Julius Caesar

As Antony opens his speech, he presents the audience with a multitude of detailed specific evidence as an aid to convince the Romans to feel angry toward the conspirators. In the previous speech given by Brutus, Brutus states that Caesar’s ambition caused the conspiracy against him. Antony proceeds to disprove this accused trait of Caesar’s to incite the audience to assess the validity of the accusation. Antony expresses the fact that Caesar had brought many captives to Rome, whose ransomed filled the public treasury. He also reminds the Romans of the feast of Lupercal, when Antony presented him a crown, which Caesar refused three times. If Caesar did those for the good of Rome, he could not have done them ambitiously. “He hath brought many captives home to Rome,/ whose ransoms did the general coffers fill;/ Did in this Caesar seem ambitious?/ You all did see on Lupercal/ I thrice presented him a kingly crown,/ Which he did thrice refuse. Was this ambition?” (III, ii, 89-91, 96-98). Antony articulately expresses these reasons to his audience, the people of Rome, and succeeds in making them question the validity of Brutus’ accusation. He intelligently does this without actually coming out and saying that the audience should be angry with Brutus and the conspirators. “Marked ye his words? He would not take the crown./ Therefore ‘tis certain he was not ambitious.” (III, ii, 114-115) Clearly, the specific evidence Antony uses in his speech influences the minds of the Romans into feeling angry toward the conspirators. As the minds of the Romans begin to disbelieve Brutus’ intentions, Antony presents them with another persuasive device.

Antony continues to deliver his powerful oration to the Romans and uses verbal irony intertwined with repetition to encourage the Romans to feel resentment against the conspirators. When agreeing to let Antony deliver a speech at Caesar’s funeral, the conspirators forbid him to speak ill of them. Antony circumvents this prohibition by using the word “honorable” repetitively, so that it obviously means “dishonorable”. The more he says the word, the more the Romans think that the conspirators, in fact, prove themselves the opposite. “Yet Brutus says he was ambitious;/ And sure he is an honorable man./ …I should do Brutus wrong and Cassius wrong,/ Who, you all know, are honorable men./…I fear I wrong the honorable men/ Whose daggers have stabbed Caesar; I do fear it” (III, ii, 99-100, 124-125, 153-154). The repetition causes the Romans to look at the