Rhetoric and Betrayal in Julius Caeser Play - 1486 Words

William Shakespeare’s famous play Julius Caesar utilizes the literary element of rhetoric multiple times throughout to show the true power that words can hold. The rhetoric in Caesar accompanies the play’s themes of betrayal, deception, and exaggeration. Brutus uses rhetoric to persuade the crowd of plebeians that the murdering of Caesar was positive and beneficial to all of Rome, winning their support and causing them to join his cause. Soon after, Mark Antony gives a terrifically-persuasive speech that he claims to be a funeral oration for Caesar, but is truly a cleverly-shrouded undermining to Brutus’s speech. Antony’s speech is able to not only gain him the crowd’s support, but causes the crowd to completely disregard what Brutus had†¦show more content†¦Even the starting line of his oration is a powerful use of rhetoric. By referring to the plebeians as â€Å"friends† and â€Å"Romans† he creates a sense of emotional conn ection with them and shapes a feeling of citizen-like connection, which is use of pathos. Calling them â€Å"countrymen† creates the feeling that Antony is simply a fellow Roman like the plebeians and he is alike to them. Antony then uses the rhetoric device of conduplicatio in his speech, repeating that Brutus is an honorable man. This is also a use of irony. He says in a sarcastic manner that Brutus is honorable after pointing out contractions to what Brutus had said about Caesar and why he needed to be murdered (Gradesaver). Antony also mentions that Caesar’s declining of the crown three times showed that he was not ambitious. Antony causes himself to appeal to the crowd even more with another device of rhetoric— the understatement. He claims his modesty and contrasts his speaking skills with those of Brutus, when his persuasive skills are actually more powerful than Brutus’s in the lines: I come not, friends, to steal away your hearts. I am no o rator, as Brutus is, But, as you know me all, a plain blunt man That love my friend. And that they know full well That gave me public leave to speak of him. (3.2.210-14) Antony’s statement is ironic because he states that he is not an orator like Brutus, when is actually a better orator and persuades the