Lesson Plan: Analysis of Brutus' and Antony's Funeral Speeches

Dear Students of Ms. Louder than Most,

Keep scrolling until you see my example from the smart board. That is where you will find what you are looking for on your academic journey. The initial stuff is important teacher junk.

I know this doesn't quite go with The Tragedy of Julius Caesar, but...

Analysis of Brutus’ Funeral Speech in The Tragedy of Julius Caesar by William Shakespeare

Essential Question:  

1. What can literature teach us about the power of rhetoric and how it can corrupt or help a society?

2. Does absolute power corrupt absolutely?

3. How do people use reason and emotion to influence each other? Do leadership and corruption go hand in hand?

Goals, Objectives, and Standards:

Goal: Students will analyze the historical, political, dramatic, and rhetorical meaning and impact in The Tragedy of Julius Caesar by William Shakespeare in order to compare the power of rhetoric (in all of the above mentioned categories) and how that impact is still prevalent in our society’s historical, political, and dramatic arenas.

Objective:  Students will learn to identify and comprehend the meaning of specific rhetorical devices in specific speeches.

C.C.S.S.:

·        SL.9-10.3 Evaluate a speaker's point of view, reasoning, and use of evidence and

rhetoric, identifying any fallacious reasoning or exaggerated or distorted evidence.

·        L.9-10.3 Demonstrate understanding of figurative language, word relationships,

      and nuances in word meaning

·        L.9-10.3a Interpret figures of speech (e.g., euphemism, oxymoron) in context and

      analyze their role in the text.

·        L.9-10.5b Analyze nuances in the meaning of words with similar denotations.

Activities, Tasks, and Methods: 

Do Now:  Quickwrite -  Describe the motive for Brutus’ speech with an explanation of rhetorical appeals used with evidence from the text and analytical commentary.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                
Opening: The teacher will review Five Rhetorical Devices in the Speeches of Brutus and Antony and aid the student’s in completing the first few steps.

 

If you need a refresher on how to annotate, please review Close Reading Strategies or review the example document from "The Masque of the Red Death" by Edgar Allan Poe.



Teacher Modeling on the Smart board



Work Period:  Small Group

The original document can be found at 5 Rhetorical Devices in Speeches by Brutus and Antony, as this was not something that I created.

However, I did all the VOCABULARY ALERTS to add you in your comprehension.

The source that I used for your vocabulary is Literary Devices and Terms. This is a great tool to put in your resource bag.

Task:  Students will analyze sections of Brutus’ and Antony's Funeral Speeches on their own paper. The teacher will monitor for productive collaboration and comprehension.

2. Who is here so base that would be a
bondman? If any, speak; for him have I offended.
Who is here so rude that would not be a Roman? If
any, speak; for him have I offended. Who is here so
vile that will not love his country? If any, speak;
for him have I offended.

Prompt: This line from Brutus’s speech is an example of anaphora because the same groups of words “who is here” and “if any speak, for him I have offended” are repeated at the beginnings of successive clauses.

VOCABULARY ALERT: Anaphora In writing or speech, the deliberate of the first part of the sentence in order to achieve an artistic effect. William Wordsworth used anaphora an example in “Tintern Abbey” with the following lines:

“Five years have passed;
Five summers, with the length of
Five long winters! and again I hear these waters…”

3. For Brutus is an honourable man;
So are they all, all honourable men—

Prompt: This line from Antony’s speech is an example of antimetabole because the words honourable men are repeated in succcessive lines, in reverse grammatical order.

VOCABULARY ALERT: Antimetabole is derived from a Greek word which means “turning about”. An example is the quote by Socrates that says, “Eat to live, not live to eat.”

4. Not that I loved Caesar less, but that I loved
Rome more

Prompt: This sentence from Brutus’s speech is an example of antithesis because there is a contrast between loving Caesar less and loving Rome more.

VOCABULARY ALERT: Antithesis literal meaning opposite, is a rhetorical device in which two opposite ideas are put together in a sentence to achieve a contrasting effect. “Money is of all evils: poverty is the fruit of all goodness,” is an example.

5. There is tears for his love; joy for his
fortune; honour for his valour; and death for his
ambition.

Prompt:This line from Brutus’s speech is an example of isocolon because each successful clause is parallel in length ( 4 words each).

VOCABULARY ALERT: Isocolon is a rhetorical device that involves a succession of sentences, phrases and clauses of grammatically equal length. In this figure of speech, a sentence has a parallel structure that is made up of words, clauses or phrases of equal length, sound, meter, and rhythm. Isocolon is the repitition of similar grammatical forms. An Example can be found in The Tyger by William Blake:

What the hammer? what the chain?
In what furnace was thy brain?
What the anvil? what dread grasp
Dare its deadly terrors clasp?

Closing: Students will choose a member of their group to demonstrate their annotations on the Smartboard.