Question

Antony refers to Brutus and his co conspirators as honorable.What effect does the continued repetition of this word have on the tone of the words around it?

Answer 1

Antony intends to rouse the population against Brutus and his co-conspirators. In order to do this, he paints a portrait of Caesar as a great man, and above all a man of the people. However, every few lines he stops to mention that Brutus and the others thought him a tyrant, and that since they were honorable, they must be believed. The yuxtaposition of enthusiastic praise for Caesar and mechanical repetition of how honorable Brutus and the others were makes the latter seem more and more ironic, until it is clear that Antony does not intend at all to paint them as honorable, but rather the opposite. This is achieved, again, through irony.