task of persuading the plebeians that the killing of Julius Cæsar was the best for Rome: “This is my answer, not that I have loved Caesar less, but that I love Rome more.” Brutus speaks in prose because the plebeians spoke in prose and by talking their way it will make them feel that he is one of them. By describing himself as a ‘lover of Rome’, he hopes to gain the trust of the plebeians and to make them finally accept that Cæsar’s death was for the good of Rome. He also uses his honour as a shield from the crowd’s reactions.
At the ending of his speech, a plebeian shouts out “let him be Cæsar.” Hearing this, Brutus believes that he has won the crowd over. However, he does not realise that allowing Mark Antony to give a speech was a mistake. The result of this is Brutus committing suicide at the end of the play.
Mark Antony’s entrance is more dramatic because he walks in with the body of Cæsar. Mark Antony’s first words are “Friends, Romans, and countrymen”
Antony tries to appeal to the crowd’s emotion. He understands that he needs to provide something stronger than Brutus to gain the interest of the plebeians. He realises that the people of Rome were completely incapable of using "reason." As a result, he employs his ability to manipulate and control their emotions and actions. By using Brutus' own explanations for Caesar's death to begin his speech, Antony proves his validity to the crowd. By questioning Caesar's ambition, yet never actually humiliating the conspirators, he gains greater acceptance and power over them. Antony uses his own grief along with a series of lies to remove the people’s sympathy for Brutus. Through his powerful and partially honest speech, he is able to cast a shadow of doubt into the minds of the people, and the crowd begins to gaze at the true motive behind Caesar's murder. Antony understands the needs, wants of the people, and uses this to prey upon their emotions and passions. He dangles Caesar's Will in front of the people and then quickly puts it away again, knowing that the crowd will demand it to be read. Antony also recalls memories of the cloak Caesar wears, while revealing his bloodied body, fully aware of the havoc it will cause, but unrelenting in his quest for revenge.
Although both of Caesar's funeral speeches seem to serve the basic purpose of appealing to the people, their dissimilarity serves as a great significance. Brutus' speech, which appeared to be, honest becomes a speech of symmetrical structure, balanced sentences, ordered procedure, rhetorical questions and abstract subject matter, and ultimately becomes a speech of utter dishonesty. This contributes to his downfall, along with his lack of human insight. Mark Antony's speech, on the other hand, for all its playing on passions and all its lies, proved to be a truly honest speech because of Antony's unconditional love for Caesar. To that extent, Antony had truth on his side, making him concrete and real rather than abstract. This ultimately determined his later victory.
Antony is more successful because he gets to the crowds heart by using persuasive language: “I come to bury Caesar, not to praise him.” Anthony, contrary to what he says, actually means to turn the citizens of Rome against Brutus and the conspirators, revenging Julius Caesar’s death. Anthony continues his speech by using Brutus’ suggestion that Caesar was an ambitious man.
“Bear with me, my heart is in the coffin there with Caesar, and I must pause till it comes back to me.” Marc Anthony’s speech calls for a dramatic pause, where he stops to ‘regain his heart.’ This line, however, is no more than a strategic and shrewdly placed break, where Anthony forces the crowd to decide if they are truly persuaded by his speech or not.
Anthony’s speech is successful because he uses a host of persuasive language devices, most important of them being sarcasm and irony. The great skill of rhetoric and oration Anthony displays triumphs in the seemingly impossible task of winning the audience.
Look closely at the rhythms that Antony builds into his speech. This is reminiscent of Dr. Martin Luther King’s “I have a dream” speech, and the repeated emphasis in that speech on one phrase to deliver a more subtle message. Antony does the same with the phrases “For Brutus is an honourable man, so are they all, all honourable men” and “But Brutus says he was ambitious, And Brutus is an honourable man.” The phrase is repeated four times, in variant forms, allowing Antony to not only counter each of Brutus’ arguments, but also question Brutus’ honour simply by drawing so much attention to it.
This shows the reader his ability to manipulate and provide the interesting show the plebeians sought. This type of human behaviour is still relevant today, and was ultimately relevant in Elizabethan England; otherwise, one would wonder why Shakespeare included it. However, again, the different aspects of the play will vary in importance from one society and historical timeline to another as it relies on interpretation, i.e. what each individual interprets from the play. The plebeians ultimately interpreted the speeches and events in a different way because of human nature in groups (mob mentality, lack of reason), while the reader may view it differently in context to their society, for example in relation to divine power in Elizabethan England and ideas of morality and politics in today’s world.