Cire Tan

Pathos, Logos, and Ethos are used to create and respond to arguments. Pathos is an

appeal to emotion and feelings, Logos is a call to logic, and Ethos represents ethics and moral

principles. In Julius Caesar, by William Shakespeare, Antony and Brutus both try to persuade the

mob to agree with the opinions in their speeches using the rhetorical devices of Pathos, Ethos,

and Logos and other persuasive techniques. Though Brutus shows a better understanding of the

crowds judgement, Antony represents a better way of manipulating the mob with their emotions.

Antonys speech had showed a great understanding of the peoples emotions. He had

ways to get through to the mob and astonish them. Manipulation was a key factor to help Antony

win the crowd against Brutus. In Antonys speech he had explained to the crowd, For Brutus is

an honorable man; so are they all, all honorable men(III. ii. 91-92). As well as talking about

Caesar saying, When that the poor have cried, Caesar hath wept (III. ii. 99-100)). And lastly,

This was the unkindest cut of them all(III. ii. 195-196). All these quotes represented the love

that Antony had shown for Caesar and he would not let Caesars death be in vain. A rhetorical

technique that he had used countless times was repetition. He constantly said that Brutus was an

honorable man, the repetition allowed him to seem less powerful comparing to Brutus and in

actuality Antony is explaining that Brutus is not honorable for what he had done to Caesar.

Another way Antony had manipulated the crowd: was parallelism and persuasive appeal of ethos.

Antony had told the crowd that Caesar had felt the pain of the people when they had cried and

that he would feel the same pain. The last device Antony used was loaded language and pathos.

Antony explains that when Brutus had given the final blow to Caesar it was the worst cut

because Antony knows that Brutus was once a good dear friend to Caesar making the wound
especially deep. Antonys speech was very successful to lure the people. Antonys words had

caused a riot between the mob and ultimately resulting chaos against the senators.

Brutus speech on the other hand had referred to the peoples judgement. Brutus had

explained to the crowd the bad things that would have resulted in Caesar being the king of Rome.

He believed that killing Caesar was the only salvation for Rome. In Brutus speech to the mob he

explained to them that, Not that I loved Caesar less, but that I loved Rome more(III. ii. 20-22).

He had also given a rhetorical question to the mob saying, Had you rather Caesar were living,

and die all slaves, than that Caesar were dead, to live all freeman(II. ii. 32-36). Also, using

repetition in his speech by saying that Caesar, Was ambitious(27-28). In Brutus mind he

always had first and everyting else second. He had used a rhetorical question as well as logos to

explain to the mob that he did not kill Caesar for his own personal interest but for Rome to

continue to be free. Another rhetorical technique Brutus had used was repetition. Brutus

describes Caesar as ambitious and that ambition had caused his downfall even though, he did not

have anything to prove that Caesar was ambitious. Brutus thought that if he could make the

crowd believe that Caesar was really a corrupt person, it would make him killing Caesar a noble

act. Although Brutus had the mob believe in him, it had only lasted for a short period of time.

Both speeches between Brutus and Antony shared comparisons and contrasts. Brutus and

Antonys goal was to persuade the mob to believe in what they are saying about Caesars death.

Brutus told the mob that Caesars death was the good for Rome and he made it seem less of a

bad thing. With Antony he used the emotions of his love and friendship that he had with Caesar

as well as the acts that Caesar had done for the people. Both of the speeches contained the

persuasive techniques of rhetorical questions, parallelism, and repetition, also the persuasive

appeals of pathos, logos, and ethos had come into play. Though both speeches presented great
ways of explaining the persuasive appeals and techniques it was Antony who ended up gettting

the attention of the mob.

In conclusion, pathos, ethos, and logos are persuasive techniques that can be used many

different ways to develop a good argument and can even result to winning a argument. Antony

and Brutus both had ways of convincing the crowd to believe them. Though both of them

provided concrete explanations only one could persuade the people. Brutus believed that

knowledge would be the key to his argument and Antony believed that the emotions would help

him but, in the end Brutus intelligence could not overcome Antonys love for Caesar, and this

resulted in disorder throughout Rome.