Character sketch of Antony from the chapter Julius Caesar
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Mark Antony is Caesar’s closest companion. A young man much given to reveling, enjoying music and plays, he runs in the sacred race of the Feast of Lupercal, touching Calpurnia on the way in the hopes of curing her barrenness.
A great upholder of obedience to Caesar, he is not as good a judge of men as his mentor, discounting Caesar’s opinion of Cassius. Brutus underestimates him severely, considering little more than an extension of Caesar. Antony manages to con the conspirators, particularly Brutus, into letting him speak to the crowd after the murder. He accepts to say nothing negative about the conspirators in his funeral oration, and circumvents this by his constant references to them as ‘honorable men’. In contrast to Brutus’s prose logic-chopping, he gives a shrewdly emotional speech to the crowd, showing them Caesar’s body and reading them his will, whipping them to a fury. He is ruthless enough to add his own nephew to the list of Romans to be purged once he, Octavius and Lepidus join forces to resist the conspirators. He has little use for Lepidus and does not appreciate Octavius’s lack of respect for his greater age and experience. Once Brutus is dead, he is willing to praise him for his idealism
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The friendship between Julius Caesar and Marc Anthony is a remarkable one. Both of them possess a unique bond in which Caesar hold the ruling power and Anthony gave him the assistance in doing so. Anthony loved Caesar and was the only reliable friend of his. After the death of Caesar, he was the one who was affected emotionally. His grief turned into anger and rage and wished to take vengeance from the assassins of Caesar. Mark Anthony tries to convince people that Brutus is someone who cannot be trusted upon. He tries to explain that Brutus was wrong and evil and Caesar was the one who was trustworthy and was not as ambitious as said by Brutus. He tries to convince people and sympathize for Caesar which resulted in turning the citizens against Brutus. He spoke in melancholic and passionate tone to the people. Mark Antony concluded that Caesar was the person who was the friend of every people of Rome and his murder was a serious offense.