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 William Shakespeare's drama Julius Caesar is about the assassination of the Roman emperor Julius Caesar. There are many interesting characters in the play. In this essay I will concentrate on Caesar's right-hand man Antony and his funeral speech in act III, scene 2. Caesar has just been killed by his best friend Brutus and the other conspirators. Brutus has finished his speech to the Roman people, telling them the reasons for Caesar's death, and he has managed to convince them that it was the right thing to do for the good of Rome. Antony enters the podium with sadness in his heart after the death of his best friend Caesar.
Antony's funeral speech reveals many things about his character. He seems to be a very calculating and skillful man. The way he gets the people over to his side also shows a great oral ability, and he is good at manipulating people. This is shown very clearly in his speech to the people of Rome. Antony is well aware of the fact that Brutus has just talked and justified the murder of Caesar. He knows that Brutus is a highly respected man in Rome, and that the people trust him. So he can not discredit Brutus directly in his speech, if he had done it he would most possibly get the audience against him. So he starts by saying "Friends, Romans, countrymen...", in that way he has come down to the same level as the citizens, he is one of them, a friend before a Roman. He then goes on by telling the people of all the good deeds that Caesar made for them, making him appear as a very great man, and not an evil man that needed to be killed. But he is careful not to make it too much, so he keeps repeating that:

But Brutus is ambitious,
And Brutus is an honourable man. 

Slowly he gets the people to think of Brutus as a mean man, but he never tells them this straight forward, but instead he lets the people draw their own conclusions. He makes them dislike Brutus and at the same time praising Caesar:

For Brutus, as you know, was Caesar's angel.
Judge, O you gods, how dearly Caesar loved him!

The word angel is quite a strong word, how can someone who was seen as so holy kill his best friend?

Throughout the speech he keeps mixing the good thing that Caesar did with the fact that Brutus who is such a "honourable" man killed him. Without telling them that the conspirators killed him wrongly, he gets the audience over to his side and against Brutus and the others:

To every Roman citizen he gives,
To every several man, seventy-five drachmas.
Most noble Caesar! We'll revenge his death.

It is not actually so much that Caesar has left for his people in his will. But Antony makes it, through his well-planned speech, seems as something extraordinary, and their desire for revenge increases, which is just what Antony was hoping for:

Now let it work. Mischief, thou art afoot,
Take thou what course thou wilt.

Antony is a very clever person, the way he plays with the audience's feelings is almost embarrassing:

I am no orator, as is Brutus,
But, as you know me all, a plain blunt man,...

In this way he makes himself look like a poor man who has just lost his friend and, that he is nothing special, he wants them to feel sorry for him, and in that way resent the murder. He evens shows the dead Caesar's corpse, to make it more real, and goes on telling a sentimental story:

If you have tears, prepare to shed them now.
You all do know this mantle. I remember
The first time ever Caesar put it on;
'Twas on a summer's evening in his tent...
Look, in this place ran Cassius' dagger through;
See what a rent the envious Casca made;
Through this, the well-belovèd Brutus stabbed,...

Another trick that Antony uses is to play on the citizens own feelings, he makes them feel uncomfortable and as they have almost done something wrong when they have accepted Brutus' reasons:

You all did love him once, not without cause;
What cause withholds you then to mourn for him?

He is an amazing orator and manipulator, but he is also a man in grief because the death of his dear friend Caesar. They way he speaks to the crowd and praising Caesar shows a true desire for revenge. He is devastated and "His eyes are red as fire with weeping". One can see that he really loved him and that he was devoted to him:

He was my friend, faithful and just to me...

His love for Caesar and his sorrow is also shown later in the scene when he says:

Bear with me;
My heart is in the coffin there with Caesar, 
And I must pause till it come back to me.

We get to know two sides of Caesar in this scene. The first one is through the eyes of Brutus. According to him Caesar was an ambitious man. The other Caesar is seen from Antony's point of view. For him Caesar was a great man who did many good things for the people of Rome:

He hath brought many captives home to Rome;
Whose ransoms did the general coffers fill:...

Caesar appears to be a sympathetic and gentle man who three times refused to accept the crown and "When that he poor have cried, Caesar hath wept;...". 

I believe that the theme of the whole tragedy has to do with moral, and what is right or wrong. In focus is the question that Brutus asks himself, whether he should kill his best friend for the good of everyone else or not. Antony's funeral speech shows that maybe he made the wrong decision. The people of Rome did not agree with his reasons for the death of Caesar and they get angry with him because they now how much Caesar had loved Brutus and still he killed him. So the whole issue ends with a new civil war. 
Another aspect of the theme about not knowing what to do or what to believe is shown in the people of Romes attitudes toward the emperor. They seem to be a people who do not know where they stand. They shift from loving Caesar and praising him after his victory over Pompey, then when he has been assassinated by Brutus and the conspirators, they accept his reasons for the death, but in this scene with Antony's funeral speech they once again change their mind about Caesar.
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