Explain the Mark Antony speech at caesar funeral???
Answers
The significance of Antony's speech is to persuade the citizens that Brutus is wrong and that Caesar did not deserve to die. By saying that Brutus is an "honorable man," then giving examples of Caesar's altruistic qualities, he is using verbal irony.
The oration style is clearly persuasive - or rhetoric. If you break it down, you will find many rhetorical devices present such as metonymy, antistrophe, etc... (sorry, I'm not going to do this part of your homework for you).
As far as the result, read act III, scene ii - after Antony's "friends, Romans, countrymen" speech. It should be clear there if he persuaded the citizens or not.
Mark Antony was a skillful and an eloquent orator. He appealed to the sentiments and the emotions of the people while giving the speech, unlike Brutus who was blunt and straightforward with his message. Antony employed the use of rhetoric devices and a heavy sense of sarcasm. He first addressed the Romans as ''friends'' and brought Caesars body to the pulpit to generate sympathy. He also tempted the selfishness in the Romans by referring to Caesar's ''will'', which allegedly had left drachmas for the Romans. He even justified Caesar's goodness by reminding the crowd that he filled the coffers after every victory, declined the crown three times (once at Lupercal's feast) to highlight he wasn't ambitious. He called Brutus and the other conspirators as honorable men to convey a sense of sarcasm. He reminds that Caesar had brought many spoils, conquests, glories and triumph to Rome. He had wept for the poor and that he had also bequeathed all the properties to his people. Antony didn't directly blame the conspirators but unfolded the truth layer by layer, and hence he was successful in instigating the crowd, making them rise in mutiny to avenge Caesar's death.