Concetti Chiave
- Antony addresses the crowd as "friends" to align himself with them, contrasting Brutus's approach of addressing them as "Romans".
- Through his speech, Antony subtly disproves the claim of Caesar's ambition by highlighting Caesar's achievements and refusals of power.
- Antony refrains from directly criticizing Brutus and the conspirators, instead calling them "honourable men" to incite the crowd's anger.
- He effectively appeals to the crowd's emotions by displaying Caesar's wounds and attributing them to the conspirators, especially emphasizing Brutus's betrayal.
- Antony's speech reveals Caesar's will, offering public benefits, and becomes satirical, showcasing his superior rhetorical skills over Brutus.
Antony's Oration
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.
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. 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
- Qual è la strategia principale di Antonio nel suo discorso funebre?
- Come Antonio riesce a coinvolgere emotivamente la folla?
- Qual è l'effetto finale del discorso di Antonio sulla folla?
Antonio si rivolge alla folla chiamandoli "amici" per mostrare empatia e sottolinea che Cesare non era ambizioso, ricordando i suoi trionfi militari e il rifiuto della corona. Non critica direttamente Bruto e i cospiratori, ma li chiama "uomini onorevoli" per suscitare emozioni contro di loro.
Antonio coinvolge la folla mostrando il corpo di Cesare e attribuendo ogni ferita a un cospiratore, enfatizzando il tradimento di Bruto. Fa una pausa nel discorso per mostrare il suo dolore, cercando di ottenere simpatia e vicinanza dalla folla.
Alla fine del discorso di Antonio, la folla cambia completamente opinione e desidera vendicarsi di Bruto e degli altri cospiratori, dimostrando l'efficacia della sua oratoria nel manipolare le emozioni del pubblico.
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