1) Anachronism: Something that is misplaced in a story because it is out of time. In Julius Caesar, a clock strikes though there were no clocks in Caesar’s day.
2) Irony (verbal) :Verbal irony is saying one things but meaning another. In Julius Caesar, when Mark Antony refers in his funeral oration to Brutus as "an honorable man" repeatedly, he really means the opposite.
3) Hyperbole: Exaggeration; overstatement. Examples: (1) He
[Julius Caesar] doth bestride the narrow world like a Colossus, and we petty men walk under his...huge legs.–Shakespeare.
(Caesar has become a giant.) (2) Ten thousand oceans cannot wash away my guilt. (3) Oscar has the appetite of a starving lion.
4) Alliteration: repetition of the same sound beginning several words in sequence. “ Veni, vidi, vici.” Julius Caesar
5) Apostrophe: (not the punctuation) a sudden turn from the general audience to address a specific group or person or personified abstraction absent or present.
”For Brutus, as you know, was Caesar's angel. Judge, O you gods, how dearly Caesar loved him.” Shakespeare, Julius Caesar
6) Allusion: A reference to another written work, legend, myth, television show, etc. "Why, man he doth bestride the narrow world like a Colossus" (Cassius, I.ii).This is an allusion to the
Colossus of Rhodes, one of the seven wonders of the ancient world
7) Anaphora: The deliberate repetition of a word or phrase at the beginning of several successive verses, clauses, or paragraphs. One of the devices of repetition, in which the same phrase is repeated at the beginning of two or more lines. "And Brutus is an honorable man."
8) Foreshadowing: Foreshadowing is a key literary device in the play. We see foreshadowing from the beginning of the play, when the Soothsayer tells Caesar to "Beware the Ides of March" in I.i, which happens to be the day that Caesar is killed. Calpurnia later dreams of Caesar's death, but he does not heed her warning. this not only tells us what is going to happen, but it also shows us how Caesar's status and ego are getting to his head.
Foreshadowing gives us a hint of what is to come, and can also reflect upon a character or characters.
9) Antithesis: A figure of speech in which sharply contrasting ideas are juxtaposed in a balanced or parallel phrase or grammatical structure. "Not that I loved Caesar less, but that I loved Rome more."
10) Paradox: A statement which seems to contradict itself.
"Cowards die many times before their deaths." Is a quote made by Ceasar in the book. This quote is a paradox because man can't actually die several times, but men fear death so much that they may as well be dead because they aren't living their lives to the fullest.
11) Oxymoron: Using contradiction in a manner that oddly makes sense. Examples of oxymora include jumbo shrimp, sophisticated rednecks, and military intelligence. The best oxymora seem to reveal a deeper truth through their contradictions. For instance,
"without laws, we can have no freedom." Shakespeare's Julius
Caesar also makes use of a famous oxymoron: "Cowards die many times before their deaths" (II.ii.32).
12) Aside: An aside is words spoken to the audience or perhaps to another character while other characters are on stage. The other characters pretend to not hear and we the audience get to listen in on the thoughts . In William Shakespeare's Julius Caesar,
Trebonius is told to stay close to Caesar's side and he replies to
Caesar: "Caesar, I will (and in an aside to the audience) and so near will I be,/That your best friends shall wish I had been further." (II. iv. 124-125) The audience hears everything, but everyone pretends that Caesar does not hear Trebonius' threatening words. It is a device used so that the audience gets to hear the candid, inner thoughts of the characters.
13) Pun (double entendre) Comic relief, a word or expression that has two different meanings: ( I.i.15) "a mender of bad souls"
14) Monologue: Refers to a speech by one person in a drama, a form of entertainment by a single speaker, or an extended part of the text of a play uttered by an actor . “ANTONY: Friends, Romans, countrymen, lend me your ears” (III.ii).
15) Metaphor : A comparison of two unalike things NOT using
“like,” “as,” “than,” or “rather.” Upon what meat doth this our
Caesar feed / That he is grown so great? (I, ii, 149-50). Analysis:
Cassius compares Caesar to a carnivore and the common citizens to meat, not a very flattering comparison .
16) Onomatopoeia : Use of words to imitate natural sounds.
Brutus says "The exhalations whizzing in the ai (II.i.44): whizzing is an example of onomatopoeia.
17) Simile: a comparison of two-unalike things using “like,” “as,”
“than,” or “rather.” Example: The skies are painted with unnumbered sparks, / They are all fire, and every one doth shine;
/ But there's but one in all doth hold his place. / So in the world:
'tis furnished well with men. / And men are flesh and blood, and apprehensive, / yet in the number I do not know but one / That unassailable holds on his rank, / Unshaked of motion; and that I am he. (III, i, 63-70).Analysis: The reader gains a glimpse of the arrogant Caesar, who compares himself to the Northern star, that the conspirators fear .
18) Iambic pentameter : A ten-syllable line consisting of five iambs is said to be in iambic pentameter ("penta" = five). Its stress pattern (five pairs of unstressed/stressed syllables) is conventionally represented U /U / U /U / U /
/ / - / - - / - - /
Friends, Romans, countrymen, lend me your ears;
19) Personification : Giving human traits (qualities, feelings, action, or characteristics) to non-living objects (things, colors, qualities, or ideas) Addressing conspiracy as if it were a person. (see example below)
20) Soliloquy
An utterance or discourse by a person who is talking to himself or herself or is disregardful of or oblivious to any hearers present.
Cassius in soliloquy about Brutus in I.ii.
O conspiracy,
Sham’st thou to show thy dan’rous brow by night,
When evils are most free? O, then by day
Where wilt thou find a cavern dark enough
To mask thy monstrous visage? Seek none, conspiracy;
Hide it in smiles and affability:
For if thou path, thy native semblance on,
Not Erebus itself were dim enough
To hide thee from prevention.