In a classic Shakespeare play, Julius Caesar, Antony and Brutus go toe-to-toe at Caesar’s funeral. Although, to Brutus’s dismay Antony’s speech was better. To begin, Brutus’s speech was formal and more directed to the Romans. In his introduction he starts with “Romans, countrymen, and lovers!” This was used to join everyone together and later help him justify Caesar’s death. Throughout the text he describes Caesar as an “ambitious” man. Calling Caesar ambitious makes it seem that Caesar only thought about himself. On the other hand, Antony’s speech was more personal and sarcastic. In contrary to Brutus he opens his speech with “Friends, Romans, countrymen…”. This sets up his later statements of being Caesar’s friend. Throughout his speech, he uses paralipsis and repetition to poke at Brutus but at the same time save Caesar’s reputation. Specifically, Antony repeatedly used the word “honorable” to describe Brutus. The effect of this was that he was contradicting Brutus’s speech. A paralipsis is a device used to draw attention to something while claiming to pass it over. There are two examples of this one is “I come to bury Caesar, not to praise him.” But throughout the speech he praises Caesar and what he as done. Another example is “I speak not to disprove what Brutus spoke, But here I am to speak what I do know.”, although he talks good about Caesar and what he has done for Rome, in contrary to what Brutus said. While comparing the two speeches I have found that Antony’s speech was more persuasive. He made points to contrast what Brutus said in his speech about Caesar. He says that Brutus was wrong, and he put a new spin on it. For instance, Brutus says “Had you rather Caesar was living and die all slaves…” which was countered by Antony. It was countered by Antony saying that Caesar felt deeply
