Moniem's English Journal

Caesar’s gets assassinated by the conspirators in  Act 3 Sc 1. His death ends with a series of stabbing with him seeing Brutus last. Shakespeare uses Caesar’s hubris, in this scene, to present his impeding death. Caesar’s hubris, within the time he is in the play, grows and at this point it reaches its pinnacle, consequently, due to the wheel of fortune Caesar must come down. In this scene, Caesar compares himself to the Gods living on Mount Olympus; Hence, wilt thou lift Olympus ?. However, I believe that Caesar is comapring himself to the mountain that the Gods live upon, instead of the Gods themselves. He is saying that he is Olympus. That he is as strong, as immovable, and as powerful as the mountain, in which the Gods can live on him. With this comparison proving that Caesar hubris has reached its summit, this links to the dramatic irony. Knowing this, the audience can feel the tension of the upcoming death of Caesar because he talks of himself as being invincible.

Shakespeare presents the intentions of Brutus through his conversation with Cassius. Although they both have similar intentions overall, both characters believe Caesar should die. The scence is about killing Caesar, how to kill him and whether anyone should die with him. Contradictingly, Shakespeare’s language also how the present Brutus changes their intentions.

Brutus seems to travel down the road of killing Caesar with ease, or as he says let us kill him bodly, but not wrathfully. This is one of the quotes where Brutus’s intentions are sundered from Cassius’s because he says they shall kill Caesar bodly. The term boldy implies that it will happen with pride and high amounts of respect and courage. On the other hand, the opposing term wrathfully implies the action will occur in a bloodthirsty manor, as Cassius is shown. As comparative adverbs it helps with the clear understand of Brutus’s intentions. The other two quotes:

Let us be sacrificers, but not butchers

We shall be called purgers, not murderers

Similarly, Shakespeare uses the comparative words of sacrificers to butchers, I depict that Brutus wants to give Caesar up to the Gods (another quote; let’s carve him into a dish fit for Gods) for the greater good, in this case Rome. Opposing it is butchers, translating to attacking and cutting Caesar up viciously. Lastly, the term purgers connotes to get rid of something/someone whom are impure, instead of murderers, to kill in cold blood.