Essay Contrasting Speeches Of Brutus And Mark Antony

ESSAY CONTRASTING SPEECHES OF BRUTUS AND MARK ANTONY



Both Brutus and Mark Antony have two entirely different purposes and agendas in each of their speeches to the Roman citizens.   Brutus" aim is to convince the throng of restless Romans that Rome has been saved thanks to the gallant conspirators for slaying the avaricious, power-hungry, Caesar.   However, Antony, a loyal friend of Caesar"s, wants to show Brutus and the conspirators for what they really are: nothing but savage murderers who killed Caesar out of spite and jealousy and not for the good of Rome.   By doing this, Antony hopes the fickle mob will turn into a bunch of irate demagogues that will settle for nothing less than the revenge and deaths of the conspirators.

Brutus" speech is a useless and ineffective from start to finish.   Approaching the citizens as intelligent scholars, when in fact, the mob consists of nothing but illiterate commoners, who cannot figure out for themselves what is right from what is wrong, was Brutus" fatal mistake.   Throughout the duration of the speech, Brutus mentions how he loves Caesar and how no one has more remorse for the death of Caesar than himself.   After paying tribute to the miraculous life of Caesar, Brutus explains that he killed him because he loves Rome more than Caesar, and that Caesar had become ambitious.   Of course the gullible crowd is pleased to hear that Brutus loves Rome.   But they cannot grasp the concept of being assassinated for ambition, as Brutus did not say in what way Caesar was ambitious or why he should be so severely punished.   Brutus left a half-witted moronic mob all the pieces to put together, but they cannot think for themselves, and therefore, cannot comprehend his speech.   The aftermath of Brutus" speech is a discombobulated crowd that all have jumped on the "ambition bandwagon" due to a few appealing words of Brutus" passion for Rome, when in reality, they did not understand the meaning of the speech at all.   Using ambition as his...