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Compare and contrast the speeches of Antony and Brutus

The basic difference between the funeral speeches of Brutus and Antony is that Brutus, characteristically, appeals to reason and logic, while Antony, characteristically, appeals to emotions. Brutus is an introverted, solitary philosopher, and his speech to the citizens is totally in character. He explains his reasons for killing Caesar. He is also a trained orator and delivers a sort of model of classic rhetoric. This is particularly obvious in the balanced sentences he uses in his opening remarks. Hear me for my cause, and be silent, that you may hear. Believe me for mine honor, and have respect to mine honor, that you may believe. Censure me in your wisdom, and awake your senses, that you may the better judge. Brutus is a rational man and believes that other men can be persuaded by reason. He is anxious to justify himself. His speech is full of the word "I." He never once mentions Cassius or any of the other conspirators. His major character trait is that he is a thinker. He expects other men to be thinkers too, because we all tend to judge others by ourselves. Antony, on the other hand, is an extrovert and a hedonist. Throughout Shakespeare's Julius Caesar and Antony and Cleopatra, Antony is characterized as a man who loves pleasures of the senses. This, of course, includes lots of wine drinking, and drinking liquor is antithetical to thinking. Whereas Brutus loves to think, it would seem that Antony is an escapist who doesn't like to think at all. His main character trait is that he is guided by his feelings. He expects other men to be guided by their emotions too--and in this he shows a much better understanding of people than Brutus. Antony appeals to the citizens' feelings right from the beginning. He does this easily, because he really does have strong feelings about the death of his friend Julius Caesar. He loved Caesar, he hates the conspirators, he wants revenge--and he also wants to save his own life and to achieve a position of power in the new order which will have to take form after the elimination of Julius Caesar. Here is only one example of the emotionalism in Antony's speech: You all did love him once, not without cause; What cause withholds you then to mourn for him? O judgement, thou art fled to brutish beasts, And men have lost their reason. Bear with me; My heart is in the coffin there with Caesar, And I must pause till it come back to me. Antony is not giving a formal speech. Here he actually breaks down and weeps. Pretty soon he has this whole mob of rough, tough men crying with him. O, now you weep, and I perceive you feel The dint of pity. These are gracious drops. Kind souls, what weep you when you but behold Our Caesar's vesture wounded? Look you here, Here is himself, marr'd, as you see, with traitors. According to Plutarch, on whom Shakespeare relied heavily for the incidents in his play, it was when Antony displayed Caesar's shredded and bloody cloak that the citizens were moved to mutiny. This is just one more example of the way in which Antony wisely appeals to emotions rather than logic. When the mob tears the unfortunate Cinna the poet to pieces just because he has the same name as one of the conspirators, the mob is demonstrating their irrationality. Brutus' speech seems cold, stiff, formal, schooled, and rehearsed. No doubt Brutus planned it ahead of time because he knew what was going to happen. Antony couldn't have rehearsed his own speech because the assassination took him completely by surprise. Antony's speech is extemporaneous and highly charged with emotion. These two men's speeches reveal their characters. Brutus is bookish and doesn't really like or understand other people, especially the common people. Antony is athletic and fun-loving, and he understands other people because he spends much of his time consorting with them. The citizens respect Brutus but they identify with Antony as one of their own. Brutus made a terrible mistake when he agreed to allow Antony to address the Roman citizens at Caesar's funeral. Brutus' oration shows that he has sincerely acted on the behalf of Rome, and speaks plainly and to the point. He states his case as to why Caesar had to die, appealing to the crowd's reason, and convinces them of his honest intentions to do what he thought was best for Rome. In contrast, Mark Antony appeals to the crowd's emotion -- stating how Caesar had had the Roman welfare near and dear to his heart, ("When the poor have cried, Caesar hath wept!" ) and what civic improvements he was to make for the Rome's benefit, as examples. He states that he and Caesar were friends, and dramatically reveals the stabbed, bloody corpse as a final persuasion that he was wrongfully murdered, and incites the crowd to punish Brutus and company for their wrongdoing
