Antony's and Brutus' Speeches in Julius Caesar Kenneth Brown 10th Grade

Antony’s speech at Caesar’s funeral in Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar was more effective than Brutus’ because Antony used a multifaceted emotional argument, instead of relying on one assertion, as Brutus had. Because of this, Antony was able to sway the crowd to his side, against Brutus and the Conspirators. “[Antony] does not… show the insufficiency of any one approach… Rather, his different rhetorical devices play into and strengthen one another” (Wills 46).

The main flaw in Brutus’ speech at Caesars funeral was that his argument had only one source of proof, his reputation. “Brutus’ speech at Caesars funeral hammered home one argument- that his own honor had to be relied on” (Wills 79). During his speech, Brutus gave no tangible proof that Caesar was ambitious: no examples, witnesses, or letters proving that what he was saying was fact. The main weakness to this kind of argument is that if that one source of proof, in this case Brutus’ honor, is disproved, the entire argument falls away.

Another flaw in Brutus’ oration was his failure to ‘read’ the crowd correctly, and because of this, he presented the wrong type of argument, a...