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Definition of Metaphor
A metaphor is a figure of speech that compares two different things by saying that one thing is the other. The comparison in a metaphor can be stated explicitly, as... read full definition
A metaphor is a figure of speech that compares two different things by saying that one thing is the other. The comparison in a metaphor... read full definition
A metaphor is a figure of speech that compares two different things by saying that one thing is the other... read full definition
Act 1, scene 2
Explanation and Analysis—Cesca's Saucy Speech:
In Act 1, Scene 2, Brutus remarks to Cassius that Casca, with whom they have just conferred, seems to have lost his quick wit. Cassius uses a metaphor to explain that, in fact, Casca's style of speech is a deliberate choice:
BRUTUS:
What a blunt fellow is this grown to be!
He was quick mettle when he want to school.CASSIUS:
So is he now in execution
Of any bold or noble enterprise,
However he puts on this tardy form.
This rudeness is a sauce to his good wit,
Which gives men stomach to digest his words
With better appetite.
Related Themes:
Act 1, scene 3
Explanation and Analysis—A Wolf in Roman Clothing:
In Act 1, Scene 3, Cassius offers his withering opinion of Caesar. Using a set of nested metaphors, he sets up his rival as a lowly man who nonetheless presents a threat to the people of Rome if they do not pay attention:
Unlock with LitCharts A+And why should Caesar be a tyrant, then?
Poor man, I know he would not be a wolf
But that he sees the Romans are but sheep;
He were no lion, were not Romans hinds.
Those that with haste will make a mighty fire
Begin it with weak straws. What trash is Rome,
What rubbish, and what offal when it serves
For the base matter to illuminate
So vile a thing as Caesar!
Related Themes:
Act 2, scene 1
Explanation and Analysis—Brutus's Inner Kingdom:
In Act 2, Scene 1, Brutus suffers under the burden of plotting against his old ally, Caesar. In a lengthy metaphor, he compares his body's visceral reaction to the stress of the situation to a kingdom in rebellion:
Unlock with LitCharts A+Since Cassius first did whet me against Caesar,
I have not slept.
Between the act of a dreadful thing
And the first motion, all the interim is
Like a phantasma or a hideous dream.
The genius and the mortal instruments
Are then in council, and the state of man,
Like to a little kingdom, suffers then
The nature of an insurrection.
Related Themes:
Explanation and Analysis—Doctor Death:
In Act 2, Scene 1, Brutus attempts to recruit Licarius to the conspiracy against Caesar. Though Ligarious is ill, he feels eager to join the cause. He goes so far as to compare, using simile, Brutus's recruitment efforts to the work of a spiritual healer:
Unlock with LitCharts A+LIGARIUS:
Brave son, derived from honorable loins,
Thou like an exorcist hast conjured up
My mortified spirit. Now bid me run,
And I will strive with things impossible,
Yea, get the better of them. What’s to do?BRUTUS:
A piece of work that will make sick men whole.
Related Themes:
Explanation and Analysis—The Limb of the Operation:
In Act 2, Scene 1, Cassius and Brutus lay the groundwork for their effort to defeat Caesar and remove him as a threat to the Roman Republic. Brutus balks at the prospect of more bloodshed when Cassius proposes eliminating Mark Antony in addition to Caesar himself, metaphorically comparing Antony to the "limb" of Caesar in order to advocate against his murder:
Unlock with LitCharts A+Our course will seem too bloody, Caius Cassius,
To cut the head off and then hack the limbs,
Like wrath in death and envy afterwards;
For Antony is but a limb of Caesar.
Let’s be sacrificers, but not butchers, Caius.
Related Themes:
Explanation and Analysis—The Political Ladder:
In Act 2, Scene 1, a sleepless Brutus mulls over the plot against Caesar in his orchard. In metaphorical language, he muses over Caesar's rise to power:
Unlock with LitCharts A+But ‘tis a common proof
That lowliness is young ambition’s ladder,
Whereto the climber-upward turns his face;
But, when he once attains the upmost round,
He then unto the ladder turns his back,
Looks in the clouds, scorning the base degrees
By which he did ascend. So Caesar may.
Related Themes:
Act 4, scene 3
Explanation and Analysis—The Tide is Right:
Conquest is all a matter of timing. In Act 4, Scene 3, as Brutus and Cassius discuss how best to face the armies of Antony and Octavius in battle, Brutus uses the metaphor of the ocean's tides to emphasize the importance of striking at the right moment:
Unlock with LitCharts A+There is a tide in the affairs of men
Which, taken at the flood, leads on to fortune;
Omitted, all the voyage of their life
Is bound in shallows and in miseries.
On such a full sea are we now afloat,
And we must take the current when it serves
Or lose our ventures.
Related Themes:
Act 5, scene 1
Explanation and Analysis—Hybla Bees:
In Act 5, Scene 1, Cassius, Brutus, and Antony trade insults as their armies face each other in battle. Cassius makes an allusion to Hyblean honeybees as he mocks Antony for his bluster:
Unlock with LitCharts A+CASSIUS:
Antony,
The posture of your blows are yet unknown,
But, for your words, they rob the Hybla bees
And leave them honeyless.ANTONY:
Not stingless too.BRUTUS:
O yes, and soundless too,
For you have stolen their buzzing, Antony,
And very wisely threat before you sting.
Related Themes:
Act 5, scene 5
Explanation and Analysis—Brutus Overflows:
In Act 5, Scene 5, as Brutus faces defeat, he asks Dardanius to kill him. Relaying Brutus's final request to Clitus, the pair observe Brutus's grieving form through metaphor:
Unlock with LitCharts A+CLITUS:
What ill request did Brutus make to thee?DARDANIUS:
To kill him, Clitus. Look, he meditates.CLITUS:
Now is that noble vessel full of grief,
That it runs over even at his eyes.
Related Themes:
