Julius Caesar Essay

Conflicting perspectives, What are they? Conflicting perspectives are a clash of ideologies and belief systems. When studying conflicting perspectives we are able to generate diverse and provocative insights, like the idea that is appealing to an audiences logic and reason is less effective in persuading them as opposed to appealing to their emotions which is more effective. This can be seen through the texts Julius Caesar by William Shakespeare, the article ‘Arguments Against Abortion’ by Kerby Anderson and the essay ‘Abortion and the Alternatives’ by Voula Papas. In the text Julius caesar conflicting perspectives can be seen in act 3 scene one where both Brutus and Antony give speeches about caesars death. In Brutus’s speech he uses a number of rhetorical features and logic to convince the Plebeians that the killing of Caesar was carried out for the â€Å"goodness of rome†. we can see this through the â€Å"Had you rather Caesar were living and die all slaves, than that Caesar were dead and live all free men? †. The use of truism in this quote makes the audience unable to offer a contradicting point of view thus they are forced into complying with Brutus’s thoughts. Brutus’s speech is delivered in prose, a somewhat unpolished and unsophisticated manner of speaking. The use of prose in this instance appeals to the audience as they are able to directly relate to this manner of speaking, being of a somewhat lower class, thus allowing Brutus to connect with them on a higher level. He also arouses patriotism and plays on the rights to civil freedom of the audience to offer further persuasiveness to his speech. He does this by inferring logical and restrained reasoning for Caesar’s death which appeals to the audience’s intelligence and commonsense. The high modality of the rhetorical question â€Å"Who is here so vile that will not love his country? † is extremely powerful in agitating the existing devotion the audience has towards Rome. Similarly in the essay Arguments against Abortion the author, uses rhetorical devices and the use of logic (logos) to convince the audience that abortion is wrong. The essay has been arranged in four subsections biblical, medical, legal and philosophical arguments against abortion. Exemplification techniques through the use of facts and statistics is used to emphasize the point that author is trying to make. The author uses many logos techniques very effectively, often to make a point about the fetus being alive and being able to feel ain even at very early stages of life, so should not be destroyed. An example of this is seen in the line â€Å"If heartbeat was used to define life, then nearly all abortions would be outlawed† the deductive reasoning used makes conclusions about the fact that life exist even as a fetus and thus abortion is actually death of the fetus. By contrast Antony from Julius caesar heavily relies upon the power of language and its ability to exploit the human flaw that is emotion, and by doing so manipulate ones perception through a emotionally (pathos) driven argument. Antony has a greater understanding of the people and knows that they are passionate people who will be swayed by such talk. Also Antony unlike Brutus uses iambic pentameter this shows that he has a higher authority which would make the audience listen more carefully. After each argument Antony produces in Caesar’s defense, he uses irony through the lines â€Å"But Brutus says he was ambitious, and Brutus is an honorable man†. This line is repeated a number of times creating an anaphora. As well as slowly dismantling Brutus’ reputation through the irony, Antony indirectly implies and focuses the blame upon him and plays to the emotions of his audience indulging them to question their newly acquired perspective. It is Antonys use of emotional language that allows him to persuade his audience more than Brutus. Like wise the article Abortion and the Alternatives by Kerby Anderson relies on the use of emotive language to convince the readers that abortion can sometimes be the only resort for a female. The persuasive technique of pathos is used to effectively convey to the reader why the choice should be with the women, reference to rape cases and quilt feeling by women after abortion are examples of this. This appeals to the human nature of the reader and weakens them emotionally making it easier for them to be swayed. Also the use of props In this case a graphic image of a woman, bloodied towel in fist, crouched, naked and dead of a botched abortion. The vivid imagery allows the audience to see in reality what it is like and makes them more inclined to believe and agree to what the author is suggesting. The rhetorical question â€Å"Before legal abortion†¦.. do you want to go back to this? † as a caption of the image conveys a powerful message that there is an alternative which is safe, legal and accessible and that is abortion. We can see through all the three texts that conflicting perspectives generate provocative insights that are appealing to the audiences emotions is a more effective way of persuading them than appealing to their logic.