Antony is diabolically clever in his speech to the crowd after Caesar's murder. After essentially promising that he will not oppose Brutus and the conspirators, he asks that he be allowed to speak. Brutus naively trusts him and gives his consent, thinking that by speaking first, he can avert any damage that might come from having Antony speak. He also gets Antony to swear that he will not say anything negative about the conspirators and instead will only eulogize Caesar. He cleverly adheres to this promise in his speech, appealing to the sentimentality of the people by emphasizing Caesar's virtues.
Throughout, however, he reminds the crowd sardonically that Brutus is an "honorable" man. He does not directly call for the people to avenge Caesar's death, but he stokes their fury by reading Caesar's will after repeatedly saying (with sarcasm and mock decorum) that he does not want to move them to violence. Having worked the crowd to a fever pitch, he then describes the murder as an act of traitors but still repeats that Brutus is honorable. So Antony is very clever in securing permission to speak and by stirring up the crowd to avenge Caesar's death through innuendo and suggestion.
Friday, July 25, 2014
Example of Antony being clever.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Summarize the major research findings of "Toward an experimental ecology of human development."
Based on findings of prior research, the author, Bronfenbrenner proposes that methods for natural observation research have been applied in ...
-
The Awakening is told from a third-person omniscient point of view. It is tempting to say that it is limited omniscient because the narrator...
-
One way to support this thesis is to explain how these great men changed the world. Indeed, Alexander the Great (356–323 BC) was the quintes...
-
Roger is referred to as the "dark boy." He is a natural sadist who becomes the "official" torturer and executioner of Ja...
-
After the inciting incident, where Daniel meets his childhood acquaintance Joel in the mountains outside the village, the rising action begi...
-
The major difference that presented itself between American and British Romantic works was their treatment of the nation and its history. Th...
-
The first step in answering the question is to note that it conflates two different issues, sensation-seeking behavior and risk. One good ap...
-
The Southern economy was heavily dependent upon slave labor. The Southern economy was agrarian; agriculture was its lifeblood, and being abl...
No comments:
Post a Comment