Antony's Speech II

Bill Long

Creating Doubt (3.2.70-105)

Brief consideration of the overall structure of Antony's speech reveals why it is so powerful. Although he is speaking "under leave of Brutus and the rest (3.2.81)," Antony will gradually convert that apparent limitation to his advantage. He does so first by creating doubt, then by creating desire in the people for more knowledge, and finally, by making his speech visible and tangible to the people (by having them gather round the body of Caesar). This mini-essay discusses the process by which Antony stops, as it were, the headlong charge of the "pro Brutus" momentum that resulted from Brutus's speech (3.2.12-47).

Caesar as "My Friend"

Antony does two things in the first fifteen lines of his speech. First, he picks up on Brutus's self-characterization as "honorable" and turns it into a chorus that at first is congruent with the points he makes but then gradually begins to be harder and harder to swallow. These choric words, "And Brutus is an honorable man," are then repeated over and over throughout the first part of the speech, and each time they clash more and more strongly with the material they surround. At first, however, they do not contradict Brutus. If Caesar was ambitious (and Brutus the honorable man said he was), then it is right for him to be killed. No challenge yet to Brutus.

Then, by calling himself Caesar's friend, Antony begins to pit his personal experience against the general principle ("ambition") enunciated by Brutus. Though Brutus also referred to the fact that Caesar loved him, Antony's language rings truer, "He was my friend, faithful and just to me (3.2.85)." Ever so subtly, Antony is using his personal experience to counter Brutus's unsubstantiated charge of Caesar's ambition. 'Who knows if Caesar was ambitious,' Antony seems to say. 'All I know is that Caesar was just to me.' "But here I am to speak what I do know (3.2.101)." Then, as we all know, Brutus is an honorable man.

Caesar as the People's Friend

Though Antony never directly says that Caesar loved the people as he did Antony, he tells two stories showing that this is true (88-93). Caesar brought back captives to Rome, filling the coffers with revenues. This doesn't seem to be a sign of ambitiousness. Further, when the poor "have cried, Caesar hath wept (3.2.91)." Again, not a very strong sign of ambition. Actually, Antony says to the people, "You all did love him once, not without cause (3.2.102)." Caesar's actions toward the people can only be described as friendly. By contrasting not only his own feelings with regard to Caesar with Brutus's words but the people's experience with Brutus's words, Antony is creating doubt in their minds.

Rejecting the Crown

Lest anyone have lingering doubts, Antony points to Caesar's threefold rejection of the proffered crown as a sign of lack of ambition. Note that Casca's recitation of the event in 1.2 concludes the opposite ("but for all that, to my thinking, he/ would fain have had it [the crown]"--1.2.241-242), but Antony, as the speaker in 3.2 without extraneous interpretation and interpreters, can read the past as he desires. Of course, he quickly adds that he speaks "not to disprove what Brutus spoke (3.2.100)," but that is easily lost on the crowd.

Appealing to Emotion

Antony concludes the first part of his speech with a raw appeal to emotion under the guise of reason. "Oh judgment! thou [art] fled to brutish beasts,/ And men have lost their reason (3.2.104-105)." If only reason were re-established, he suggests. But then he concludes with a blatant appeal to emotion, "My heart is in the coffin there with Caesar,/ And I must pause till it come back to me (3.2.106-107)." Using the most powerful rhetorical weapon in the orator's arsenal, aposiopesis, he falls silent while his heart "returns" to him. While that is happening, the people's hearts begin to be enflamed. Antony is succeeding masterfully so far.

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