Was Mark Antony manipulative in Julius Caesar?

Answer 1

yea he was VERY manipulative

- manipulated Brutus' thoughts at first by showing his love to Caesar and to made Brutus felt that he was a noble man and should be allowed to speak in the public to praise Caesar. "If I myself, there is no hour fit as Caesar's death hour"

- did not give a chance for Cassius to oppose the idea of allowing him to speak at the funeral as he put words into his mouth. "The enemies of Caesar shall say this; Then, in a friend, it is cold modesty.

- he manipulated the crowd through his speech. he changed the crowd from the conspirators' supporters into Caesar's supporters, and successfully used the plebeians as his tools to kill the conspirators.

In the speech he started off by "Friends, Roman, Countrymen" which was personal and inclusive as it caught the crowd's attention. His whole speech was in verse to lift the crowd to his level which shows that he respects them. He added some phrases to emphasize that he did not want to oppose the commoners, for example "noble Brutus" and "for Brutus' sake" which made the commoners felt like he was allying with them thus listened to his speech instead of "throwing him off stage". He also used a repetition of the words "Caesar" to put the main theme into the plebeians' heads. He also showed respect to the plebeians as he let them to decide whether they wanted him to descend or to read the will which set the scene.

He confused the commoners' thoughts towards Caesar as he brought out many evidences to prove that Caesar was not ambitious. He used phrases like "If it were so" to show that he as well doubted what Brutus said in his speech. He used many rhetorical flourish and persuasive skills to manipulate their thoughts, for example by saying "Did this in Caesar seem ambitious? When that the poor have cried, Caesar hath wept." However he counters all the evidence by saying "And Brutus is an honourable man". He also manipulated their thought by playing on their guilt. He said "You all did love him once, not without cause; What cause withholds you then to mourn for him?"

"If you have tears, shed them now"- builds tension

He successfully stirred up the crowd, built up their rage and highlighted that in order to take revenge for Caesar, the conspirators must be killed. (also made good use of sibilant and alliteration. He also emphasized that Caesar was not defeated but gave in when he saw his friend was one of them who planned to kill him, which immediately made the crowd think that Brutus is not noble but is a traitor as Antony referred to the act as treason.

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- he realised that he cannot receive as much power as what Caesar had so he decided to manipulated Octavius (who was the great nephew of Caesar) and Lepidus ...