In Caesars funeral oration, Antony abides by his agreement with Brutus not to place blame on the conspirators.

However, he manages to turn the mob against them. How does he manage to do this? Use examples from the speech to support your answers.
Julius Caesar is a play deeply concerned with the idea of rhetoric, or persuasion. The play is driven by persuasion. Cassius convinces Brutus that Caesar must die, setting the story in motion. The resolution of the plot is decided by Antony's speech to the plebeians. Shakespeare sees rhetoric as one of the most powerful forces in the world; able to topple kings and crown them. The play, Julius Caesar, examines what gives rhetoric its power by putting Brutus's speech against Mark Antony's. Shakespeare shows Antony's rhetoric to be superior by the effect he has on the plebeians. To be sure, Antony does not have it easy. He is already a man distrusted by the conspirators for his friendship with Caesar. Brutus lets him speak at Caesar's funeral, but only after Brutus, a great orator in his own right, has spoken first to "show the reason of our Caesar's death." Brutus makes it clear that Antony may speak whatever good he wishes of Caesar so long as he speaks no ill of the conspirators. But Antony has two advantages over Brutus: his subterfuge and his chance to have the last word. It's safe to say that Antony makes the most of his opportunity. Antony's performance on the pulpit should come as no surprise. It is obvious from his Act III, sc. i meeting with the conspirators that he means something different in nearly everything he says. He even subtly mocks the senators with his lines "My credit now stands on such slippery ground/That one of two bad ways you must conceit me/Either a coward or a flatterer." Antony is the picture of disingenuous. Brutus, ignoring the more sensible misgivings of Cassius, takes Antony at his word. We, however, know what's in store when Antony in private utters, "O, pardon me, thou bleeding piece of earth/That I am meek and gentle with these butchers!" Brutus's speech was very compelling. He used Pathos by appealing to the peoples love of Rome, ethos by calling the people his "countrymen", saying that he has honor, and saying that they have wisdom. He says that he committed the crime for the greater good of Rome, which is example of logos. He calls Caesar wise and loving which is verbal irony since he does not really mean it. He also uses rhetorical questions like: "Who is here so rude that would not be a Roman?" The people responded very well to Brutus's speech and cheered him on. Brutus's speech fails to permanently win over the crowd because he does not understand them. His first failure is at the beginning of his speech when he asks the plebeians to, "Censure me in you wisdom, and awake your senses". It seems as though he does not realize that he is speaking to an angry mob. His argument is based on cold and calculating reason. He argues that the love of freedom is stronger than the ties of friendship. "Not that I loved Caesar less, but that I loved Rome more". This logic cannot sink deeply into an emotional mob. He asks the plebeians to "Believe me for mine honor, and have respect to mine honor that you may believe". He cannot use his honor as a reason for belief in his story when his honor is in question. Brutus fails to offer any proof of Caesar's ambition, the central point of his argument. He ends his speech with a verbal attack on any who disagree with him, essentially calling them cowards. This silences dissension temporarily but when the other side is presented it does not help his cause. Brutus's argument fails because he is much less a man of the people than he would like to think.

Brutus is clearly overmatched at Caesar's funeral, both by Antony's duplicity and oration. Brutus gives a reasoned prose speech that convinces the crowd Caesar had to die. Then, for reasons that remain questionable even taking naivet into account, Brutus not only yields to Antony but leaves the Forum altogether. Antony will expend 137 lines of blank verse before he's done, using rhetoric and calculated histrionics to incite the crowd into mob frenzy. All quite masterful for a man who denies any ability to "stir men's blood," as he puts it. However, Antony's speech beat Brutus's speech and won over the people's allegiance. Antony used verbal irony by calling Brutus an honorable man in a sarcastic tone. He appealed to the emotions of the poor and used connotation with the word "ambitious." Antony also repeatedly calls Brutus an honorable man so the people eventually notice his irony that he is using. Mark Antony's argument is a great piece of rhetoric. He successfully accomplishes his object of convincing the plebeians that Brutus is a traitor. He has mastered the use of emotion, subtlety and logicly. He uses emotional phrases such as, "My heart is in the coffin there with Caesar" and "Oh judgment, thou art fled to brutish beasts". Which give him a connection with the emotion the crowd is feeling at the death of Caesar. He begins not by attacking Brutus, but by praising Caesar. This serves to give him a greater common ground with the crowd, who must have also remembered the things that Antony spoke of. He provides many counter-examples to Brutus's claim that Caesar was ambitious. "I thrice presented him a kingly crown which he did thrice refuse". These counter-examples give warrant to the crowd's rejection of Brutus. His reference to Brutus as an "honorable man" progresses from a simple statement to a mordant denunciation over the course of his speech. His indirect way of showing the crowd his feelings makes his speech more effective. The crowd is guided but not forced to his conclusions so that when they accept his argument they feel like it is their own. Antony is ultimately the better orator because of his understanding of the crowd. In the speech that follows, Antony merely sets the table for dissent. He progressively hits upon the notes of ambition and honourable in a cadence that soon calls both terms into question. Antony's prime weapons at the beginning are his conspicuous ambiguity regarding Caesar ("If it were so, it was a grievous fault") and Brutus ("Yet Brutus says he was ambitious"), rhetorical questions ("Did this in Caesar seem ambitious?") and feigned intent ("I speak not to disprove what Brutus spoke"). More chilling, however, is Antony's cynical epilogue to the funeral speech as the mob departs: "Now let it work: mischief, thou art afoot/Take thou what course thou wilt!" As Antony exemplifies, the art of persuasion is not far removed in Julius Caesar from the craft of manipulation.

Both Brutus and Mark Antony struggle for the support of the plebeians, who are portrayed as dumb and fickle. This is at the heart of Shakespeare's idea of rhetoric. Rhetoric is pure persuasion; it is not bound by the same rules as debate. Shakespeare does not pass judgment on the absolute validity of either argument in that scene. The viewer is left to decide for himself who is truly right, but there is no doubt that Antony is the better speaker.