Language plays an important part in the play. Characters use language to twist meaning to achieve their own ends. In the beginning of the play Cassius uses language to deceive Brutus into murdering Caesar. Decius deceives Caesar to attend the capitol by re-interpreting Calpurnia's dream. Finally, in Act III, Brutus and Anthony use language to decieve the crowd of their true intentions.
-Summarize Brutus's and Anthony's funeral speeches. (III. ii. 12-48 and 75-254)
-Both of their speeches are meant to deceive the crowd.
-Whose speech do you believe is more effective at deceiving the crowd? Explain.
*Answers must be about two paragraphs.
Brutus and Antony both use deceiving words to move the crowd and gain the crowds support. Brutus speaks to the crowd at Caesar's funeral and explains why he and the rest of the other men killed Caesar. Brutus says that he loved Caesar but not more than he loves Rome. Additionally, as he states, " There is tears for his love; joy for his fortunate; honour for his valour; and death for his ambition." Brutus was explaining that if Caesar wouldn't have died Rome would be a bad place because Caesar was ambitious and just looked for power to rule everything. Furthermore, Antony was Caesar’s loyal friend and once he found out that they killed him he became Brutus’s friend in order to gain revenge. When he asked Brutus if he can speak at the funeral Brutus said that he can speak but he couldn’t say anything bad about the people that killed Caesar, and may only mention things about Caesar.
ReplyDeleteWhen Brutus left, Antony was left to say his speech. Throughout his speech he says that Brutus was an honorable man and that Caesar was ambitious; however, he only says this because he told Brutus he had made the promise not to put Brutus or any of the others down. He doesn’t put them down but he proves that Caesar wasn’t ambitious. As he says, “You all did see that on the Lupercal I thrice presented him a kingly crown, which he did thrice refuse: was this ambition? Yet Brutus says he was ambitious; and, sure, Brutus is an honorable man.” After he takes a pause he asks if the citizens present can see Caesar. They all agree that they would like to. After he shows the body he starts showing everywhere that each of the killers stabbed Caesar. With this the crowd starts agreeing with Antony and get furious. However, Antony still says that they should have patience and wait before they decide to do anything. The crowd little by little keeps gaining hatred for Brutus and the others. In my opinion and common sense, Antony’s speech was most convincing because at the end of the scene all the citizen’s were on their way to burning down the houses of those who killed Caesar in hope to kill them.
Brutus and Antony both used language to decieve the crowd of their true intentions. When Brutus was at the ceremony of him explaining why he killed Caesar he said that he was a bad seed from the apple that will ruin the apple. Now the apple is Rome and the seed is Caesar ruining the apple. He also explains that how he loved Caesar but not much as he loved rome. Antony was Caesar’s right-hand man and once he found out that Brutus and Cassius killed Caesar he started to become close friends with Brutus in order to back stab him the way he did to Julius.
ReplyDeleteWhen Brutus finish his speech, Anthony went up and start saying his speech. Throughout his speech he kept acknowledging Brutus saying many noble things about him, but when he started to talk about Caesar he said that Caesar was an ambitious man. He only say this because he feels that he need to gain his trust by degrading Caesar and worshiping Brutus. Now at one point of his speech Anthony ask the crowd if they want to see Caesar corpse and they all yes. When he showed the crowds the dead body he showed them the stabs that Brutus and the others did to Caesar. This got the crowd mad and insane. However, Antony still says that they should have patience and wait before they decide to do anything.
Anthony's speech was most convincing because he basically got the crowd on his side.
Language plays an important part in the play. Characters use language to twist meaning to achieve their own ends. In the play, at the funeral speech both Brutus and Antony speak. Brutus starts of and says that if they didnt kill Ceasar, Rome was going to be a disaster. He said he loved Rome a lot more than he loved Ceasar. He tries convincing the crowd that killing Ceasar was the right thing to do. To do this he was also saying that Ceasar was very ambitious, and that he didnt want the best, but the power.
ReplyDeleteWe also know that before he left he talked to Antony. He told him that if he was going to give a speech he couldnt put Brutus and his crowd down. This is because Antony became Brutus "friend", thats what Brutus thinks, but in the end is just for revenge. He is doing the same thing Brutus did to Ceasar which is playing him, and stabbing him in the back. As he started to speak he never put Brutus down, but he never said that Ceasar was ambitious. Instead he reminded those people in front of him about that day he denied the crown three times. He asked if that showed any kind of ambition at all. Antony was also showing the crowd where each of them stabbed Ceasar.
As time passes by, the crowd starts getting angry. They start to agree with Anthony, that Ceasar was not ambitious and that they did not have to kill him. Although Antony tells them to wait and have patience, they go in their way to find their houses and burn them down. This is why i believe Antonys speech was more convincing, because even though he didnt go directly agaisnt Brutus, he did use words and examples in his favor to defend Ceasar.
Good interpretations. You are all correct, they both use persuasive languag to deceive the crowd into believing them.
ReplyDeleteGrade: Check plus plus
I believe that Antony's speech was far superior to Brutus's. First of Brutus had gone first and made his point to the crowd. Then he thought he had won the crowd over so he left the area. Antony had the crowd all to himself so that they were his to manipulate. They at first both had the crowd in their favor in the end Antony gained control of over them.
ReplyDeleteAntony maintained control of the crowd because he was the last person to give his speech. Unlike Brutus, he had an advantage of knowing what he needed to beat. Brutus had just gone out thinking he already had Antony on their side so he thought there was nothing wrong but, he was unfortunately wrong. It was clear that Antony had control of the crowd once Brutus left due to the crowds'reaction. That is why I believe Antony was the more speech giver.
Both Brutus and Antony speaks at Caesar's funeral. Brutus talks about the reasons of killing Caesar and how he didn't love him he loved Rome. Then he continues on saying if he was alive you'll all become slaves. He continues on and on frightening and making all citizens think. And so Antony went up to give a speech. Now knowing that Antony was a honest friend, gave a speech. He said how Brutus said that Caesar was ambitious and Brutus was an honorable man. So Antony said "Caesar brought many captives home to Rome,
ReplyDeleteWhose ransoms filled the national treasury.
Did this seem ambitious in Caesar?" That had to make people think about Antony's speech more.
In my opinion, I believe that Antony speech was more effective at deceiving the crowd. The wording and mixing up words was a big score for him. In other words, Antony brought citizen and even my attention. His speech makes you think more. Besides a part of speech Antony gave that talks about Caesar being ambitious, "I presented a kingly crown to him three times, Which he refused three times. Was this ambition?" The way he words it grabs everyone's attention.