Julius Caesar
Marc Anthony’s Speech at Caesar’s Funeral
Background
 Cassius persuaded Brutus to join with him and
conspirators to assassinate Caesar
 Marc Anthony is suspicious
 After assassination, Brutus speaks to the crowd and
persuades them Caesar was a tyrant and it was for
the good of the people that they killed him
 Marc Anthony must persuade the people against
what Brutus has just said
 Cannot directly accuse him of murdering Caesar
since he has a high position
Marc Antony’s Funeral Speech
Friends, Romans, countrymen, lend me your ears;
I come to bury Caesar, not to praise him;
The evil that men do lives after them,
The good is oft interred with their bones,
So let it be with Caesar ...
 Immediately indicates he is not there to praise Caesar but to
bury him.
 Indicates the goodness Caesar displayed will go with him to
the grave.
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Shift away from “evil ambition” Brutus indicated
Focus on emotion
Begins with “Friends”
Personifies evil and good
Marc Antony’s Funeral Speech
For Brutus is an honourable man;
So are they all, all honourable men-Come I to speak in Caesar's funeral.
He was my friend, faithful and just to me:
But Brutus says he was ambitious;
And Brutus is an honourable man.
He hath brought many captives home to Rome
Whose ransoms did the general coffers fill:
Did this in Caesar seem ambitious?
Marc Antony’s Funeral Speech
Sarcasm and Repetition
 All the people whom murdered Caesar are “honorable”
 We will “trust and listen” to Brutus because he’s
“honorable” even though he murdered Caesar
Rhetorical Question
 Address the “ambition” Brutus said was his reasoning
for killing Caesar
 Turns “evil ambition” to Caesar being a faithful friend
 He discredits Brutus without directly stating it
Marc Anthony’s Funeral Speech
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.
You all did see that on the Lupercal
I thrice presented him a kingly crown,
Which he did thrice refuse: was this ambition?
Sarcasm and Rhetorical Question
• Reminds crowd of Caesar’s love of his people
• Reminds crows Caesar refused the crown 3 times, how
ambition?
– Swaying crowd to question what Brutus said about
Caesar.
– To prove to themselves he was NOT ambitious.
Marc Antony’s Funeral Speech
• Irony
– He counters all of Brutus’ claims and questions
his honor.
– Uses repetitive aspect to persuade and make his
point.
• Doesn’t directly disparage the murderers
• Continually uses honourable
– Focuses on good aspects of Caesar
Marc Antony’s Funeral Speech
Yet Brutus says he was ambitious;
And, sure, he is an honourable man.
I speak not to disprove what Brutus spoke,
But here I am to speak what I do know.
You all did love him once, not without cause:
What cause withholds you then, to mourn for him?
O judgment! thou art fled to brutish beasts,
And men have lost their reason. Bear with me;
My heart is in the coffin there with Caesar,
And I must pause till it come back to me.
Marc Antony’s Funeral Speech
• Apostrophe & Alliteration
– “Oh, judgment! Thou are fled to brutish beasts.”
• Antithesis
– “I speak not to disprove what Brutus spoke, But here I
am to speak what I do know.”
• Rhetorical Question
– “What cause withholds you then, to mourn for him?”
• Hyperbole
– “My heart in the coffin there with Caesar.”
• Emotional appeal
• Exaggeration to heighten statement
Marc Antony’s Funeral Speech
Repetition
 Continually states “Brutus was an honorable man.”
 Line that precedes it contradicts statement.
 Repeats words ambitious and honorable inciting crowd to
realize what has actually happened.
Pathos: Emotional Appeal
 You did love Caesar once, how can you not mourn for him?
 Must be a beast with no reason.
Marc Antony’s Funeral Speech
But yesterday the word of Caesar might
Have stood against the world; now lies he there.
And none so poor to do him reverence.
O masters, if I were disposed to stir
Your hearts and minds to mutiny and rage,
I should do Brutus wrong, and Cassius wrong,
Who, you all know, are honourable men:
I will not do them wrong; I rather choose
To wrong the dead, to wrong myself and you,
Than I will wrong such honourable men.
Marc Antony’s Funeral Speech
 Pathos: Emotional Appeal
 Questions crowd’s loyalty and quickness of their change
of heart.
Plays on their emotions.
 Diction
 Mentions “mutiny” and “rage” indirectly stirring emotions
in crowd.
 Sarcasm and Repetition
 I would never wrong Brutus and Cassius; they are
“honorable” men.
Marc Antony's Funeral Speech
• “Good friends, sweet friends, let me not stir
you up/ To such a sudden flood of mutiny”
(222-223).
• Says not to consider mutiny- puts the thought
in their minds.
– Diction “good, sweet friends”
Marc Antony’s Funeral Speech
• “To every Roman citizen he gives,
To every several man, seventy-five drachmas…
Moreover, he hath left you all his walks,
His private arbours and new-planted orchards,
On this side Tiber; he hath left them you,
And to your heirs for ever, common pleasures,
To walk abroad, and recreate yourselves”
(III.ii.255-265).
• Mentions that Caesar left the people of Rome
many things
Act III Scene iii
• People of Rome mistake Cinna (artist) for
the conspirator Cinna
• Indicates a mob mentality
• Declining society of Rome
• Still attack after they realize who it is- they
still want to kill him: merciless, terror
• Anarchistic and brutal state
• Caesar’s spirit and ambition live on- his
monarchy will live on even after his death