Figurative Language In Brutus Caesar

In Act I, Scene II, Cassius successfully influences Brutus to oppose Caesar's rule through the use of different word devices such as figurative language, imagery, and repetition. Cassius’s ability to manipulate words through figurative language is what played the largest role in radicalizing Brutus’s views on Caesar becoming king. As soon as cassius begins to speak, he uses figurative language to stroke Brutus’s ego. By using figurative language, it seems that Caesar’s rise in power means Brutus and Cassius will become “petty men”: “Why, man, he doth bestride the narrow world/Like a Colossus, and we petty men/Walk under his huge legs” (135-137). This shows that in the sense of the Colossus, Brutus and Cassius will be stuck riding between the legs of the might

One example of repetition is when Cassius repeats the word them, representing both Brutus’s and Caesar’s name in that word. By doing this, Cassius successfully equalizes the value of both of these names, showing to Brutus that he is equal or better than Caesar in an unobvious way. This is important because Cassius does not want to outright disrespect Caesar as Brutus is Caesar's friend. Rather, Cassius wants to demonstrate to Brutus that Caesar is no better than him so he should not deserve more power than any other Roman ruler. In a similar fashion, using imagery, Cassius once again conveys the idea that Caesar should not be the ruler of Rome. However this time, by saying that no one man should have control of an empire spanning thousands of miles in all directions, he does it by setting a picture in the reader's head of Rome’s wide streets being covered by only one man, Caesar. This clever use of imagery once again implants ideas in Brutus’s mind without being too blunt, which in the end was the sole reason Cassius was able to convince Brutus to join the