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Mark Antonys Speech

In: English and Literature

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Summary of Mark Antony’s Speech

In William Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar, there is a character named Mark Antony, he gives a speech at Julius Caesar’s funeral. People consider this speech to be one of the most finest and most remembered lines written by Shakespeare. This speeches main function was used to invalidate Brutus’s convincing statement of how Caesar actually died, Antony also wanted to shift the mood of the crowd. Mark Antony knew that Brutus had made the crowd believe that the death of Caesar was going to be most beneficial towards Rome. Brutus had just finished giving his speech on what had happened to Caesar and it was Mark Antony’s turn to address the crowd and he knew that he would have to hold a neutral ground at first to gain some support of the “plebeians” in line 75, Antony says, “ I have come to bury Caesar, not to praise him”. Antony then begins to talk about how Caesar is remembered by his bad deeds, but then he goes forth and addresses them on how Caesar also did good things he had done. “The evil that men do lives after them, the good is oft interred with their bones…” in this quote Mark Antony uses a literary device called personification and in this quote Antony personifies the attributes of good and evil.

Antony also uses another device called reiteration to suit a common person’s emotion. Antony keeps on repeating “Brutus is an honorable man”. However Antony uses a sarcastic tone whenever he mentions these words. Antony returns again and again to this increasingly sarcastic tone. By the end of the speech the crowd recognizes honorable as a bad word. This is a persuasive technique called emotional appeal. Antony makes them believe that the murder of Caesar was not honorable at all and it came about with a great hatred, he proved this by showing them all of the stab marks on Caesar’s body.
Antony’s main goal during this speech was

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