The styles of both speeches differ greatly. While Brutus’ is in prose, Antony uses verse. This indicates that Brutus is primarily concerned with the content of his speech, whereas Antony on the other hand recognises the importance of sound and rhythm of the words in such a speech, so he chooses his words very carefully.
It is worth saying that the crowd are like a flock of sheep, and can easily be swayed. Proof of this is at the beginning of the play, when at one moment they support Pompey, and the next Caesar. More recently though, after Brutus’ speech, the first citizen claims
“This Caesar was a tyrant”
And immediately after Antony’s speech, the second proclaims
“Caesar has had great wrong”
This just demonstrates the quick swing of mood the crowd experience. They are also easily, intensely whipped up, as after Antony’s speech they meet Cinna the poet, and kill him purely for the sake of his name. They change their minds very quickly, and although they are on Antony’s side after both speeches, one wonders that if Antony had spoken first, would they then be on Brutus’ side? Antony understands the crowd’s psychology much better than Brutus, and through this he manipulates them. He uses his understanding of crowd psychology, as his main weapon, and once they have heard both speeches, they appear to be in no doubt whatsoever of who to support.
In both speeches the speakers speak with very different tones. Brutus is dominant and commanding, when he commands the crowd to
“Hear me for my cause; and be silent that you may hear”
Antony on the other hand, addresses the crowd in a polite and encouraging way. He tries to soothe the crowd with his gentle tone. The style of Brutus’ speech obeys the laws of rhetoric, and is patterned and has structured sentences. It is like this, because Brutus is taking for granted that he has the support of the crowd. He does not emphasise facts, and makes no attempt to advance his speech. His speech does not advance because he dwells on his love for Caesar and for Rome, but does not attempt to justify the assassination of Caesar, which is the crowd’s reason for listening to him.
On the other hand, Antony’s speech is constantly progressing, because he states the clear facts, as they appear to stand and elevates Caesar by mentioning his numerous achievements for example swelling the coffers of Rome, and looking after the poor. This type of style is the one used to speak to the senate, not to the common rank and file people, not to the common rank and file people, and for this reason he is not as effective as Antony, who is placatory and soothing. Antony’s oratory is subtle, and gets straight to the point. These little differences all influence the crowd, and consequently they are all whipped up into an outrage once he has finished speaking. Another important element to be taken into consideration about Antony’s speech, is that he manages to slowly but surely influence the crowd without his opinions being necessarily right, and all this is the consequence of his understanding of what make the crowd tick, the crowd psychology.
Both speakers bring facts into their speeches, but in different ways. Brutus is very presumptuous when he says that if Caesar would’ve been allowed to live, he would have enslaved them all, and often claiming that Caesar was very ambitious. Antony uses facts in a clever way. He emphasises the facts, for example Caesar not appearing to be ambitious, and through this, he makes Brutus look a fool by making it seem obvious that Caesar had no ambition. One such example is when he reminds the crowd that Caesar was offered the crown three times but each time he refused it. Caesar only refused it because he wanted the crowd to make him take it, but here Antony makes out it was he never wanted to become king. We do have proof that Caesar was ambitious, because after he refused the crown three times, he had an epileptic fit because he was so angry that the citizens of Rome didn’t want him to become king, and, in the feast of the Lupercal, Caesar wanted Antony to touch Calphurnia, because he wanted her to give birth to an heir.
Repetition occurs in both speeches but in different ways. Brutus repeats for effect only, for example
“As Caesar loved me, I weep for him; as he was fortunate, I rejoice at it;
as he was valiant, I honour him; as he was ambitious, I slew him”
He also does this to show the crowd that he was a friend of Caesar’s, but once Caesar became too dangerous for the state he had to kill him. Again he is showing his true love for his country and how honourable he is. Antony uses repetition, but for a very different reason. He uses it in a very ironic way. He is trying to show the crowd that Caesar was killed in cold blood, so he completely disproves Brutus’ theory of being ambitious by demonstrating how in fact Caesar had no ambition at all. He is also trying to show the crowd how worthless he is, for example
“I thrice presented him a kingly crown,
Which he did thrice refuse; was this ambition?
Yet Brutus says he was ambitious
And, sure, he is an honourable man.”
Antony continues to repeat
“And Brutus is an honourable man.”
So often that it is clear sarcasm and the crowd realises just how ‘honourable’ Brutus really is. Through this repetition, about Caesar being ambitious, and Brutus honourable, he astutely makes the crowd see it the other way round, Brutus being ambitious and Caesar being honourable. Antony demonstrates here, his shrewdness, because we know that earlier he was given strict guidelines by the conspirators about what could be incorporated in his speech, and here he clearly makes Brutus appear dishonourable in the eyes of the crowd, by his continuous repetition of Brutus being ‘honourable’, it is clearly ironic, so we see that even with keeping to the constraints laid out to him, Antony manages to debase Brutus in the eyes of the crowd. Through this he stirs up the crowd into a bloody lust, because he makes it appear as though Caesar’s death was completely unjustified, committed by this ‘honourable’ man.
Brutus poses questions to the crowd, but they are all rhetorical, and this is further proof of him taking for granted the support of the crowd. As all of his questions are rhetorical, he influences the crowd to agree with him, because no man is going to stand up and admit he has no pride in his country or that he wouldn’t mind being a slave. Antony’s use of questions is to strengthen the fact that Caesar had no ambition at all. He repeats
“Did this in Caesar seem ambitious?”
so many times that we are convinced Caesar had no ambition. The questions he asks are the ones that are possible to be answered by the crowd, and although this may seem a bit hazardous, he is still controlling the thoughts of the crowd, and convincing them to agree with him.
Throughout his speech Antony appears overwhelmed with emotion, and he does this to make sure that the conspirators did not get away with this murder, but we know, he wasn’t just upset, but very angry, so much so that when he was alone on the stage he said that
“Mothers shall but smile when they behold
Their infants quarter’d with the hands of war”
And also
“Let slip the dogs of war”
so we see that he wanted there to be a civil war, because of his extreme anger over Caesar’s death.
The crucial distinction between the two speeches, are that Antony has a clear understanding of the crowd psychology, and persuade the crowd to see his notion very easily because of this. Brutus does not understand what makes the crowd tick, and this characteristic is clearly the most important feature of making Antony’s speech so effective, and Brutus’ an unconvincing, ineffective, dire address.
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