Julius Caesar.

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Julius Caesar: English Coursework

The play is set in 44BC. Julius Caesar has become the most powerful man in Rome and is seen as to be dangerous and too ambitious by some. These few people grouped together and plotted in secret to murder Caesar. Brutus, the leader of the conspirators, killed him because he saw him as too ambitious and it was,’ for the good of Rome’. Cassius wanted to kill him because he was jealous of how powerful he was. After Caesar is killed Brutus makes a speech to the common people and try’s to persuade them with logic that he was killed for the good of Rome.

        Brutus is seen as an orator, this is someone who is good at public speaking, and so the people will listen to him. On this occasion it takes him a few minutes to settle them down. He is standing on steps above the crowd and is looking down on them. He repeats himself as he waits for quiet,’ Believe me…may believe. He knows he has a hard task ahead of him because the people loved him and he has just killed him. His opening line he says, ‘Romans, countrymen and lovers (friends)’. We see that he sees himself above them as he puts friends last. He has one excuse for killing Caesar and that is that he was too ambitious. He repeats this over and over again so that the people remember it. He has a pattern to his speech where he praises Caesar and then says he killed him because he was ambitious. This makes it clear he didn’t really have an excuse for killing Caesar because if they think about it isn’t a good excuse.

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        Most of the way into his speech he uses a rhetorical question,’ who here have I offended. I pause for a reply.’ This is his way of seeing how he has affected their thinking. When no one reply he feels very confident. This highlights how Brutus does his speeches and that is by asking questions ad appealing to the head rather than the heart. Mark Anthony has a very different tactic, which we will see later.

        When Brutus asks another rhetorical question and pauses one of the crowd shouts,’ Brutus for Caesar’. This shows that Brutus’ message has not got ...

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