Julius Caesar

In act III, scene ii William Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar, Brutus and Antony both deliver speeches to the roman public at Caesar funeral. Both of their purpose in speaking to the roman citizens to defend their belief regarding Caesar’s assassination and convince the audience. In the following essay, I will illustrate Antony’s speech was more rhetorically powerful than Brutus. I will analyze the strength, credibility and effectiveness of each speech based on the insight of Aristotle. Antony’s speech was more powerful than Brutus can be evaluated by finding the strength of each speech. According to Aristotle, strong speeches have a balance of both appeals of argument (logical and emotional). If both logical and emotional appeals are not incorporated, the speech wouldn’t be strong. Logical appeals use supporting reasons convince an audience of a certain point and emotional appeals target the emotion of the audience by appealing to imagery, pity and nostalgia to create some kind of connection with the speaker. Brutus speech exemplifies the use of logical appeals to justify his position regarding Caesar death. He provides reasons to convince the audience that Caesar needed to die. For examples, he offers the roman citizens a reason for why Caesar had to die, when he claims that if Caesar was alive the people of rome would be turned into slaves. As he states, “had you rather were living and die all slaves, than that Caesar were dead, to live all free man?”. The way in which Brutus employs this appeal of argument is incorrect. This is because he offers no supporting evidence and even ignores evidence. On the other hand, Antony’s speech contains the use of logical appeals to justify his position regarding Caesars death. He provides reason to convince the audience that Caesar should not have been killed. For example, he clearly provides the roman citizens with a reason for why Caesar did not deserve to die, namely that he was not ambitious. He does this by provoking the