Julias Caesar Style Analysis

Karli Friedman

Julius Caesar

Style Analysis 

        William Shakespeare wrote two speeches in the book Julius Caesar, addressing the audience, the Roman townspeople, after Brutus had killed Antony’s friend and Roman leader, Caesar. The genre of the speeches given by both Brutus and Antony is tragedy. In Brutus’ speech, he maintains a serious tone throughout the piece. Brutus makes his purpose clear: to persuade and inform the Roman townspeople that he did not kill Caesar out of spite. In Antony’s speech, he maintains a sad a serious tone. Antony’s purpose of the speech is to persuade the Roman townspeople that Brutus should not have killed Caesar; thus, setting a suspicious and gloomy mood for both speeches.

        In line two of Brutus’ speech, Brutus addresses the audience, the townspeople, and reinforces his purpose of informing them. In the beginning of Brutus’ speech he states rhetorical questions. For example, he states sentences like “who is here so rude that would be not be a Roman?” And “who is here so base that would be a bondman?” He uses rhetorical questions in order for the audience to think he had a logical reason for killing Caesar, also relating back to his purpose. Brutus also uses anaphora by continually stating, “if any speak for him I have offended” following each rhetorical question. This allows Brutus to ensure the townspeople realize he has offended and done nothing wrong by anyone. It can be shown that Brutus has offended no one through Brutus asking a final time if he has offended anyone, and the townspeople state “none, Brutus, none!” This may also help relate to Brutus’ serious tone. The purpose of Brutus’ serious tone is to allow the audience to trust Brutus.

        Antony also begins addressing the audience in line two. He similarly does this to state his audience and enforce his purpose. In addition, similar to Brutus, Antony uses rhetorical questions. He, “Did this in Caesar seem ambitious?” However, in contrast to Brutus, Antony uses rhetorical questions to appeal to ethos. By targeting the audience’s emotions, Antony is able to make the plebeians feel bad for him, ultimately creating a sad tone. In addition, Antony uses hyperbole when stating, “my heart is in the coffin there with Caesar” in order to show the townspeople that Antony was Caesars beloved friend; therefore, helping persuade the audience, and achieving his purpose of convincing the plebeians.

        In Brutus’ speech he uses periodic sentences with informal diction such as, “if then that friend demands why Brutus rose against Caesar, this is my answer: not that I loved Caesar less, but that I loves Rome more.” By stating this, it leaves the audience under the impression he killed Caesar for the good of Rome due to he “loved Rome more.” This also persuades the audience of his purpose, that he did not kill Caesar out of spite, but for Rome. By using the word “I” it allows the audience to be able to relate to his speech as well as showing Brutus’ feelings about killing Caesar, helping establish a serious tone. In addition to this, Brutus uses prose sentence structure rather than poetry to help relate better to the townspeople. Main characters in Shakespeare are often found speaking in poetry; however, Brutus is shown speaking in prose. By doing so, Brutus relates more to plebeians, helping establish his purpose of persuading the townspeople that he did not kill Caesar out of spite, but for Rome. Brutus also uses short sentences in his speech such as, “And public reasons shall be rendered of Caesars death.” By doing so, the audience is able to relate to and understand his speech more. However, this may be interpreted as suspicious due to the lack of information being relayed to the audience because of his short sentences.