Friends, Romans, Countrymen, Lend me your ears
Authors constantly use literary devices in their novels/plays to convey a message or clarify the text. In his historical play ‘Julius Caesar,’ William Shakespeare’s use of literary devices has a significant effect on the developing plot. Moreover, the literary devices add deeper meaning to the text and add life to the overall writing. Mark Antony, one of the main characters’ in ‘Julius Caesar,’ was Caesar’s right hand man and his greatest companion. After the unfortunate event which brought an end to Caesars’ life, Mark Antony gives a sermon at Caesar’s speech to negligibly reveal his intentions of avenging Caesar’s death. Throughout Mark Antony’s speech literary devices such as: repetition, irony and rhetorical questions were constantly used to subtly convey Antony’s resentment toward the conspirators and to persuade the people to gradually turn away from their support of the conspirators.
The use of repetition allows Antony to contradict the statements that Brutus had …show more content…
Antony expresses how the people previously admired Caesar for the great things he had done and asks them “what cause withholds you then to mourn for him?” (III.ii.100.) This makes the audience question the validity of Brutus’s speech and makes the crowd question themselves and their own thoughts. This rhetorical question also influences and persuades the audience into having some doubt about Brutus. Another effect that the rhetorical questions used in this passage have is that it emphasizes Antony’s point in believing that the conspirators need to be punished by being slayed themselves for the great injustice they did on Caesar- An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth. Antony’s use of rhetorical questions, appeals to the crowd’s sense of pathos as Antony plays with the audience’s emotions and evokes anger within the
Authors constantly use literary devices in their novels/plays to convey a message or clarify the text. In his historical play ‘Julius Caesar,’ William Shakespeare’s use of literary devices has a significant effect on the developing plot. Moreover, the literary devices add deeper meaning to the text and add life to the overall writing. Mark Antony, one of the main characters’ in ‘Julius Caesar,’ was Caesar’s right hand man and his greatest companion. After the unfortunate event which brought an end to Caesars’ life, Mark Antony gives a sermon at Caesar’s speech to negligibly reveal his intentions of avenging Caesar’s death. Throughout Mark Antony’s speech literary devices such as: repetition, irony and rhetorical questions were constantly used to subtly convey Antony’s resentment toward the conspirators and to persuade the people to gradually turn away from their support of the conspirators.
The use of repetition allows Antony to contradict the statements that Brutus had …show more content…
Antony expresses how the people previously admired Caesar for the great things he had done and asks them “what cause withholds you then to mourn for him?” (III.ii.100.) This makes the audience question the validity of Brutus’s speech and makes the crowd question themselves and their own thoughts. This rhetorical question also influences and persuades the audience into having some doubt about Brutus. Another effect that the rhetorical questions used in this passage have is that it emphasizes Antony’s point in believing that the conspirators need to be punished by being slayed themselves for the great injustice they did on Caesar- An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth. Antony’s use of rhetorical questions, appeals to the crowd’s sense of pathos as Antony plays with the audience’s emotions and evokes anger within the