William Shakespeare’s “Julius Caesar” is a well-written stage play. Shakespeare included many good speeches in his plays; one of the best was the one delivered by Antony. Antony’s speech came very shortly after Julius Caesar’s death, and the city was in much chaos. The crowd had just heard Brutus’s speech. Brutus was one of the murderers of Caesar. His speech appealed to ones emotions and used many rhetorical devices.
Antony uses repetition to appeal to a common folk’s emotions. He repeats the words “Brutus is an honorable man”. The statement, however, was really being said with a sarcastic tone. Brutus is really not an honorable man. This restatement is emphasizing the importance of the sarcasm. The word honorable becomes a bad word by the end of his speech. This played directly on the emotion of patriotism and not to appear stupid.
Another use of repetition and rhythm would be him describing Caesar as ambitious. He also turns the mean of ambitious around. In this case, however, he turns it from bad to good. His repetitive use of the statement kept a rhythm to his speech. This appealed to the emotion of appearing not foolish. This is a good emotion to appeal to, because one wants to always feel smart and educated and have an opinion on something. Antony also used rhetorical questions. The most prominent question was whether the people thought Caesar was truly ambitious. He was not expecting a reply when he would ask whether Caesar was ambitious. The emotion of appearing not to be foolish would probably best go along with this statement and rhetorical device. The people would probably just nod and agree, without thinking twice.
Antony’s speech was filled with rhetorical devices affecting the emotions of one. His speech was directed to the common people of the city. His speech swayed the entire crowd from siding with Brutus to side with him. While Brutus’s speech used logic, Antony was able to convey his message better by appealing to the emotions.
