In Shakespeare's Julius Caesar, Mark Antony's speech at Caesar's funeral, despite all his protestations to the contrary, is fueled by one purpose: vengeance to those who murdered his beloved Caesar. He uses combinations of verbal irony, repetitive diction, and heavy emphasis on emotions to sway his audience. He does so without guilt or remorse towards the people to whom the crowd will direct their wrath. Not only does he think of nothing but revenge, he convinces the crowd that he wants no harm to come to Caesar's murderers.
The most effective technique Antony uses in persuading his audiences to exact his revenge is verbal irony, which is so strong it borders on sarcasm. He denies Caesar's ambition, yet then states that " Brutus says [Caesar] was ambitiousAnd Brutus is an honourable man.""(3.2.88-89) He contradicts what he earlier says; leading the citizens to think that the only credibility Brutus has for his actions is his honour. But then, if Antony proved Caesar was not ambitious, Brutus lacks even that. Antony stressed the word honourable, a trait that all the conspirators were thought to have had in abundance. The word is laced with facetiousness, and he uses it over and over again, making the word seem inconsequential, robbing it of all its former positive connotations. Who would lay their loyalties with such an honourable' man?.
Antony also negates any cause Brutus gave for killing Caesar. "He hath brought many captives home to Rome,Whose ransoms did the general coffers fill:.
/Did this in Caesar seem ambitious?-(3.2.90-93) Antony also brings up how Caesar refused three times to take the crown at Lupercal, asking the crowd how this is ambition. The final, and most potent tool Antony uses to increase Caesar's character is his will. In it, he leaves the citizens of Rome " all his walks,His private arbors, and new-planted orchards /he hath left them to you /Here was a Caesar! When comes such another?-(3.
