In the play, the only way that Brutus and the conspirators were going to allow Antony speak at Caesar’s funeral was if he did not say anything negative about the conspirators and Brutus. But Antony did not have to say anything negative about them just to have the citizens side with him. Antony continuously uses the ironic phrase, “For Brutus is an honorable man” (III, ii, 81). Here the reader can see, that Antony kept repeating this phrase to have the citizens slowly see that Brutus was not indeed an honorable man. He does this to have the crowd question if Brutus is actually honorable. Each time the line is repeated the citizens increasingly come to the conclusion that Brutus was not as honorable as he said he was with the assassination of Caesar. Antony uses repetition in his speech to have the citizens question if Brutus is as honorable as everyone thinks he …show more content…
Even though Antony’s speech was overall more persuasive than Brutus’ the parallelism in Brutus’ speech was more powerful. Brutus had used his honor to his advantage, continually reminding the crowd that he is the most honorable man in all of Rome. Brutus commented “Hear me for my cause, and be silent that you may hear. Believe me for mine honor, and have respect to mine honor that you may believe” (III, ii, 13-15). Here the reader can see, that Brutus is a rational man and trusts that other men can be influenced by reason. He is on edge to justify himself. In his speech he uses "I" many times, that he not even once says Cassius or any of conspirators names. His real character quality is that he is a thinker. He anticipates that other men will be thinkers as well, since we as a whole tend to judge others on our own. Brutus’ usage of the rhetorical strategy of parallelism was increasingly powerful compared to