We see throughout the speech of Brutus the use of rhetoric. He says, “Who here is so vile that will not love his country? If any, speak, for him I have offended. I pause for a reply”, which of course gets no answer, but gives the crowd time to reflect and think about what he has just said, while at the same time he gets the idea into the heads of the crowd that to go against what Brutus did is a vile act. The two characters giving these speeches use rhetoric often, and this was a useful and powerful technique that Shakespeare would have known would get a reaction from the Elizabethan crowd, who were educated in the use of rhetoric from an early school age. The crowd watching the play would be made to feel more like they were part of the play, and that they were involved in the treatment of Brutus after he slew Caesar if Shakespeare was to use these rhetorics to make them think and to keep them interested in the play. So Shakespeare uses the same techniques to keep the Elizabethan crowd interested as Brutus does to keep the Roman crowd interested in his part in the play. It obviously works well in the play as we can see that the crowd say “Live Brutus, live, live!” and “Let him be Caesar” which proves that the crowd are completely taken in by how Brutus has delivered his speech. However after this has happened, Brutus makes the mistake of leaving Mark Antony and the crowd alone while Antony’s speech is delivered. Brutus does this only because he thinks that Antony is about to deliver a speech on Caesars life. Brutus thought that Antony was to perform a eulogy for Caesar, when in actual fact he was about to go out to intentionally whip up the crowd into frenzy against Brutus. He says he will “Let slip the dogs of war”.
Antony can now begin to pick apart Brutus’ speech point by point, since he is speaking second. Antonys first point is to say that Caesar was not in fact ambitious as Brutus said he was. He says, “When the poor have cried, Caesar hath wept; ambition should be made of sterner stuff; yet Brutus says he was ambitious, and Brutus is an honourable man. You all did see that on the Lupercal I thrice presented him a kingly crown, which he did thrice refuse. Was this ambition?” We see here the use of rhetoric when Antony asks the crowd if this was ambition, when it clearly was not. We also see the beginnings of the repetition of “honourable man”. Antony is clearly being sarcastic with his repetitions and mocking Brutus and Cassius. So Antony has started to achieve his main objective of stirring up the crowd against Brutus from almost the beginning of his speech. Antony goes on to say “…men have lost their reason. Bear with me; my heart is in the coffin there with Caesar, and I must pause till it come back to me” to which he gets the response “Methinks there is much reason in his sayings”. This is a sign showing that the crowd have started to take Antony seriously and consider his views, which could be partly due to the fact that Antony is playing for the sympathy of the crowd. The crowd see that he is in a state of shock and mourning and so feel more sorry for him. Then a member of the crowd says “If thou consider rightly the matter, Caesar has had great wrong” which suggests that the crowd are starting to feel that what the conspirators have done was not fair and was in fact wrong. Which is exactly what Antony wanted to do in his speech, in order to get the crowd on his side. A key factor in Antony’s speech is that he gives the crowd the chance to know what he is talking about. While Brutus based his speech on delivery alone, Antony bases his on delivery, but also a good use of repetition, and rhetorics to make his speech more effective than Brutus’. While Antony pauses to ‘compose himself’, the crowd is discussing what he has said but when Brutus had paused the crowd said nothing. This shows that the crowd is more interested in what Antony is saying and will therefore probably end up sharing his views against Brutus. In my opinion, the turning point at which the crowd have switched sides is when a member of the crowd says, “Marked ye his words? He would not take the crown; therefore ‘tis certain he was not ambitious.” This has undermined Brutus’ whole speech. Brutus’ whole speech and reasons were based upon the fact that Caesar was too ambitious, but here Antony has apparently proved that he was not in fact ambitious, and so has proved that Brutus killed Caesar for no good reason. A citizen then says “pour soul” which again shows that the crowd have become sympathetic towards Antony. Then a crowd member says “there’s not a nobler man in Rome than Antony,” this being the final statement to prove Antony’s triumph over the crowd and Brutus.
Antony next decides to use the ‘will of Caesar’, which he says he found in Caesars closet. Of course this is not actually Caesars will but can be used by Antony as a tool in order to keep the crowd interested in what he has to say, as they think that there could be something left in Caesars will to the public of Rome. The people will continue to keenly listen if they think that there will be something in it for them. The crowd cry for the will of Caesar to be shown to them, which Antony declines, but knows he has kept the crowd very interested. He says “I fear I wrong the honourable men whose daggers have stabbed Caesar; I do fear it”, which he clearly says to cover his tracks, so that he can say that it was not his intention to whip up the crowd against Brutus, even though he knows he has and he knows he wanted to. The crowd are now desperate for the will and have started to become almost out of control. They say, “They were traitors. Honourable men…the will! The testament… They were villains, murderers. The will, read the will.” At this point it seems that Antony thinks that he has the crowd where he wants them and that to hold back the will for any longer would incite the crowd into violence, so he decides to tell them what it says. He tells them to come down to Caesars body, so he can highlight where all of the stab wounds entered Caesar, and so that he can name the conspirators individually, letting the crowd know exactly who did what to Caesar. Antony now goes on to telling an anecdote, this is very evocative and reminds the crowd that Caesar once was an innocent man like everyone else. He also starts to use evocative language, for example he says “envious Casca” and “well-beloved Brutus”. He says “and all of us fell down” when describing Caesars death, as if he thinks that the whole of Rome could fall as a result of the loss of Caesar.
Antony continues on to fix Brutus as the primary leader of the conspiracy. He leaves the crowd with no option but to seek revenge on Brutus and the rest of the conspirators. He has created a mob and they are his mob. They go away to bury Caesar and to seek out the conspirators.
So we have seen the different techniques used by the two opposing parties, and we can deduct that the more effective was by far Antony’s. Partly because he could pick apart Brutus’ speech and negate Brutus’ views from an early stage, but mostly because he knew what would incite the crowd and make them feel hatred towards Brutus. Brutus’ biggest mistake was trusting that Antony was “a limb of Caesar” and not thinking that Antony could seek revenge with his new mob.
