The role of Mark Antony in Shakespeare's play Julius Caesar

Mark Antony is one of the most important characters in William Shakespeare’s masterpiece-‘Julius Caesar’. In fact, he is indispensable to the play’s action. The play would not proceed beyond the middle if there had been no Antony in it. In the first half of the play, Antony’s role is minimal; but after the assassination of Caesar in the middle of the play, Antony’s role becomes not only important but the deciding and determining factor.   

Antony was a friend of Caesar and he was actually related to him. Caesar seemed to trust him as he placed Antony in command while he was away.  In Julius Caesar, Antony is portrayed as a handsome athlete, a runner and perhaps a playboy as well. Superstitiously, Caesar tells Antony to touch his wife's garment as he runs the race at the beginning of the play to free her from infertility. Antony agrees to do so without question. It is also noteworthy that it is Antony who offered a crown to Caesar three times at the games over which Caesar was presiding though Caesar refused it.

Though Antony pretends to approve of Caesar's death, inwardly, he is appalled. He stands grieving over Caesar's body, vowing revenge. Following the assassination, Antony quickly grasps that he must deal with Brutus and he shrewdly flatters Brutus to work upon the conspirators. Antony faces danger in this meeting from Cassius who knows him to be a "shrewd contriver. But by his apparent hypocrisy he succeeds in making friends with his friend's murderers.

Antony’s speech to the mob is a superb specimen of his oratory. He makes use of irony and sarcasm. He arouses the sympathies of the people for Caesar and succeeds in inciting the mob to rebellion against the conspirators. Antony, in reality, wants two things: to avenge Caesar's murder and to rule Rome. Antony forms a triumvirate with Octavius Caesar and Lepidus and they plan the deaths of the conspirators and form an army. From his soliloquy in the Capitol until the end of the play, he is constantly ambitious, confident, successful and exceptionally ruthless. He is willing to have a nephew put to death rather than argue for his life. He openly acknowledges that he will remove Lepidus from power.

At Philippi, when Brutus leaves Cassius' army exposed, Antony attacks immediately. When Brutus and Cassius are dead and the republicans thoroughly defeated, he publicly praises Brutus in order to set about healing the political wounds of Rome.

In fine, we can say that Mark Antony plays a very important role in Shakespeare’s ‘Julius Caesar’. Ironically, Brutus hoped to remove arbitrary government from Rome by murdering Caesar, but he established the conditions for an even more ruthless tyranny to seize power in the persons of Antony and Octavius.