Question

Read the extract from ‘Julius Caesar’ Act 3, Scene 2, given below and answer the questions that follow:

Antony:

Friends, Romans, countrymen, lend me your ears; I come to bury Caesar, not to praise him. The evil that men do lives after them, The good is oft interred with their bones; So let it be with Caesar. The noble Brutus Hath told you Caesar was ambitious; If it were so, it was a grievous fault, And grievously hath Caesar answer’d it. Here, under leave of Brutus and the rest- For Brutus is an honourable man; So are they all, all honourable men- Come I to speak in Caesar’s funeral.

1. What does Antony say he is there for?     [3]
   What does he say he is not there for?
   What do you think he is actually there for?
2. What were the three conditions that Brutus had laid down before allowing Antony to speak to the citizens of Rome?     [3]
3. List the three arguments that Antony uses immediately after he speaks these lines to prove conclusively that Julius Caesar was not ambitious.     [3]
4. Antony repeatedly uses certain words in his speech to describe Brutus. What are they? Why does he do this?     [3]
5. Which one argument of Antony’s do you think had the greatest impact on his listeners? Give a reason to support your answer.     [4]
   What were the citizens’ feelings towards Antony before he began his speech?
   How do their feelings towards him change at the end of his speech?

Answer 1

1. Antony says he has come to the Roman Forum to bury Caesar.
   He states that his intention is not to praise the dead man and indicates that he is not there to take his side. He does this to curry favour with Brutus and his supporters.
   Antony was actually there to incite the mob to rise against the conspirators so that Caesar’s death could be avenged.
2. Brutus requires that Antony meet three conditions before he will let him speak. First, he needs to say nice things about Caesar. But he should talk from the same pulpit after Brutus and make it clear that he has permission to speak from Brutus and his friends. Third, he shouldn't say anything bad about the people who killed Caesar.
3. Antony puts forward three arguments to prove Caesar was not ambitious.
   He says that Caesar turned down three times the crown that was offered to him on the day of Lupercal. Besides that, he cared so much about the people that he would cry if anything bad happened to them.
   Additionally, he says that Caesar’s treasure chest was filled with wealth and spoils of war meant to help Rome, not to make Caesar rich. To show this, he says that Caesar left 75 drachmas to every Roman citizen in his will and asks dramatically, “Is this what ambition is made of?”
4. Antony keeps saying that Brutus is a good man, which seems like an attempt to both flatter him and keep his promise not to say anything bad about him. However, this is a classic example of verbal irony that gets the mob to respond in the exact opposite way. Antony wants everyone to see how valuable Caesar was and how horrible it was for those who planned his murder, without making Brutus and the group look bad.
5. The news that the people of Rome are heirs to Caesar’s will really affects a lot of people. He makes it clear that Caesar left 75 drachmas and other gifts to every Roman citizen. This seems like the strongest case.
   The crowd was completely sure that Caesar had to be killed after hearing Brutus’s answer, so they didn’t want to listen to Antony, who was friends with Caesar. They were doubtful and suspicious about what he was trying to do.
   However, as Antony skilfully convinced them of Caesar’s great love for them and his generosity towards them, their mindset changed.
   As a result, the mob fury rose against the faction. They began to trust Antony’s words as they connected with him emotionally.