In reading Plutarch as his source for all the factual information contained in his play, Shakespeare saw that Mark Antony's funeral speech was the critical turning point. Cassius and Brutus have control of events up until the assassination of Caesar occurs. But after Antony arouses the Roman mob to mutiny, it is Antony and Octavius who are in command and Brutus and Cassius who are in retreat. Since Shakespeare's plays were mostly in poetic dialogue,...
