Antony Speech Analysis Essays

Antony then goes on to acknowledge the graciousness of Brutus and the other conspirators for even letting him speak: ''Here, under leave of Brutus and the rest-- For Brutus is an honorable man, So are they all, honorable men-- Come I to speak in Caesar's funeral'' (90-3).Antony is both saying he is not here to cause trouble and paying the standard respects to Brutus, who had spoken before him, and the other senators.The play Julius Caesar, written by William Shakespeare depicts various members of Roman society conspiring to and eventually killing Julius Caesar; subsequently causing chaos to spread in Rome.

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He argues that Caesar's ambition to become emperor made it necessary to kill him.

Poor Brutus must go toe-to-toe with Marc Antony, Caesar's second-in-command, who then takes the stage and gives one of the most celebrated speeches in literary history.

In Brutus and Antony’s speeches both men share the strategy of swaying the crowd.

In the middle of his speech, Brutus tries to quell the crowd’s anger because “as [Caesar] was valiant [he] honour him”, and because Brutus employs questions asked for effect, and consequently convinces the crowd that Caesar had potential for tyranny.As Caesar's great accomplishments, kind heart, and refusal to seize power are remembered, it becomes clear that Antony does not actually think Brutus to be honorable.By the end of the speech, when Antony appears to be overcome with grief, he has whipped the crowd into a frenzy opposed to Brutus and the other assassins.In just about 30 lines, Antony turns the crowd against Brutus without ever coming out and directly urging them to do so.Unlike many other famous speeches in Shakespeare, such as Hamlet's ''To be or not to be,'' Antony's speech is not a soliloquy, a private rumination.In this seemingly inconsequential moment of praise, Antony slips in a phrase that will be the key to the rest of his speech.Antony then seems to get sidetracked from his plan to bury Caesar and not praise him.Overcome with emotion for his dead friend, he starts remembering Caesar's kindness: ''He was my friend, faithful and just to me'' (94) He then seems to remember the point of his speech: ''But Brutus says he was ambitious, And Brutus is an honorable man'' (95-6).Antony continually thinks back on the great things Caesar did for the good of the Roman people, often foregoing personal gain in the process.One of the reasons the speech is so rhetorically effective is Antony's clever use of repetition, repeating the phrase ''Brutus is an honorable man'' in order to imply the exact opposite meaning.Antony opens the speech by saying ''I come to bury Caesar, not to praise him'' (83).