Vlasov 1 Victoria Vlasov Goldman AP Language 09 February 2011 Words can be manipulated in a variety of ways for achieving an authors

purpose. William Shakespeares Julius Caesar perfectly displays the skill of manipulating rhetorical devices to assist in achieving a purpose. In his speech, Antony uses rhetorical devices to their full potential to turn the plebeian people against Brutus. Antonys first line is pleasing to the ear and flows off the tongue. In the beginning of his speech, Antony uses the rhetorical device of asyndeton. His first line, Friends, Romans, countrymen, lend me your ears! The items are separated with commas instead of conjunctions. This causes the sentence to flow more and implies that each term is equal to the next. By using asyndeton, Antony unites the people and creates a sense of nationalism among plebeians. Antony also uses pathos to sway the crowd to his side. He argues that Caesar wept with the poor in their discomfort and informs the plebeians of Caesars will, through which they inherited all of his personal parks and gardens, including 78 drachmas. This assures the crowd of Caesars compassion and generosity which proves false Brutuss conviction of Caesar as ambitious. Antony also presents Caesars wounds to the crowd. This provokes their imaginations and emotions even more than they already had been. Antonys diction also helps him achieve support from the plebeians. He says: I speak not to disprove what Brutus spoke, but here I am to speak what I do know He denies his intention and ability to disprove Brutuss accusations of Caesar as ambitious which makes Antony come off as unbiased in his reasoning that Brutus is mistaken in his analysis of Caesars

Vlasov 2 motives. He also makes the plebeians feel that he is saying everything that they already know when he explains: I tell you that which you yourselves already know. This convinces them that Antony is on their side and that his statements are reasonable. Antony uses asyndeton, pathos and diction to make the plebeians consider his speech and turn them against the murderers of Caesar. If Brutus had given a better speech then the plebeians wouldve been on his side. Rhetorical devices are a force that can be used to sway the naive and weak-minded any which way and Shakespeare exposed the possibilities.