Antony revenge

Firstly we now know Antony’s true intentions are to seek revenge in Caesars death because of the various things he said in his soliloquy. I will also explain how I think Antony expresses his feeling towards Caesar and the conspirators in his soliloquy. One example of a quotation which proves Antony’s true intention is to kill the conspirators is, “woe to the hand that shed this costly blood”. I know when Antony says this he is telling us he will kill the conspirators because woe can be used as a threat or warning, in this case death, and the people who’s shed the blood (killed Caesar) are the conspirators. This confirms Antony wants revenge.

We know Antony had great respect and love for caesar as he opens his soliloquy by saying, “O pardon me, thou bleeding piece of Earth, that I am meek and gentle with these butchers!”. We know he has great respect for Caesar because he refers to Caesar as a bleeding piece of earth. What Antony means when using this metaphor is that he believes that when Caesar died so did a piece of Earth as he was that important. This contradicts when Antony says “let each man render me his bloody hand”. I believe Antony does this in order to gain the trust of the conspirators as he feels his life is threatened. Another thought could be that Shakespeare is using symbolism. When Antony puts Caesar’s blood on his hands this could symbolise Caesar’s  blood which represents Antony’s responsibility to seek revenge in Caesar death. In metaphorical terms; Caesar’s blood is on Antony’s hands.

Now that the audience know that Antony deceived the conspirators about his true intentions the audience will know when Antony is lying. This can also cause confusion if we were to ask has Antony’s character changed? Or was he acting the entire time to fulfill his plan of revenge? The fact that the audience knows Antony’s true intentions, as stated in his soliloquy, whenever he deceives another character the audience will know, unlike if Antony was on his own, Which is dramatic irony. At the funeral Antony seems to be agreeing with Brutus but has an implicit meaning to what he is saying.”when the poor hath cried, Caesar hath wept: ambition should be made of sterner stuff, yet Brutus says he was ambitious and Brutus is an honourable man”. Firstly in this quotation Antony questions Brutus calling caesar ambitious “ambition should be made of sterner stuff, yet Brutus says he was ambitious and Brutus is an honourable man.” I believe when Antony calls Brutus a honourable man he is giving the audience a reason to believe Caesar was ambitious ( because Brutus is honourable) but is proving more reasons to why he is not such as when he wept for the poor. In reality Antony is questioning Brutus, was Caesar actually ambitious? This statement also proves dramatic irony because when Antony says “when the poor hath cried Caesar has wept” his intention is to persuade the crowd into believing Caesar was an honourable man but Antony knows praising the man that the conspirators killed would anger the conspirators. Therefore he follows his statement  with “yet Brutus says he was ambitious and Brutus is an honourable man”. This statement would Mislead Brutus into thinking that Antony believes he’s an honourable man. What Antony is really doing is tricking the crowd into regretting Caesars death and in turn cause a rebellion against the conspirators.

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