Brutus vs. Antony: Funeral Speech Face-off
Just as politicians do today, Brutus and Antony were trying to gain the trust of the plebeians to their benefit. People’s personalities come out in their methods of persuading others, in this case it is evident between Antony and Brutus. The two orators had different approaches to persuading the Romans. While Brutus’ speech would appeal to logical thinkers, Antony was able to better persuade the majority of the Romans by manipulating their emotional side.
Brutus took the stage first. Staying true to himself, he was honest and patriotic. He relied heavily on reason and logic to get his point across to the plebeians who were in a state of uncertainty. As stated by enotes.com, “Brutus is a rational man and believes that other men can be persuaded by reason. He expects other men to be thinkers too, because we all tend to judge others by ourselves.” This clearly shows Brutus’ reasoning, and also where he made a mistake. The plebeians were in a state of…show more content… As Rebecca Agee from Metonymy puts it, “The manner in which Mark Antony ‘works the crowd’ so to speak, is like that of a skillful, seasoned politician…”. She is certainly correct, he manages to rile them to mutiny against the conspirators. By using strong pathos in his funeral speech Antony was able to manipulate the plebeians’ unstable emotions to make them angry and seek revenge for Caesar’s death. Shmoop.com also states, “ The success of Antony's speech suggests that effective leadership goes hand in hand with rhetoric.” Antony’s approach was much more effective than Brutus’. Instead of trying to appease the plebeians’ emotions he manipulated them to his will. Between showing the Romans Caesar’s torn, bloody cloak and pausing to weep for his friend, Antony lured the audience to his side. Then, after teasing them with Caesar’s will and cunningly implying that the conspirators were traitors, he had inflamed the Romans to mutiny and