Compare and Contrast Essay

Compare and Contrast Essay

While reading Julius Caesar, there were two major speeches said by Mark Antony and Marcus Junius Brutus during Julius Caesar's funeral. These two men were one of the closest friends of Caesar. There were many similarities and differences in the speeches. When Brutus spoke, the crowd was against him as a murderer. When Antony spoke, the crowd was already reeled in from Brutus' words, so Antony's words reeled the crowd in even more and were now openly hostile to him.

Brutus was a very trusting and loyal man. From his speech we are able to see that he is not overly elaborate and communicates effectively. While speaking, Brutus gives a reasoned prose speech that convinces the crowd that Caesar had to die. He said that it was for the good of Rome and that Caesar too ambitious and would eventually become a much powerful ruler and would make the Romans his slave. Brutus finds a way to appeal to the people's minds and leaves an impression that Caesar would have become a tyrant if he was alive any longer.

Antony was very eloquent in his speech. He uses very good rhetoric skills to manipulate the crowd to favoring his opinion. Instead of just stating the obvious, Antony finds a way to get into the crowd's emotions and rally them to be against the conspirators for killing Caesar by using Reversed Psychology. Antony, being an excellent orator attracts the people and his speech has more effect.

In both speeches, the strongest contrast between the two speaking characters appears to be their ability and inability to be both honorable and persuasive. Brutus and Antony both have their own ways to appeal to the crowd. Now both of these men were honorable so the crowd grasped on and believed everything they said. Brutus's purpose was to control the crowd as was Anthony's.

Mark Antony and Marcus Junius Brutus are similar, yet different in their own kind of way. They both are able to appeal to the crowd at Julius Caesar's funeral. Brutus makes his speech very formally to reason the crowd for killing Caesar. Antony uses flawless logic and genuine emotional appeal in his masterful oratory. The crowd finds it easier to accept Antony, an emotional and sincere speaker than Brutus who appears to be arrogant, yet forceful.