Julius Caesar Rhetorical Analysis

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Ever since the beginning of human history, a major issue has been how to organize a population. How should our government be run? Our current government system (at least in most of the world) is a democracy. The idea of democracy is where the people control the direction of their government. There are many types of democracy. There is direct democracy, which is where there are no elected officials and the people directly control decisions. Very few countries can actually achieve what is known as a full democracy. Why?. Well, according to William Shakespeare, a completely unflawed democracy is impossible in the real world because humans are volatile and easily manipulated, which leads to chaos. He proves this point in his book, the tragedy of Julius Caesar, by using interpersonal conflict. One example of this is in …show more content…
During Mark Antony’s speech after Caesar’s death (Act 3, Scene 2, line 216), he subtly convinces the audience to start a mutiny. He uses rhetorical questions to persuade the audience that Brutus and the rest of the conspirators are traitors for killing Caesar, without ever implicating himself. The plebeians react by saying "Revenge! About. Seek out the adage! Burning. Fire. Kill! Kill! Kill! Kill! Kill! Kill! Kill! Kill! Kill! Kill! Kill! Kill! Kill! Kill! Kill! Kill! Kill! Kill! Kill! Kill! Kill! Kill! Kill! Kill! Kill! Kill! Kill! Slay. Let not a traitor live!" Later in line 245, the first plebeian says that they will "burn the house of Brutus." Keep in mind that this is the same plebeian that said to "Bring Brutus with triumph home unto his house." The definition of volatile means to be unpredictable and change behavior quickly, usually for the worse. These lines show the crowd changing their minds quickly and are prone to violence without much coercion, and this makes them volatile. The crowd is also easily manipulated because they believe in both Brutus and Antony's
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