Mark Antony's Relationship With Julius Caesar
Mark Antony was more clever than Caesar’s murderers had realized. And because they undermined him, he was given the chance to speak in front of the Romans at Caesar’s funeral. He then specifically chose his words to emotionally move his audience in the direction he needed them in. Yet, he did so without directly attacking Brutus or any of his followers directly and simultaneously was able to rile them up, emotions running high and actions running violently.
At the start of his speech, Antony used the term “friends” when speaking to the crowd of Romans. That placed Antony with the people, rather than ranking above them. He continued to pull them in by talking of Caesar as a friend and expressing deep sad emotion about his friend who was “faithful and just” to him. This allowed Caesar to relate to the commoners and not make them feel as if he is in it just for the authority. He could connect with them on an emotional level. Moreover, Antony’s speech is particularly significant with his use of reverse psychology, which he applied to a repeated phrase: “honourable man,”. In this, he effectively proves that Caesar wasn’t ambitious, but the conspirators were. This was such a turning point for the play since he was able to rouse the crowd with such high emotions. Furthermore, Antony would say things such as “when that the poor have cried, Caesar hath wept:/Ambition should be made of sterner stuff: /Yet Brutus says he was ambitious; /And Brutus is an honourable man,” to appeal to the crowd, contradicting everything they had just heard from Brutus. Antony knew that the people easily flocked to whoever leader came into power, so to gain his own authority he would have to appeal to them through emotion.
Taking into account everything that has been said, Antony was brilliant in his use of repitition. With every refrence to Brutus’s claim of Caesar holding too much ambition, Antony risked the chance of loosing force and credibility. But contrast to that, every time Antony stated how “honourable” a man Brutus is, the phrase increasingly gathered a sarcastic undertone until the end of the speech when it holds a much deeper meaning that the crowd had caught on to. Thus, the crowd is won over by the powerful speech and the people would then turn agaisnt the conspiroers. Along with the announcment of Antony’s charitable will, the masses would rouse up and form a violent army, ready to avenge their lost Caesar.
