The story I will be answering these questions from is, Julius Caesar, written by the famous author, William Shakespeare. The two main speeches I will be examining in order to respond to these questions was the first speech the two men had to prove to their part of the story. Brutus, supporting his act in the murder of Caesar and Mark Antony, who was against the fact that it was good for Caesar to die and gradually blaming Brutus for what wrong he had committed.
Both men were good friends of Caesar however one betrayed him consequently leading Caesar to his horrible death. At the beginning of both speeches I realised Brutus was using prose and that Mark Antony was using verse. This emphasized that both men were going for a completely different way of winning the crowd over. Brutus using prose looked the more professional. Mark Antony on the other hand used the more emotional way to persuade the crowd, verse. This meant that he was trying to make the crowd feel sorry for Caesar and for them to think of the horrid murder.
Brutus begins before Mark Antony and starts off with the phrase, ‘Romans countrymen and lovers!’ This showed that he was putting the Romans first and therefore is already getting an edge over the crowd. Brutus is very persuasive and rational to how he should approach the crowd. For example, when Brutus said, Censure me in your wisdom, and awake your senses, that you may be the better judge.’ During the intercourse of his speech Brutus’ main weapon is to use rhetorical questions which engaged the audience. The usage of rhetorical questioning also made the crowd feel vulnerable and isolated. Brutus’ speech is very formal, controlled and it seems that all of the sentences are perfectly balanced. Although he did a very good job at explaining to the confused crowd that murdering Caesar was for the good of Rome, he still hadn't won them over yet. Brutus explained again that he loved Caesar, but that his death was for the good of Rome. " As...