In Shakespeare's play Julius Caesar, Brutus and Antony both show their Caesar sides in hopes of convincing the plebeians to support them. Mark Antony, a friend of Caesar, effectively persuades the crowd that the conspirators are traitors rather than heroes, technically fulfilling his promise to avoid saying anything negative about them. Antony convinced the crowd that Caesar cared for the common people by manipulating the definition of the words "honorable" and "ambitious" and using props, thus ultimately delivering the most effective speech. Antony asks many rhetorical questions to indirectly manipulate the meaning of the term “ambitious” which also agitates the crowd against Brutus and the conspirators. Initially, Brutus accuses Caesar of being ambitious in explaining one of the reasons for assassinating him. He assures the people that Caesar had “tears for his love, joy for his fortune, honor for his valor, and death for his ambition.” (3.2.29-30) Brutus clearly establishes that he believed Caesar was power-hungry; this sets the stage for Antony to easily antagonize Brutus later to make Brutus look bad. The meaning of ambitious here is to have a thirst for power, Caesar was killed because he was said to be ambitious. Considering this, Antony contradicts Brutus' statement and causes the crowd to question Caesar's motives and Brutus' accuracy due to his kind actions. Antony tells the people that Caesar "brought many prisoners to Rome / whose ransoms filled the general coffers: did this seem ambitious to Caesar?" (3.2.97-99) Antony makes Brutus look like a liar by verifying that Caesar did good things to him instead of being hungry for power. He manages to successfully change the meaning of ambitious from power-hungry… middle of paper… lowering it to the point that they will risk their lives to get revenge on the conspirators. The fact that Antony convinced the people to do such things shows that Antony's speech was more effective in achieving his goal of turning the people against the conspirators. As a final point, Antony and Brutus both spoke at Caesar's funeral to prove their points to the people. . Antony's speech was the most effective because he manipulates the words ambitious and honorable to contradict Brutus, he uses props to provide substantial evidence to the people, and his speech was most effective because he essentially convinced the people to take his side while Brutus convinced the people of nothing. Works Cited Shakespeare, William. “The tragedy of Julius Caesar”. Elements of Literature: Kylene Beers. Austin: Holt, 2009. 842-963. Press.