caesar

• “ I kiss thy hand “


  biblical allusion to Brutus as Judas
• “Et tu Brute?”


  intimate address - close relationship akin to uncle and nephew
• “sick girl” “coward lips” “feeble”


  semantic field of Caesar as incompetent- his leadership is a threat to Rome
• “think him as a serpents egg and kill him in the shell”


  serpentine lexis links Caesar to sin and evil - threat to Rome
• “I am as constant as the northern star”


  simile reaffirms his ethos and leadership
• “Beware the ides of March”


  prophetic warning releated 3 times - Caesars ignorance towards the supernatural results in his death
• “I fear him not.”


  dramatic irony - audience aware of Cassius’ megalomaniac plot