Julius Caesar Selfish Quotes

In Shakespeare’s play, the conspirators are not justified because of their selfish motives. During the beginning of the play, Cassius is depicted as covetous when he tries to convince Casca to join the conspirators by speaking poorly of Caesar. “What trash is Rome, what rubbish and what offal, when it serves for the base matter to illuminate so vile a thing as Caesar” (I.II.108-110). Using a disgusted pattern of diction, Shakespeare helps to convey a bitter tone when Cassius states, “trash”, “rubbish” and “offal” to express his belief that Rome will become a terrible place when Caesar rules. Also, the fact that Cassius says, “a thing”, to describe Caesar shows how disrespectful he is, portraying his revolting attitude as a bad motive. This language characterizes Cassius as jealous and greedy of Caesar’s power,

“He doth bestride the narrow world like a Colossus, and we petty men walk under his huge legs and peep about to find ourselves in dishonourable graves” ( I.II.135-138). Cassius is angry because Caesar receives a lot of attention as ruler, and Cassius is supposed to honor him. Shakespeare uses a simile to compare Caesar to a Colossus - which is a giant statue that spanned the harbour entrance, and is tall enough to allow ships to pass between it’s legs. Cassius exaggerates into saying that as long as Caesar is in power, men like himself are considered insignificant, shown in the phrases “we petty men” and “find ourselves in dishonourable graves”. The words “petty” and “dishonourable” create a callous pattern of diction to describe everyone besides Caesar. This opposes with the fact that Caesar left many pleasures for the Romans in his will, expressing Cassius as a liar. Shakespeare included this moment in the text to convey to the reader that the conspirators are not justified- especially Cassius, by using characterization and tone to depict his bad