Marc Antony

Mark Anthony persuaded the crowd to follow him by various techniques by Shakespeare. This scene takes place in Act 3 with the event of Caesar’s funeral, after Brutus’s speech and Marc Anthony needed to manipulate/persuade the crowd to follow him and not be against Caesar like Brutus wanted. The techniques that were used in the speech included irony, repetition, rhetorical questions, ambiguous words, structure and references to death.

The character Marc Antony does not have a dominative role in Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar until the third act of the play. However, that is no reason to think that his presence in the play is not important. As the play progresses further and further, more of Antony’s character is revealed. This is emphasized when Marc Antony tactfully gets permission from Brutus to deliver a speech about Caesar after the assassination after Brutus makes his. The speech is both a turning point in his characterization and the plot in the play. After finally unveiling his true nature, Marc Antony is a much better public speaker and rhetorician than that of Brutus.

Irony, or emotional appeal is a device used, although it is not used a lot, it sets up the mood of the speech. “I come to bury Caesar, not to praise him”. This is ironic because Antony ends up praising Caesar because he says “He was my friend, faithful and just to me”. The previous line also has an effect on the emotions of the crowd as it makes them feel sorry for Antony, and Caesar. Another example of irony in this speech would be when Antony calls Brutus “Caesar’s Angel”. He continues by saying “O you gods, how dearly Caesar loved him!” This also makes the reader feel sorry for Caesar, revealing him as a trusting, and innocent man, but it also shows that Antony wants the people of Rome to believe that Brutus betrayed Caesar.
The most obvious rhetorical device used in this speech would be repetition. Antony states a good thing that Caesar has done and then backs it up with “…But Brutus...