“Friends, Romans, countrymen, lend me your ears; I come to bury Caesar, not to praise him.” (pg 132). Mark Antony is one of the protagonists in Shakespeare’s play Julius Caesar. He is one of Caesar’s closest friends, as well as his right hand man. Antony’s loyalty to Caesar and willingness to seek revenge for Caesar’s death motivates him to murder the conspirators.
The first motivator that decides Antony’s actions during the play is loyalty. Antony believes that Caesar is the greatest man in Rome and is one of Caesar’s biggest supporters. Antony’s loyalty to Caesar determines his actions in the beginning of the play and after Caesar’s death. In the beginning of the play, Caesar is returning to Rome after killing Pompey, one of his rivals. Caesar returns on the feast of Lupercal and parades through the streets of Rome on his way to the Lupercal games. He asks Antony to touch Calpurnia so her infertility will be cured. Antony replies: “When Caesar says, ‘do this,’ it is perform’d.” pg 26. Antony is willing to do anything that Caesar says and thinks that his word is law. His obedience and loyalty to Caesar is absolute, which prompts him to kill the conspirators after Caesar’s death. His loyalty to Caesar motivates him to help Caesar politically as well. Antony believes that Caesar should be king of Rome and supports Caesar’s rise to power. When he is with Caesar in front of the crowd during the feast of Lupercal Antony offers Caesar a laurel wreath, symbolic of power. When Casca talks to Brutus and Cassius he recalls that: ”I saw Mark Antony offer him (Caesar) a crown;” (pg 42). Antony was handing Caesar a laurel wreath to Caesar to show the people that Caesar is powerful and that he should be king. Antony is giving Caesar an opportunity to show the people how humble he is by not taking the laurel wreath, proving his support and loyalty for Caesar. Antony’s loyalty to Caesar is one of the factors that drive his anger at Caesars death and at the conspirators later on in the play.
The main motivator for Antony is revenge, which drives his actions toward the end of the play. He is motivated by revenge because of the death of Caesar, his friend and leader. Antony’s need for revenge makes him start a civil war to kill the leaders of the conspiracy, Cassius and Brutus. Antony seems melancholy when he discovers the dead body of Caesar surrounded by the conspirators and their bloody daggers, but once they leave the room he lets his emotions loose and becomes full of hate: “Oh pardon me… That I am meek and gentle with these butchers… Woe to the hand that shed this costly blood... Domestic fury and fierce civil strife shall cumber all the parts of Italy;” (pg 124). Antony is angry with the conspirators for killing Caesar. He is cursing them and asking forgiveness of Caesar’s dead body for being gentle to the conspirators. He is also foreshadowing the destruction that will engulf Italy when he avenges the death of Caesar. Antony’s motivator of revenge is what prompted him to murder the conspirators instead of making peace, changing the fate of the conspirators.
Antony’s act of starting a civil war to get revenge is one of the biggest parts of the play. His motivators loyalty and revenge spurred him on to violence. Antony completely defeats Cassius and Brutus at Philippi and has both conspirators killed, fully achieving his goal of wiping out every conspirator. He achieved his goal by being clever and swaying the Roman people to his side and joining forces with Octavius to gather more military power. I think that Antony’s goals were worthy because his mentor and closest friend, Caesar, was killed. He justified the deaths of the conspirators by avenging a murder without reason, making Mark Antony’s act of killing the conspirators noble and worthy.
Reflection
I think that my ideas in the Julius Caesar essay are better than they were in the Alchemist essay. In my Julius Caesar essay I explained my quotations better because I added more information and detail. This made it easier to understand the point I was making with the quote. I also explained the context of the quotes before I added the quote, so the Julius Caesar essay flowed better than the Alchemist essay. The explanation and the quote also made more sense when I added the context before the quote. I think that I could improve my writing in this essay by making a stronger introduction. When I start with my quote I didn't explain how it is significant to my essay and I don't say who said the quote. If I did it would make more sense to the reader.
The organisation in my Julius Caesar essay is better than in my Alchemist essay. In my Alchemist essay each trait had a different paragraph but the paragraphs weren't very organised. The paragraph in my Alchemist essay had topic sentences and conclusions, but had weak transition sentences within the paragraph. My Julius Caesar essay has two quotes per paragraph (except for the second one) with stronger transition sentences so the essay flows better. My ideas are supported better in my Julius Caesar essay because I used the amount of explanation sentences that were in the guide sheet. My Alchemist essay didn't have the amount of explanation sentences that were recommended so my support was weaker.
My Julius Caesar essay is better than my Alchemist essay because I have better Ideas and Content. The main problem with my Alchemist essay was that I didn't explain my ideas well enough.
The Julius Caesar essay showed my ability to reason critically. I followed the guide that I got and filled it out, so when I wrote the essay I was able to look at the guide. This helped me because the guide showed me how to organise my essay and what to put in each paragraph. Because I used the guide my organisation, introduction and conclusion were better than in my last essay.
