Julius Caesar, a tragic play written by William Shakespeare, centers around the assassination of Caesar with the context of incidents that triggers the murder and the exploration of the aftermath for the conspirators. A succession of ambitious men tries eagerly to acquire the absolute power to rule over the enormous Roman Empire, yet Caesar is the only one who seemingly succeeds. However, his ambition and triumph over Pompey intimidate those who favor democracy and dread Caesar might abuse his power to become a tyrant. As a direct result, those citizens in the name of Roman’s good and justice sake form a conspiracy to assassinate Caesar together. By attempting to persuade more people to participate, the adversaries of Caesar employ animal imagery to reveal Caesar 's ambition and danger.
Brutus uses the imagery of snake in his soliloquy in order to express his innermost thought. After having a conversation with Cassius, Brutus has difficulty to sleep soundly and keeps wrestling with the assassination of Caesar. On the stage alone, Brutus first metaphorically compares Caesar as an adder that is brought forth by the Romans and the day that he gets crowned (2.1.14); by acknowledging the danger for an aspiring man to be on the zenith of the power, Brutus determines to think Caesar “as a serpent 's egg / (Which, hatch 'd, would as his kind, grow mischievous)” (2.1.32-33), and he should “kill [Caesar] in the shell” (2.1.34) before Caesar becomes a tyrant. The imagery of an adder, a