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In William Shakespeare’s play, Julius Caesar, there is a major difference between two of the characters, Brutus and Mark Antony. Brutus was very honorable and Antony was very persuasive. When Brutus spoke at Caesar’s funeral, he appealed to the people’s logic and Antony spoke to the emotions of the people. Antony is very smart and uses his brain frequently during the play and Brutus is very naive about many of things. Brutus was very honorable and Antony was very persuasive. Brutus was very honorable in the way that he always told people the truth. Antony was persuasive in the way that he used people to get whatever he wanted. For example, Antony used Lepidus to seek revenge on all of the conspirators to take the blame for their deaths. In the speech at Caesar’s funeral Brutus spoke to the people’s logical mind and Antony spoke to the emotions of the people. Brutus’ speech was very short and to the point and spoke to the logic of the people in the crowd. For example, Brutus spoke in a detached way about Caesar’s death while Antony spoke to the emotions of the crowd by crying and talking about all the good things that Caesar did for Rome. Antony’s intelligence was very apparent throughout the play and Brutus appeared to be naive about many things. Antony is smart in the way that he manipulates people to his own advantage. For example, Antony was manipulative in his emotional approach to persuade people to become outraged at Brutus. Brutus appears to be naive throughout the whole play because he believed everyone was as honorable as he. Brutus did not question what he was told, assuming it was always true. In conclusion, in William Shakespeare’s play, Julius Caesar, there is a major difference between the two characters, Brutus and Mark Antony. The strongest contrast between the two characters appears to be their ability and inability to be both honorable and persuasive.
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 Brutus appeals to the audience's rationality, whereas Antony appeals to their emotions. Brutus' rhetorical devices are sound but easy. He uses parallel structure to stress his point  -"as he was valiant, I honor him; as he was ambitious, I slew him." He models himself as Ceaser's best friend, believing that will help them see that the honor of the murder is divorced from emotional feelings. Antony, on the other hand, lays the irony on thick. He stipulates Brutus's honor, but then repeats the phrase "Brutus is an honorable man" rhythmically to stress that the opposite is in fact true. Lastly, Antony takes a dramatic pause to supposedly collect himself, though all he does is enflame the crowd. Lastly, Antony uses a document to prove that Brutus's claims were incomplete. In short, he riles them up where Brutus believes they will 'listen to reason.'

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In William Shakespeare’s play, Julius Caesar, there is a major difference between two of the characters, Brutus and Mark Antony. Brutus was very honorable and Antony was very persuasive. When Brutus spoke at Caesar’s funeral, he appealed to the people’s logic and Antony spoke to the emotions of the people. Antony is very smart and uses his brain frequently during the play and Brutus is very naive about many of things. Brutus was very honorable and Antony was very persuasive. Brutus was very honorable in the way that he always told people the truth. Antony was persuasive in the way that he used people to get whatever he wanted. For example, Antony used Lepidus to seek revenge on all of the conspirators to take the blame for their deaths. In the speech at Caesar’s funeral Brutus spoke to the people’s logical mind and Antony spoke to the emotions of the people. Brutus’ speech was very short and to the point and spoke to the logic of the people in the crowd. For example, Brutus spoke in a detached way about Caesar’s death while Antony spoke to the emotions of the crowd by crying and talking about all the good things that Caesar did for Rome. Antony’s intelligence was very apparent throughout the play and Brutus appeared to be naive about many things. Antony is smart in the way that he manipulates people to his own advantage. For example, Antony was manipulative in his emotional approach to persuade people to become outraged at Brutus. Brutus appears to be naive throughout the whole play because he believed everyone was as honorable as he. Brutus did not question what he was told, assuming it was always true. In conclusion, in William Shakespeare’s play, Julius Caesar, there is a major difference between the two characters, Brutus and Mark Antony. The strongest contrast between the two characters appears to be their ability and inability to be both honorable and persuasive.
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Thnx
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