The novel, Julius Caesar, by William Shakespeare, tells a story of a jealous group of conspirators who plan to kill Julius Caesar, one of the most powerful men in Rome at the time, and manage to convince his close friend, Brutus, to join their plot against him. In Act 1, scene 3 a man named Casca fearfully recounts the various omens and abnormalities he recently witnessed to Cicero, a senator, and then to the leader of the conspirators, Cassius. Cassius then responds with his own interpretation; he believes that what is occurring is a god given warning for the instability of their government caused by Julius Caesar.
From the start of the novel, Cassius proved himself as thirsty for the blood of Caesar and willing to go through lengths in order to get it. One method that Cassius is willing to use to his advantage is manipulation, as demonstrated throughout the novel, including in this scene. Cassius starts out this soliloquy by insulting Casca, through calling him dull. The use of ‘dull’ could otherwise be interpreted as saying that he is dumber than a roman should be. Next, Cassius asks Casca to reconsider what those omens could possibly mean and then he addresses those signs in his own image. At this point, he begins to use anaphora by beginning each clause with ‘why all’ in order to punctuate
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the instances further and possibly even to ridicule Casca for his supposed ‘misinterpretation.’ While Casca believes the irregularities were a reflection of the gods anger, Cassius figured that they actually signified that the gods think that Caesar