Concetti Chiave
- Antony uses the term "friends" to connect with the crowd, contrasting Brutus's more formal "Romans," creating a sense of unity and shared mourning.
- He subtly undermines Brutus's claim of Caesar's ambition by highlighting Caesar's military successes and acts of humility, like refusing the crown.
- Antony's speech stirs emotions by presenting Caesar's wounds as symbols of betrayal, encouraging the crowd to see the conspirators' actions as personal grievances.
- By pausing due to "pain," Antony gains sympathy from the crowd, making his emotional appeal more impactful and persuasive.
- Antony reveals Caesar's will, which benefits the public, and uses satire to portray himself as less skilled than Brutus, manipulating the crowd to turn against the conspirators.
Antony's strategic approach
During Brutus's speech Antony comes down to the market place holding Caesar's dead body in his arms, and when Brutus has finished his speech, he starts his funeral oration, which turns out to be a truly political speech. Unlike Brutus, who starts his speech with “romans”, Antony refers to the crowd with the word “friends” in order to show them that they are the same, they are mourning Caesar in the same way. Antony indirectly exposes the fact that Caesar wasn't ambitious. He proved this wrong when he reminded the crowd that all of his military triumphs made Rome richer, that he cried with the poor and he refused the king's crown three times. Then he also expose the truth about the motive by saying that the conspirators killed Caesar for their private griefs. Although, Antony never criticizes Brutus and the conspirators, indeed, he always calls them honourable men. His aim is to stir the mob against them.
Emotional appeal and persuasion
He appeals to the crowd's emotions and talks about Caesar as a man, which makes his speech much more effective than Brutus's one. To be more specific he appealed on the mob's emotions when he showed Caesar's murder body and calls every wound by a name of a conspirator, claiming that the deeper one is Brutus's, and when the general saw him stabbing him, his heart failed because of his sorrow. Those wounds are said by Antony to be dumb mouths, and the romans must give them a tongue. In order to do this he stopped speaking for a while, saying that his pain is so strong that he can't speak, bu the real reason is that he wants to make them know he's suffering and be sympathetic, he wants to be felt as close as possible.
Antony's cunning oration
Moreover he tells them that Caesar has left them in his will every orchard and public places, so that they could amuse themselves. After that his speech becomes satirical, because he calls Brutus a true orator, not like himself, but in reality he's the true orator, who appeals to the crowd's emotions with concrete examples: Brutus is not as cunning, as shrewd. At the end of the speech the mob has completely changed their minds, now they want to kill Brutus and the other conspirators.
Domande da interrogazione
- How does Antony's choice of words differ from Brutus's in his speech to the crowd?
Antony strategically addresses the crowd as "friends" rather than "Romans," as Brutus does, to create a sense of camaraderie and shared mourning for Caesar, thereby aligning himself with the people.
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