THE SPEECHES
This murder has a huge impact on the citizens of Rome, who seem very demanding for answers. “Plebeians: We will be satisfied! Let us be satisfied!” (III.ii.1). To woo the crowd of confused Roman’s into seeing their perspective on the murder of Caesar, Brutus and Antony use differing but effective speech tactics.
Antony's SpeechFor Antony, outright honesty is not an option. The end goal for his speech was to create an angry mob out for Brutus’s blood, but Brutus’s speech ended with citizens suggesting he become the new leader of Rome and to have statues commissioned in his honor. Due to these circumstances, it would have taken some time to sway the audience back to his side, probably the reason why his speech is so much longer than Brutus's. However, very shortly after Antony begins his speech, the difficult task of flipping the opinion of an enormous audience proves to be a small hurdle because of a brilliant strategy.
On the surface, Antony seems like he is just giving a eulogy as a simple remembrance of his deceased friend. But indirectly, Antony builds a defense for Caesar’s character while destroying the characters of the conspirator’s without ever directly insulting or deriding those conspirators. He does this through the repetition of a pattern, and in this he manipulates the audience. The first part of this pattern is Anthony’s incessant recalling of Caesar’s benevolence. By reminding the audience of all that Caesar has given them and sacrificed, he is building up Caesar’s reputation. By the end of the speech, Antony pulls out his wild card when he reveals Caesar’s will and the included inheritance to the people of Rome. The other part of this pattern is Antony’s only defense of the conspirators. The defense is opinion based, and it is only one thing: that they are ‘honorable men.’ He uses this as the excuse for all their actions. In fact, from lines 82 to 214, he states the conspirator’s 'honorability' at least ten times! Because he praises both the conspirators and Caesar, this makes Antony’s position seem unbiased. However, after the audience has compared Caesar’s long list of good deeds to the conspirator’s ‘honorability,’ an inevitable flip in opinion occurs. Anthony's speech as portrayed by Charlton Heston in the 1970 film Julius Caesar (6) |
Brutus's SpeechFrom what we know of previous scenes, Brutus’s intentions in killing Caesar were of a noble nature. “It must be by his death; and for my part, I know no personal cause to spurn at him, But for the general [good]” (II.i.10-12). Due to this, Brutus’s most useful weapon is his honesty. “Not that I love’d Caesar less, but that I love’d Rome more” (III.ii.21-22 in Brutus’s speech to the crowd of citizens). From this, the crowd’s reaction to Brutus’s speech is remarkably positive, with some citizens even suggesting that Brutus take Caesar’s place.
Why is it the crowd has such a powerful reaction? Maybe the citizens liked it that Brutus’s intentions lie in the welfare of Rome’s citizens. But on a deeper level, honesty almost always requires some sort of vulnerability, and while vulnerability can be a golden ticket betrayal (Which Antony will shorty take advantage of), it can also led to an increased sense of trust. After all, this speech was successful enough for citizens to yell “Give him a statue with his ancestors,” “Let him be Caesar,” (III.ii.50-51) so something more profound than simple coercion would have to be going on in Brutus’s speech. Also, the people would have trusted Brutus knowing that he was Caesar's right hand man. In the eyes of Rome's citizens, if he had reasons to do the things he did, then those reasons must be good. Also, he lets Antony speak after he does and even leaves the scene when Antony is speaking. That requires a lot of trust, and surely that left even more of an impression on the citizens. However, that sort of vulnerability is one of the things that allows Antony to turn the crowd against him. Being vulnerable is a good strategy but sometime it can be too much of a gamble. Brutus's speech as portrayed by James Mason from the 1953 film Julius Caesar (7) |
Through subtle patterns of repetition, where information is shown and repeated over and over that allows an audience to make judgments for them without have an ideal shoved down their throats, which made both Antony and Brutus’s speeches so successful. For Antony, that repetition was Caesar's good deeds and the Conspirator's supposed honor. For Brutus, it was simple a matter of vulnerability and reminding the people that he murdered Caesar for them. However, Antony's argument was better, longer, subtler, and and for that...