Rome in Panic: Mark Antony’s Rhetorical Response Within William Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar, the character Mark Antony uses a plethora of rhetoric devices to persuade the crowd towards his way of thinking. These devices include sarcasm, logical thinking, and crying to emit a sense of emotion appeal. William Shakespeare uses different rhetorical modes inside each section of Mark Antony’s speech, which includes: Logos, Logos with Ethos, and Pathos during section 1, Ethos and Ethos with Pathos during section 2, Pathos during section 3, and Ethos and Logos during section 4 to turn the crowd against those who plotted and carried out Caesar’s assassination by starting a civil war using the rhetorical devices of irony, imagery, and epistrophe, use
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Pathos presents itself within the first piece of the second section of Antony’s speech, by Antony making the crowd feel remorse for switching sides, further driving the point that they loved Caesar when he lived. This exists on line 130 of Act III Scene II, “But yesterday the word of Caesar might Have stood against the world. Not lies he there, And none so poor to do him reverence” (Act 3, Scene 2, lines 130-132). Also, imagery like hearts, rage, and minds comes about to evoke a sense of emotion. The second segment of the second section of the speech talks about reading Caesar’s will and how Antony manipulates the crowd into making him read the it. Ethos acts by Antony having the parchment because this communicates to the crowd how Antony exemplifies a loyal friend to Caesar, for Antony has such an important document. Logos presents itself by Antony not explicitly mentioning what the document contains and saying it would cause anger among the crowd, which evokes a sense of curiosity in the crowd to hear the contents of the will. This falls on line 150, mentioned by one of the citizens, “We’ll hear the will! Read it, Mark Antony” (Act 3, Scene 2 lines 150-151). This exemplifies how the crowd has changed to their old mindset of loving Caesar, and how their inquisitiveness overtake them over this specific
Pathos presents itself within the first piece of the second section of Antony’s speech, by Antony making the crowd feel remorse for switching sides, further driving the point that they loved Caesar when he lived. This exists on line 130 of Act III Scene II, “But yesterday the word of Caesar might Have stood against the world. Not lies he there, And none so poor to do him reverence” (Act 3, Scene 2, lines 130-132). Also, imagery like hearts, rage, and minds comes about to evoke a sense of emotion. The second segment of the second section of the speech talks about reading Caesar’s will and how Antony manipulates the crowd into making him read the it. Ethos acts by Antony having the parchment because this communicates to the crowd how Antony exemplifies a loyal friend to Caesar, for Antony has such an important document. Logos presents itself by Antony not explicitly mentioning what the document contains and saying it would cause anger among the crowd, which evokes a sense of curiosity in the crowd to hear the contents of the will. This falls on line 150, mentioned by one of the citizens, “We’ll hear the will! Read it, Mark Antony” (Act 3, Scene 2 lines 150-151). This exemplifies how the crowd has changed to their old mindset of loving Caesar, and how their inquisitiveness overtake them over this specific