In Act 3 Scene 2 of Shakespeare's Play “julius Caesar”, Why Does Antony Succeed and Brutus Fail to Persuade the Crowd.

I have studied Julius Caesar a play written by William Shakespeare. I focused the study on act 3 scene 2 the speeches by Brutus and Antony. I am looking at the persuasive techniques used by the two speakers and why Antony’s speech won over the crowd.

Julius Caesar has been an influential figure in history for 2000 years. Caesar was such a powerful, heroic leader with his death a devastating civil war ensued.

Julius Caesar is so influential decisions made today in the present day idolise him like Kaiser of Germany, Tsar of Russia and caesarean births. Julius Caesar’s story shows a relationship with modern day stories of deceit and tragedy with such a twisting and famous plot modern audiences are still drawn to it.

Shakespeare has written many plays based on historical events like, Henry VI and Richard III. This shows he clearly likes writing about historic events or is good at them. When he wrote this play Queen Elizabeth was in power and in his day everyone respected and idolised the monarch or ruler. This story is about ruler ship so a lot of people would have gone to see it.

The senates killed Julius Caesar, this include Brutus and Cassius. They executed him as they thought killing Caesar was for the good of Rome. They felt Caesar was getting too ambitious and could become a threat to Rome once he is King.

At Julius Caesar’s funeral both Brutus and Antony spoke; Brutus first followed by Antony. Antony’s speech persuaded the crowd over Brutus. Antony later became the emperor of the Roman Empire. Brutus then fights a war against Mark Antony. Brutus commits suicide.

Brutus's speech was logical and restrained. He reminded the people that Caesar would have ruined Rome, become a tyrant and would have enslaved everyone, he said “had you rather Caesar were living, and die all slaves, than that Caesar were dead?”. He says this as a rhetorical question: it has quite an obvious answer but probably would have been false anyway. Brutus says that last quote like it is fact and that it will happen. The fact makes it seem more real.

Another example of a rhetorical question in Brutus’s speech is when Brutus says “Who is here so vile that will not love his country?” In that last quote notice he started with “Who is here” He say that many times in the speech which is repetition for impact, he uses this to persuade the crowd. That device works as a list to make it seem like there were many reasons for the assassination and he keeps reinforcing his opinions with repetition. Brutus also explained that he didn't hate Caesar, but that he loved Rome more. He says "Not that I loved Caesar less, but I loved Rome more" this shows it would have been hard to kill Caesar, as he loved him, but he is so sure it is right he had to killed him. At one point, they wanted to crown Brutus, who intended for everyone to be free.

Brutus didn’t use any emotion in his speech, he was very rational. The crowd would have been sad so I think that if Brutus spoke with sad emotions, the crowd would have emphasised with him resulting in him looking more truthful so the crowd would know he really did love Caesar. Apart from this I think his speech was quite successful.

Antony's speech is vastly different from Brutus' and in many ways is more complex, where Brutus tries to persuade the crowd by trying to talk to them about honour and history Antonys' speech is more emotional, By being emotional it manages to be more powerful and stir the crowd.

Antony’s speech started by regaining the attention of the crowd, who had just finished listening to Brutus’s speech, he says “Friends, Romans, countrymen, lend me your ears:” This also shows that he is trying to get everyone involved and he is like the crowd and is one of them he may have copied this from Brutus who also said something similar. Antony then tells the crowd that Caesar was not perfect and that he had made many mistakes, "The evil that men do lives after them" this is like admitting Brutus is right about that but only that.

He then begins his attacks on Brutus' speech; he manages to tackle Brutus' points on why Caesar should die. The first point he attacked was Brutus’ opinion of Caesar’s ambition, Antony argues that Caesar wasn't ambitious, "I thrice presented him with a kingly crown, which he did thrice refuse," This is a reasons that proved Brutus’s main point incorrect.

The question Antony asked, “Is this ambition?”, is an obvious rhetorical question which makes the crowd really think that what he’s saying is obvious he also talks about Brutus being honourable at the same time, this has an effect of causing the crowd to believe Brutus is lying and maybe everything he has said may be questionable.

Antony then showed the bloody body of Julius Caesar. Antony