Cassius Rise To Power In Shakespeare's Julius Caesar

From 1.2 onward, Cassius attempts to manipulate Brutus into joining his political conspiracy against Caesar by playing on Brutus fear of Caesar is just too weak mentally and physically to handle rulership thus becoming a tyrant. In order to give Cassius’s words power, Shakespeare uses a storytelling framework to create an image of Caesar as something inhuman by first building him up as untouchable, myth-like god and then breaking him down into something less then human. Shakespeare employs this storytelling technique to not only portray Caesar as a weak man, but also rise the audience’s suspicion over Cassius motivations. Shakespeare in the beginning of the passage frames how Cassius wants his audience to hear his speech as an act of storytelling …show more content…
On the surface this is the building up of a god with the classic rise from power out of danger. But the way in which Caesar is built up highlights the flaws Cassius with a weakened Caesar rising to power on the backs of others rather then his own merit. showing Caesar is a mere human being overstepping his boundaries by believing himself to be a …show more content…
He begins this process through his repetition of the word, “shakes” (1.2.121). This repeated shaking is not only the literal illness that Caesar suffered, but also the shaking of Cassius image thus acting as turn in his speech. On the surface, the story of Caesar having a fever that left him groaning and trembling is Cassius acts to show Caesar exhibiting human weakness. But Shakespeare goes further with his analogy by making Caesar inhuman. Starting at 1.2.123, Cassius does not refer to Caesar by name anymore, rather referring to Caesar as he in the earlier lines and then as simply it at the end. Shakespeare does this in order to separate the importance of name from the man. From this separation of name, Cassius then goes further within his speech by splitting Caesar into parts and showing the faults within what remains. Cassius describes Caesar as, “coward lips,” “an eye” that lost its ability to spark fear and finally a “tongue” that is reduced to an intelligible cry. (1.2.123-125) Shakespeare uses personification of these separate body parts in order reduce Caesar in order to destroy the previous image of myth-like Caesar one piece at a time by showing all the flaws of once good man. Cassius in this way destroys any humanity making what remains into a monstrous image of a weak cowardly tyrant seeking