Antony's Speech V

Bill Long

Making it Visual II (3.2.169-230)

The previous essay referred to the visual nature of Antony's conclusion, but focused more specifically on Antony's rewriting of history to get his point across. Here, the visual takes front stage. Antony makes his speech visual in two ways: by showing off the mantle and then, when passions are enflamed, by displaying Caesar's corpse.

Five More Instances of Visual Speech

1) Antony's Apparent Disinterest

When Antony takes Caesar's mantle in hand and "shows" where the various conspirators' cuts were made, he does so with an almost disinterested sense of analytic and unemotional precision. (3.2.174-176). He says, as it were, 'yes, here it is that Brutus's knife tore the garment and oh, yes, here is Casca's thrust.' But, this presentation is as disinterested as the medical examiner's testimony at a murder trial when he or she describes the thrusts of the knife with surgical precision, telling how the jugular was severed, showing where the blood spurted, in what patterns it coagulated, where it dripped. What emotion is lacking in the scientific explanation is readily supplied by the viewers and hearers. So, Antony says, "Ah, here was the thrust," and the people think, "Yes, and Caesar bled to death from this cruel attack!!"

2) Personification of the Blood

But then Antony does more. He personifies the blood (3.2.177-180), as if its "rushing out" of Caesar's body was like a householder "rushing" to the door to see who was insistently knocking (likening the knife-thrusts to this insistent knocking). Blood is now the surprised and hurt householder, rushing to discover the reason for the calamity.

3) Caesar as "vanquish'd"

He makes it more visual still by saying that Brutus's attack, and his ingratitude, "Quite vanquish'd him (3.2.186)." Caesar, the unassailable, the one who conquered the fierce Nervii, the one who inspired the hearts of the people, was now vanquished, conquered, laid low by this conspiratorial act. So that none might miss the point, Antony says not only that Caesar fell in this attack, but "all of us fell down (3.2.192)." He is cleverly associating the people with the fallen Caesar rather than with the conspirators.

4) Playing on Love

Antony uses the most loaded emotional term, love, in a Christological sense when describing Caesar's affection for his murderer, Brutus. "For Brutus, as you know, was Caesar's angel./ Judge, O you gods, how dearly Caesar lov'd him (3.2.181-182)!" When the reader (in the seventeenth century and later) hears that line, she is to call upon her biblical knowledge and remember that Jesus looked upon the rich young ruler and "loved" him, and that Jesus so preciously loved John, the beloved disciple. That Caesar loved Brutus means that he, almost a Christ-like figure, was forgiving those who murdered him. How could the hearts of the people not flee to Caesar after this exposition?

5) Finally, The Body

Then, after all this is done, Antony lifts Caesar's mantle to show the lifeless body of this semi-divine figure. Antony has perfectly prepared the ground so that the people are ready to interpret what they see for themselves. "O piteous spectacle!/ O noble Caesar!/ O woeful day!/ O traitors, villains!/ O most bloody sight!/ We will be reveng'd!/ Revenge! About! Seek! Burn! Fire! Kill!/ Slay! Let not a traitor live! (3.2.198-205)." Only when the crowd gets around to "interpreting" this sight in terms not just of horror but of a desire for revenge does Antony then intervene and direct this desire (3.2.209-230). After reading what Caesar said about the people in the will (3.2.235-252), he sends them on their way to general mischief and mayhem.

Conclusion--Antony's Ineloquence

When the crowd is completely incensed, Antony then gives the impression that he is backing down. When Antony backs down, the people can take over in his stead. The conspirators are "honorable," and Antony doesn't want to "stir you up/ To such a sudden flood of mutiny (3.2.209-210)." He is not eloquent, he says, using all the classical words for describing the various offices and actions of a rhetorician (3.2.221-222). Mutiny is is first word and last word of this decisive speech (3.2.211,230). The people are prepared for blood. And they will get it.