CLOSE READING ANALYSIS #1
Julius Caesar by William Shakespeare
NAME _____________________________
PER ______ DATE __________________
Act I, Scene ii, Lines 97-138
CONTEXT (Explain what is happening at this point in the text and the overall significance of the passage)
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PASSAGE: Highlight key words and images, highlight and identify literary and rhetorical devices. Take notes in
the margins as you annotate the passage.
CASSIUS
I know that virtue to be in you, Brutus,
As well as I do know your outward favour.
Well, honour is the subject of my story.
I cannot tell what you and other men
Think of this life; but, for my single self,
I had as lief not be as live to be
In awe of such a thing as I myself.
I was born free as Caesar; so were you:
We both have fed as well, and we can both
Endure the winter's cold as well as he:
For once, upon a raw and gusty day,
The troubled Tiber chafing with her shores,
Caesar said to me 'Darest thou, Cassius, now
Leap in with me into this angry flood,
And swim to yonder point?' Upon the word,
Accoutred as I was, I plunged in
And bade him follow; so indeed he did.
The torrent roar'd, and we did buffet it
With lusty sinews, throwing it aside
And stemming it with hearts of controversy;
But ere we could arrive the point proposed,
Caesar cried 'Help me, Cassius, or I sink!'
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I, as Aeneas, our great ancestor,
Did from the flames of Troy upon his shoulder
The old Anchises bear, so from the waves of Tiber
Did I the tired Caesar. And this man
Is now become a god, and Cassius is
A wretched creature and must bend his body,
If Caesar carelessly but nod on him.
He had a fever when he was in Spain,
And when the fit was on him, I did mark
How he did shake: 'tis true, this god did shake;
His coward lips did from their colour fly,
And that same eye whose bend doth awe the world
Did lose his lustre: I did hear him groan:
Ay, and that tongue of his that bade the Romans
Mark him and write his speeches in their books,
Alas, it cried 'Give me some drink, Titinius,'
As a sick girl. Ye gods, it doth amaze me
A man of such a feeble temper should
So get the start of the majestic world
And bear the palm alone.
Shout. Flourish
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Subject: ____________________________________________________________________________________
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Tone: ______________________________________________________________________________________
Attach an analysis of this passage that reflects on those elements that contribute to the tone: particularly the choices in diction, metaphoric and ironic
devices, image patterns, symbols, and the syntactical arrangements. You may wish to label your analysis (diction, syntax, figurative devices, ironic
devices) but the best analyses usually “walk us through” the passage, pointing out authorial choices as we go.
CLOSE READING ANALYSIS #2
Julius Caesar by William Shakespeare
NAME _____________________________
PER ______ DATE __________________
Act I, Scene iii, Lines 107-119
CONTEXT (Explain what is happening at this point in the text and the overall significance of the passage)
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PASSAGE: Highlight key words and images, highlight and identify literary and rhetorical devices. Take notes in
the margins as you annotate the passage.
CASSIUS
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.
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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! But, O grief,
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Where hast thou led me? I perhaps speak this
Before a willing bondman; then I know
My answer must be made. But I am arm'd,
And dangers are to me indifferent.
Subject: ____________________________________________________________________________________
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Audience: __________________________________________________________________________________
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Purpose: ____________________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________________________
Speaker: ____________________________________________________________________________________
Tone: ______________________________________________________________________________________
Attach an analysis of this passage that reflects on those elements that contribute to the tone: particularly the choices in diction, metaphoric and ironic
devices, image patterns, symbols, and the syntactical arrangements. You may wish to label your analysis (diction, syntax, figurative devices, ironic
devices) but the best analyses usually “walk us through” the passage, pointing out authorial choices as we go.
CLOSE READING ANALYSIS #3
Julius Caesar by William Shakespeare
NAME _____________________________
PER ______ DATE __________________
Act II, Scene i, Lines 10-36
CONTEXT (Explain what is happening at this point in the text and the overall significance of the passage)
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PASSAGE: Highlight key words and images, highlight and identify literary and rhetorical devices. Take notes in
the margins as you annotate the passage.
BRUTUS
It must be by his death: and for my part,
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I know no personal cause to spurn at him,
But for the general. He would be crown'd:
How that might change his nature, there's the
question.
It is the bright day that brings forth the adder;
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And that craves wary walking. Crown him?--that;-And then, I grant, we put a sting in him,
That at his will he may do danger with.
The abuse of greatness is, when it disjoins
Remorse from power: and, to speak truth of Caesar, 20
I have not known when his affections sway'd
More than his reason. 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.
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He then unto the ladder turns his back,
Looks in the clouds, scorning the base degrees
By which he did ascend. So Caesar may.
Then, lest he may, prevent. And, since the quarrel
Will bear no colour for the thing he is,
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Fashion it thus; that what he is, augmented,
Would run to these and these extremities:
And therefore think him as a serpent's egg
Which, hatch'd, would, as his kind, grow
mischievous,
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And kill him in the shell.
