In his belittling and wrathful speech, Cassius, a senator of Rome, employs rhetorical devices
in order to persuade Brutus, fellow senator and friend of Caesar, that Caesar needs to be
deposed from his position as sole ruler of Rome.
Cassius begins his speech to Brutus in response to Caesar’s recent defeat of Pompey and
assumption of absolute power in Rome; Cassius asserts that Caesar’s position as ruler of
Rome is unjustified. He opens with a simile, claiming that Caesar “doth bestride the narrow
world / Like a Colossus” while the rest of the “petty” men walk beneath his giant legs until they
die “dishonor[ably]” (I, i, 135-138). Cassius is referencing a statue of the Greek god Apollo that
apparently was so high ships could sail between the statue’s legs. By comparing Caesar to a
giant statue of a god, he implies that Caesar holds himself to be much greater than all others,
but that greatness is just imaginary, as Cassius has already proven in an earlier speech to Brutus
that Caesar is no god. Cassius appeals to Brutus’s logic as he knows that Brutus likely would
agree that any man who sees himself as a god has no right to be the leader of a Republic.
Cassius then begins to develop his argument that something must be done to remove Caesar by
claiming that any man can control his own fate. He utilizes antithesis to solidify that claim: “The
fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars, / But in ourselves, that we are underlings” (I, i, 139-141).
Cassius contrasts the common belief that destiny determines a person’s fate with the idea that
people have control over their own destinies. He begins to introduce the idea to Brutus that if
they want to change the direction Rome is going in, toward outright dictatorship, they must
take matters into their own hands and knock down the giant statue that Caesar has become.
Cassius then follows this assertion with further evidence that Caesar has no more right to rule
than any other man, including Brutus himself. After speaking Caesar’s and Brutus’s names
separately, Cassius employs rhetorical questions: “What should be in that ‘Caesar’? / Why
should that name be sounded more than yours?” (I, i, 142-143). To paraphrase, he asks Brutus
what is so special about Caesar’s name that is should become set apart from anyone else’s
name, as if Caesar’s name itself embodies Caesar’s unshared power. Cassius’s questions reveal
his belittling tone, as the obvious answer is that there is nothing special about Caesar’s name,
and so nothing special about Caesar himself that differentiates himself from other great men,
such as Brutus. Cassius emphasizes the point, which he continues to expand upon in the
following lines, that Caesar and Brutus are as equal in person as they are in name. Rome
became a Republic for that very reason—when all men are equal, no one man should have
excess power. Cassius has solidified his claim that Caesar has no right to be set above the rest
of Rome’s people, and will begin to fervently argue that he must be deposed.