Marc Antony

Marc Antony was Julius Caesar's righthand man when he was alive. He was very devoted to Caesar and because of that some of the conspirators thought he should be assassinated at the same time at Caesar. However, Brutus convinced them not to, because he believed Antony was "no more than Caesar's arm when Caesar's head is off" (II.i.182). As it turns out, Antony's goal after Caesar is killed is to avenge his death and he will do whatever it takes to make that happen. Antony has good morals throughout the play, but does some conniving to get what he wants. Antony convienced the conspirators to let him speak at Caesar's funeral and he used it to his absolute advantage. He took a crowd of citizens that completely believed in Brutus and made them want to kill Brutus. Before Antony speaks the citizens say things like,"Brutus! live, live!" and "Let [Brutus] be Caesar" (III.ii.46-51). After his speech, they say, "Revenge! About! Seek! Burn! Fire! Kill! Slay! Let not a traitor live!" (III.iii.208-209). Antony now has the people of Rome on his side 100%. He then forms the Second Triumvirate with Octavius and Lepidus and they fight and defend against Brutus, Cessius and the other conspirators to win control over Rome. Antony changes from being just Caesar's righthand man at the beginning of the play that no one really believes in to one of the most powerful, brave, clever, and convincing men in Rome at the end.

Marc Antony was a very interesting character to me because of his dramatic change throughout the play. I thought it was amazing how powerful and convincing he became when nobody besides a few of the conspirators believed in him at the beginning and just thought he was a guy that liked to have a good time. He proved them all wrong, which I liked. He also was a very good friend to Caesar in deciding to risk as much as he did to avenge Caesar's death.

A modern day person that I think relates to Marc Antony is Barack Obama. The first similarity is Antony did not have very much experience coming in to the play or many people who strongly believed in him. At first, Obama did not either. Both of them, however, gained many supporters throughout their play (Antony) or campaign (Obama). Secondly, both men are great, persuasive speakers that can get a crowd on their side very easily. A source that shows both of these things is: http://www.time.com/time/specials/2008/personoftheyear