- The power of language (rhetoric): words decide the fate of Rome; Antony's speech undoes the conspirators more completely than any army.
- Reason versus emotion: Brutus appeals to reason and principle; Antony appeals to feeling and self-interest — and emotion wins.
- The fickleness of the crowd: the people switch sides within minutes; they follow whoever speaks last and most movingly.
- Appearance and reality: Antony appears to obey Brutus's conditions and to praise the conspirators as "honourable", while really destroying them.
- Violence breeds violence: the killing of Caesar leads to riot, the murder of the innocent Cinna, and civil war.
- Political manipulation: Antony uses grief, gifts and props to move the people; he then uses their fury for his own ends.
7.1 Irony in the scenes
- Dramatic irony: the crowd cries "Let him be Caesar" to Brutus, who killed Caesar to prevent one-man rule.
- Verbal irony: "Brutus is an honourable man" — repeated until it means the opposite.
- Verbal irony: "I come to bury Caesar, not to praise him" — his speech is all praise.
- Verbal irony: "I am no orator, as Brutus is" — said by the greatest orator in the play.
- Situational irony: Brutus permitted Antony to speak to help the conspirators' cause; the speech ruins them.
- Dark irony: "Tear him for his bad verses" — a poet is killed for his poetry and his name.
7.2 The stages of Antony's speech
| Stage | What Antony does | Effect on the crowd |
|---|---|---|
| 1. Humble opening | "I come to bury Caesar, not to praise him" | hostile crowd agrees to listen |
| 2. Evidence | ransoms, tears for the poor, the crown refused thrice | "Methinks there is much reason in his sayings" |
| 3. The pause | "My heart is in the coffin there with Caesar" | pity for Antony; doubt about Brutus |
| 4. The will as bait | mentions it, refuses to read it, hints they are heirs | "The will! read the will!"; "They were traitors" |
| 5. Descends; the mantle | Nervii; Cassius's, Casca's, Brutus's cuts; "most unkindest cut" | the people weep |
| 6. The body | "Here is himself, marr'd … with traitors" | "Revenge! … Burn! Fire! Kill!" |
| 7. False restraint | "I am no orator"; "a plain blunt man" | "We'll mutiny" |
| 8. The will read | 75 drachmas; walks and orchards for ever | "Never, never"; the mob runs to burn the houses |
7.3 Foreshadowing
- "I have the same dagger for myself" — Brutus's death by his own sword in Act V.
- Brutus and Cassius "rid like madmen" from Rome — their flight to the east and the war that follows (Acts IV and V).
- Octavius and Lepidus with Antony — the triumvirate of Act IV.