Paige Dispalatro Ms. Lammers English Honors II Period 2 19 January 2015 Actions For many centuries, people have often done what they thought was right. Whether it was for themselves or for others, they always had a reason for their actions. In the play Julius Caesar written by William Shakespeare, Marcus Brutus believes that killing Caesar was best for Rome. But, during his speech, he needs to explain the reasons of his action to the people. Through Brutus, Shakespeare uses delivery, memory, scesis onomaton, and rhetorical questions to explain to readers that although something may seem right, there will always two sides to consider because if they choose the wrong side, it may ruin their life. Everyone in their life has …show more content…
Throughout Brutus’ speech, he uses both scesis onomaton and rhetorical questions to help resonate his actions to the Roman citizens. In the beginning of his speech, Brutus says, “Romans, countrymen, and lovers” to appeal to everyone (III, ii, 14). He wants all the citizens to be involved and although scesis onomaton is repetition of two or more words that have the same meaning and are repeated in the same sentence, he wants the citizens to believe that he is talking to different people. When in reality, countrymen and lovers are both referring to Romans, because throughout his speech, Brutus tries to explain that he loves Rome and that he killed Caesar for Rome because it was the right thing to do. He also asks them to, “Censure [him] in [their] wisdom . . . that [they] may better judge” (III, ii, 17-19). He asks them to rightly judge him and uses the words “censure” and “judge” which both mean the same thing because he wants them to really think and believe that he is asking for their opinion on his actions. The use of scesis onomaton in this speech not only demonstrates repetition, but also reaches out to the citizens to take part in Brutus’ speech. In his speech, Brutus also uses many rhetorical questions to make the citizens think about his actions. He asks, “Had you rather Caesar were living, and all die slaves. . .” knowing that know one wants to be a slave (III, ii,