The Ineffectiveness Of Brutus In Julius Caesar

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In William Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar, the ineffectiveness of Brutus’s rhetoric in his funeral speech emphasizes that doubt, mistrust, and misplaced loyalties can lead to devastating consequences. Doubt is a thing that demands motives, and Brutus is very unclear about expressing his. He does not elaborate upon Caesar’s crimes. He never reveals exactly how “he was ambitious” or why his ambition was deserving of death (III.ii.25). He gives vague evidence as to why he believes that Caesar’s death was justified. Rather than focusing on proving the morality of his actions to the Roman citizens, he instead attempts to evoke emotion through a sense of nationalism within the people of Rome by inviting the crowd to speak up if they would “not be