Persuasion of the Crowd in Julius Caesar

...

not agree with him. Instead of appealing to the crowd, Brutus distances himself from them with these threats. Brutus tries to persuade the crowd by forcing his own logic upon them, which is never as fruitful as through pre-existing reasons made by the crowd themselves. By failing to recognise this, he gives Antony the perfect opportunity to seize control of the crowd in his speech.

Mark Antony does not attempt to win the crowd over through new arguments and reason, rather through the enhancement of what the crowd already believed in; that Caesar was beneficial to the people of Rome. The crowd’s allegiance to Antony is his greatest asset in determining the outcome of the play as with it he sparks the rebellion, deaths, and eventually the remorseful suicides of Brutus and Cassius. Antony persuades the crowd by highlighting all the great qualities of Caesar that people already believe in and are firm in their minds. Firstly, he says, “He hath brought many captives home to Rome / Whose ransoms did the general coffers fill.” Due to this, the crowd remembers Caesar as a hero. Antony then brings out the will of Caesar, which again highlights the generosity and prosperity that the crowd had associated with Caesar. He then reminds them that they had once held Caesar in high respects, saying ‘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.” By appealing to the crowd’s emotions of pity, Antony urges them to mourn for him and be sorry that he had been murdered. All these emotions and feelings had already been experienced by the crowd. Unlike Brutus, who tries to force his personal arguments upon the crowd, Antony merely accentuates those feelings. Unlike Brutus’ speech, this is exactly what the crowd needed to hear to be persuaded. As evident by the plebeians’ comments of, “Revenge! About! Seek! Burn! Fire! Kill! Slay! Let not a traitor live!”, his speech ignites fury in the plebeians, who after this become so enraged at the conspirators that they kill anyone with relations to the conspirators.

To conclude, the greatest influences on the plot are reliant upon the major characters attempting to take control of the Roman population. Cassius does this by using Brutus to express what he desires. Brutus uses logos rhetoric and forceful arguments. Mark Antony does this by speaking praise of Caesar. The two successful persuasions, by Cassius and Antony, both use reasons and ideas which the crowd have previously accepted and acknowledged. Their success allows them to change the course of the play, while Brutus’ failure results in him being a mere puppet in the conspirators’ schemes.