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Metaphor
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:
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.
Brutus has become a water vessel: he is so full of grief that he begins to "overflow" with it. In the midst of this tragic scene, Brutus weeps because there is no where else for the grief to go. The extent of this emotion, and Brutus's deadly request to Dardanius, cements him as the true tragic hero at the center of Julius Caesar. He has lost everything: his wife, Portia, has committed suicide, his political ambitions have been vanquished, and he faces immanent military defeat. For the politicians at the center of Julius Caesar, self-worth is entirely determined by political standing and military success—any defeat has existential proportions and questions the person's very right to exist. As he overflows with grief, Brutus finds the only honorable way out to be his death even as his companions urge him to continue on.
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