In William Shakespeare’s play Julius Caesar, Antony is usually considered the more effective orator than Brutus in their respective funeral speeches for a number of reasons, including the following:
- Brutus’s language tends to be more abstract and less colorful than Antony’s. Thus Brutus begins by saying, “Romans, countrymen, and lovers! hear me for my cause,” whereas Antony begins by saying, “Friends, Romans, countrymen, lend me your ears” (emphasis added). Even in their opening words, then, Antony’s phrasing is more imaginative, more vivid, and more poetic.
- Brutus speaks in prose; Antony speaks in...
(The entire section contains 303 words.)
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