Kaetlin Rich

Mr. Tarlton
English 2
Period 4
22 January, 2015

Honorable Men
Death is normal in nature, but is there really a justification for
homicide? In The Tragedy of Julius Caesar, senators of the Roman Empire
conspired to assassinate their fellow senator, Julius Caesar. Brutus, a close
friend of Caesar, was the last the plunge the dagger into Caesars heart.
Upon leaving of the scene, Brutus faces the crowd outside of the Senate to
explain the reason of his actions. The senators then allowed Mark Antony,
Caesars general, to speak on Caesars grave. They both put out a
compelling speech, but Antony is sided with. Antonys emotional appeal, to
the loss of a great man, is stronger than Brutuss ethical appeal because
connecting on and emotional level allows you to put that entire person into
the point you are making.
As an attempt to get on and emotional level Brutus uses pathos or emotional
appeal. Brutus love for Caesar is no less than his(line: 18) Brutus is
expressing that he loves Caesar just as any dear friend loved Caesar. But
how can you murder someone you love? The sympathy from the crowd isnt
very heavy as they later hear how Antony loved Caesar without causing him
harm. The crowd is naive enough to believe this until its proven differently by

Antony. As young Antony approaches the crowd he proclaims that, the

conspirators against Caesar are honorable and just men. Antony uses
pathos, emotional appeal to understand the love the once had for the great
Caesar. You all did love him once, not without cause(line: 104). In this
Antony is saying that the ones that loved him, loved him for a reason. Not
that they were told to but that Caesar proved worthy of their love. This hits
the crowd with great realization that they loved Caesar, Just as he loved
them.
In the speech that Brutus gives, he uses Ethos, which is ethical appeal. He
pleads the crowd, not that I loved Caesar less, but I loved Rome more.
(line: 22) this shows how he expresses ethos. He tries to win the crowd by
holding himself up to a man with reason. The crowd is satisfied with the
just reasoning. As Brutus used ethos to prove he was a good character,
Antony ethos to prove Caesar was in good character. By telling the crowd
Caesar put the people of Rome in his will, he proves that Caesar is not as
arrogant and ambitious as he seemed.
Brutus avoids using logic because most of the accusations were based off
opinion. He never had any proof that Caesar was the upcoming tyrant they
assumed he was to become. As Caesar loved me, I weep for him; as he was
fortunate, I rejoiced at it; as he was valiant, I honor him; but as he was
ambitious, I slew him (lines:25-28). This again is a statement that was not
backed up by logic. On the other hand Mark Antony used logic to prove

Caesar was not ambitious by these words, You all did see that on the feast
of Lupercal I thrice offered him a kingly crown, which he did refuse thrice. By
this Antony hoped to prove that the people will see that Caesar is not
ambitious as the honorable men claimed Caesar to be.
Although rhetoric is a good way to persuade someone, the most powerful
way is Pathos, emotional appeal. At the end of the day everyone has
feelings, most kindly to other humans. The reason why Antonys speech was
much more convincing to the people of Rome was because he used ethical,
emotional, and logical appeal. When he said anything during his speech, he
had proof of reason to back it up. Brutus fail to do so, thats why the people
of Rome sided with Antony and immediately began to seek revenge on the
conspirators.