There are many great leaders in our world today, A good leader is someone who loves their country and works hard to keep it in one piece. In Shakespeare’s “ Julius Caesar” the characteristics of a good leader is argued and leads to a tragic death. Decius Brutus who was a good friend of Caesar believed that in killing Caesar he was doing good for his country.
Marc Antony who was the most beloved friend of Caesar does not agree and thinks that Caesar was a good leader and says this in his eulogy speech later on. I believe that Marc Antony worked better with the crowd than Decius Brutus did. Decius Brutus was a close friend to Julius Caesar and loved him dearly. Even though they were close Brutus still murdered his friend for the well being of rome.
In his speech to the people of Rome after the murder Brutus speaks about caesar being ambitious and worried he would enslave the people. He uses his relationship with Caesar to make the people more sympathetic and less angry with him. Brutus wanted the people know that he killed Caesar because he loved Rome more than he loved his friend. Brutus truly believed the Caesar was a bad leader and decided the best decision was to kill him.
He explains that ” I rejoice at it; as he was valiant, I honor: but, as he was ambitious, I slew him (Act 3 Scene 2, Brutus). Brutus also throws in some political views to explain to the people that Caesar wasn’t a good man and meant to enslave the people. Another dear friend of Caesar named Marc Antony gave a speech to the people of Rome. Antony loved his friend dearly and believes that the conspirators should be killed but he wasn’t allowed to say anything about them.
He uses strong emotions/feelings to pull the crowd into his speech because at the time they are all for Brutus. Antony didn’t do the best using politics in his speech but he was using more emotion to convince how wrong Brutus is. He uses examples such as ” When that the poor cried, Caesar wept; ambition should be made of sterner stuff’ ( Act 3 Scene 2, Antony). He gives prime examples of how Caesar was not an ambitious man and that he truly cared for the people.
Antony even brings up the time when he offered Caesar a crown three times and how Caesar denied all three times. At this point the people are listening and believe in Antony but he isn’t finished yet. The last thing that Antony does is bring out Caesar’s will and read it to the people. Now of course it was not truly Caesar’s will but Antony would do anything to stir the people into a bigger frenzy. It works and Antony convinces the people that Brutus was a terrible man without ever saying once that Brutus was terrible. Although I believe that Antony gave the better speech many believe that Brutus gave a better speech. They think this because Brutus had better political views and cared more for his country and not his friend.
People believe that politics are more important than friendship and this is why Brutus appeals to some people. Brutus did indeed have great political views and explained to the people why he killed Caesar well. He convinced a crowd that Caesar was not a good leader and that in the end killing Caesar was the best choice. Brutus was very direct with his speech and didn’t show much emotion which makes him a good political leader. He even convinced the crowd to make him King although being king was never his intention. All in all Brutus did a good job of convincing that killing Caesar was the right thing to do.
Emotion wise Antony did better in giving the speech because he truly loved Caesar more than Brutus did. Antony cried and even had to pause during the speech because seeing his dear friend dead was too much. Brutus may have said that he was sad that he killed Caesar but that was most likely a lie to get the people to believe he actually cared for Caesar a little. Antony may have been faking but I do know he cared a lot deeper for Caesar than Brutus did. I’m sure Brutus believed he loved and cared for Caesar but murdering your friend is not loving and he did it out of anger. Caesar was believed to be ambitious by Brutus but he truly wasn’t and Antony did well to give examples as to why he wasn’t.
In conclusion I believe that Marc Antony did a better job at giving the funeral speech than Decius Brutus did. Antony had much more emotion and easily convinced the people that Brutus was a bad man without ever saying Brutus was bad in his speech. He convinced the crowd that Caesar was never an ambitious man and gave prime examples of why he wasn’t. Brutus did well in the political sense but even after winning the people over Antony still got the people to riot and try and destroy Brutus. Many people however believe that Brutus did better because he didn’t let emotions get in the way of his love for his country. In the end Antony did a better job and Caesar was spoke well off and sent to the grave knowing that he will live with the people through war. Antony was a good man and he truly believed that Caesar was a good leader no matter what Brutus said about him.
Antony was right to convince the people to kill Brutus because Brutus shouldn’t have been the one to decide whether Caesar died or not. “ Julius Caesar” was a good example of political turmoil and how it was handled then and how tragic the ending can be when you make decisions by yourself.