Mark Antony as the Genius of Julius Caesar Mark Antony – the guy is a genius. He gives the most powerful and emotional speech ever conjured up by a human mind. He gets this powerful emotion from the pain of the loss of his friend, Julius Caesar. In Shakespeare’s play about the ill-fated Roman ruler, a band of conspirators plot to kill Julius Caesar. They succeed in doing so, and Caesar’s best friend Antony is infuriated. However, he manages to keep his cool, until he is allowed to speak at Caesar’s funeral. Brutus, the leader of the conspiracy, attempts to win the popularity and support of the crowd, and he does so with a speech full of glittering generalities. His speech sounded good, but really meant nothing.
Here, under leave of Brutus and the rest (for Brutus is an honorable man, so they are all, all honorable men.” (Act III, Scene ii, 82-85) Antony is simply paying his respects to Brutus, to show (to the crowd) that he is truly a noble and honorable man. That helps the crowd to sense Antony’s honesty. It also creates the illusion that Antony is on Brutus’s side, because his tone sounds as if Caesar’s death was for the better. “I speak not to disprove what Brutus spoke, but here I am to speak what I do know.” (Act III, Scene ii, 102-103) Here Antony goes again, respecting what Brutus said before he took his stand. He tells the crowd that he does not mean to steal the support, but to deliver the cold, hard facts. Those words sound honest and unselfish, and that wins the undivided attention of the crowd. Acknowledging the opposing argument is a persuasive technique that lays a foundation for a speaker to build on, and Antony took advantage of this crowd-winning method. A slowly rising pool of emotions increases the intensity and drama of a speech, and as Antony uses this method, his speech becomes incredibly effective. While Antony gives his funeral oration, the intensity and volume of his voice slowly rises as he begins to make his point – that Caesar was not ambitious and he did not deserve to die. When Antony uses this technique of .
