Brutus, a very dear friend to Caesar and a well-known senator to Rome, commence a new era for Rome by assassinating the Tyrant Caesar. Mark Antony, a faithful friend and the right hand of Caesar, believes Caesar should have been king and wants justice for Caesar’s unlawful death. Ironical enough, these two drastically different characters share some similarities from their funeral speeches which are intriguing as they also differ.
In both speeches, the introduction is welcoming and has a joyful tone. They use similar words at the beginning such as” Romans” and “Countrymen” to help grab the attention of the audience. The rhetorical device used after being ethos. In Brutus’s case, he says, “Believe me for mine honor, and have respect to mine honor, that you may believe”, to make the people find Brutus trustworthy and accept his words. While Antony uses” the noble Brutus hath told you Caesar was ambitious” as a way for people to agree with him and to expand Brutus’s credibility. However, it was after the introduction where the two begin to contrast
Brutus relies heavily on his reliability and logical reason for his actions. His main argument is based on a hypothetical situation where Caesar can use his power to control all of Rome and support this will logical reason and the fact that he is Roman-like everyone else. Mark Antony, on the other-hand, emphasizes a lot of emotions such as grief, rage, and revenge; to help boost his emotions, he uses ethos only to acknowledge Brutus and his honor that was stated before. Brutus and Antony both used rhetoric as a tool in persuading the audience, opening both of their speeches with reassurance and a description of their identities; however diverge into contrasting topics.
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