How Does Brutus Use Ethos In Julius Caesar

Both Brutus and Antony give competent speeches at the funeral of Julius Caesar in Shakespeare's, Julius Caesar. Brutus tends to appeal to logos and ethos while Antony focuses on appealing to the pathos of the audience. When all is said in done, however, the circumstances combined with Antony's skilled demagoguery made his speech the more compelling for the audience of the two. Brutus’s speech, despite not being quite as successful as Antony’s speech, still has its merits along with its flaws. Brutus’s strength are in his appeals to logos and ethos. For logos, Brutus lays out why he saw it as justified to kill Caesar. He clearly lays out that because Caesar “was ambitious, [he] slew him”(III, ii, 15-16), that there was “joy for his fortune; and death for his …show more content…
Brutus’s reason is obvious and well said, leaving no mystery and also leaving no question as to whether Caesar deserved death. Another strength in Brutus’s speech are his appeals to ethos. He establishes himself as an honorable man who therefore must have something good and just to say. However, these merits fall to the flaws in his speech along with Antony’s superior appeals to pathos. Brutus’s main flaws are that he doesn’t effectively connect on a personal level with his audience but rather pushes them away. He accuses “who is here so base that would be a bondman? …. Who is here so rude that would not be a Roman?”(III, ii, 18-20). These questions work against Brutus simply because no one wants to feel called out like Brutus is doing, thus alienating the crowd. The second part of Brutus’s speeches downfall is Antony’s success. Antony is first successful in decimating Brutus’s appeals to ethos by