Cassies Conspires
In the play The Tragedy of Julius Caesar, written by William Shakespeare, there are a few characters with great soliloquies, who have an extremely dramatic effect on the plot of the story. One of those characters happens to be Cassius, Caesar’s enemy. During Act I, scene ii, Cassius starts plotting against Caesar, as he is now the new leader of Rome. Although Cassius is the one going against Caesar, he manipulates Brutus, Caesar’s best friend, into taking Caesar’s power. Cassius becomes very thorough with his plans, that he then turns Brutus against Caesar. A soothsayer warns Caesar, foreshadowing Cassius’ plan to overthrow him, saying, “Beware the ides of March.” (I, ii, 18). However, Caesar ignores the soothsayer, calling him a dreamer (I, ii, 24). Soon enough, Caesar will have to suffer the consequences of not listening to what the soothsayer has to say. Throughout Act I, scene ii, lines 90-131, Cassius gives his monologue, telling Brutus about his plans to remove Caesar as Rome’s new leader. In order to have a successful monologue, Shakespeare used a few literary devices to thoroughly get Cassius’ point across. For example, there is an extreme amount of manipulation tactics Cassius uses in order for his conspiracy against Julius to be victorious. Cassius tells Brutus everyone wishes he was in Caesar’s place. He then accuses Brutus of possibly even being jealous of Caesar, making Brutus think that he could be right. Cassius then uses Brutus’ words against him, telling him he ‘fears’ Caesar (I, ii, 78-80). Cassius does and says all of this in order to get Brutus to try to become the new leader of Rome. Later, Cassius writes Brutus a series of letters, as different villagers, to convince him that he should be king because now they have ‘proof’ of how much Brutus is loved (II, I, 46-58). When Cassius says, “Speak , strike and redress”, he means, “Speak up, strike against Caesar, and return home.” (II, I, 55). Dramatic irony is shown in this letter because we,