Julius Caesar and rhetoric

[Kasey]

I am writing a paper for a class about using the play, Julius Caesar, as a vehicle for teaching high school students about rhetoric. Does anyone have any ideas for sources or just any ideas at all?

[Feliks]

Can't even make heads/tails of what you're asking. Please be more clear and maybe I can assist ya.

I mean, you know what the play is famous for, right? The classic speech by Antony about Brutus? Its been an actor's challenge forever, to nail it.

[Joy]

Rhetoric is the art of persuasion, or basically the art of getting people to do what you want or think what you want. This actually happens quite a bit in Julius Caesar, starting with Cassius convincing Brutus that Caesar is trying to turn Rome into a monarchy, but more notable is the scene in which Mark Antony makes a speech over Caesar's body- manipulating the emotions of the common people to be against the ones who murdered him (even though they had originally sided with Brutus after his speech)and run them out of Rome. Rhetoric works best when you use the emotions of your subject rather than trying to use logic or rationalizations, which is why Antony won the crowd over after Brutus already had seemingly done so.

[Feliks]

^^^^Yep. Good summary. Next, I would look at Artistotle's definition of rhetoric and then pull up some actual examples from Cicero; etc.

[Ed]

Not sure how it might apply to teaching high school students but Garry Wills in his book "Rome and Rhetoric: Shakespeare's Julius Caesar" does a very good job analyzing the rhetoric not only of Antony but also Caesar, Brutus and Cassius.

I reviewed it here and it may give you some ideas.

[Joy]

We are very helpful people, but I noticed the other day that this person posted this in Oct of last year, so I doubt if they will even look at this. haha

[Ed]

Oops!

[Feliks]

Ulp!

[Joy]

lol (:

[Lesley]

So it might be helpful to someone else!

[Joy]

That's true. :)