Subject: ____________________________________________________________________________________
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Occasion: ___________________________________________________________________________________
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Audience: __________________________________________________________________________________
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Purpose: ____________________________________________________________________________________
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Speaker: ____________________________________________________________________________________
Tone: ______________________________________________________________________________________
Attach an analysis of this passage that reflects on those elements that contribute to the tone: particularly the choices in diction, metaphoric and ironic
devices, image patterns, symbols, and the syntactical arrangements. You may wish to label your analysis (diction, syntax, figurative devices, ironic
devices) but the best analyses usually “walk us through” the passage, pointing out authorial choices as we go.
CLOSE READING ANALYSIS #4
Julius Caesar by William Shakespeare
NAME _____________________________
PER ______ DATE __________________
Act III, Scene i, Lines 200-230
CONTEXT (Explain what is happening at this point in the text and the overall significance of the passage)
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___________________________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________________________
PASSAGE: Highlight key words and images, highlight and identify literary and rhetorical devices. Take notes in
the margins as you annotate the passage.
ANTONY
I doubt not of your wisdom.
Let each man render me his bloody hand:
First, Marcus Brutus, will I shake with you;
Next, Caius Cassius, do I take your hand;
Now, Decius Brutus, yours: now yours,
Metellus;
Yours, Cinna; and, my valiant Casca, yours;
Though last, not last in love, yours, good
Trebonius.
Gentlemen all,--alas, what shall I say?
My credit now stands on such slippery ground,
That one of two bad ways you must conceit me,
Either a coward or a flatterer.
That I did love thee, Caesar, O, 'tis true:
If then thy spirit look upon us now,
Shall it not grieve thee dearer than thy death,
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To see thy thy Anthony making his peace,
Shaking the bloody fingers of thy foes,
Most noble! in the presence of thy corse?
Had I as many eyes as thou hast wounds,
Weeping as fast as they stream forth thy blood,
It would become me better than to close
In terms of friendship with thine enemies.
Pardon me, Julius! Here wast thou bay'd, brave
hart;
Here didst thou fall; and here thy hunters stand,
Sign'd in thy spoil, and crimson'd in thy lethe.
O world, thou wast the forest to this hart;
And this, indeed, O world, the heart of thee.
How like a deer, strucken by many princes,
Dost thou here lie!
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Subject: ____________________________________________________________________________________
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Occasion: ___________________________________________________________________________________
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Audience: __________________________________________________________________________________
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Purpose: ____________________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________________________
Speaker: ____________________________________________________________________________________
Tone: ______________________________________________________________________________________
Attach an analysis of this passage that reflects on those elements that contribute to the tone: particularly the choices in diction, metaphoric and ironic
devices, image patterns, symbols, and the syntactical arrangements. You may wish to label your analysis (diction, syntax, figurative devices, ironic
devices) but the best analyses usually “walk us through” the passage, pointing out authorial choices as we go.
CLOSE READING ANALYSIS #5
Julius Caesar by William Shakespeare
NAME _____________________________
PER ______ DATE __________________
Act IV, Scene iii, Lines 244-255
CONTEXT (Explain what is happening at this point in the text and the overall significance of the passage)
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___________________________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________________________
PASSAGE: Highlight key words and images, highlight and identify literary and rhetorical devices. Take notes in
the margins as you annotate the passage.
BRUTUS
Under your pardon. You must note beside,
That we have tried the utmost of our friends,
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Our legions are brim-full, our cause is ripe:
The enemy increaseth every day;
We, at the height, are ready to decline.
There is a tide in the affairs of men,
Which, taken at the flood, leads on to fortune;
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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.
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Subject: ____________________________________________________________________________________
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Occasion: ___________________________________________________________________________________
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Audience: __________________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________________________
Purpose: ____________________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________________________
Speaker: ____________________________________________________________________________________
Tone: ______________________________________________________________________________________
Attach an analysis of this passage that reflects on those elements that contribute to the tone: particularly the choices in diction, metaphoric and ironic
devices, image patterns, symbols, and the syntactical arrangements. You may wish to label your analysis (diction, syntax, figurative devices, ironic
devices) but the best analyses usually “walk us through” the passage, pointing out authorial choices as we go.
CLOSE READING ANALYSIS #6
Julius Caesar by William Shakespeare
NAME _____________________________
PER ______ DATE __________________
Act V, Scene v, Lines 74-81
CONTEXT (Explain what is happening at this point in the text and the overall significance of the passage)
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___________________________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________________________
PASSAGE: Highlight key words and images, highlight and identify literary and rhetorical devices. Take notes in
the margins as you annotate the passage.
ANTONY
This was the noblest Roman of them all:
All the conspirators save only he
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Did that they did in envy of great Caesar;
He only, in a general honest thought
And common good to all, made one of them.
His life was gentle, and the elements
So mix'd in him that Nature might stand up
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And say to all the world 'This was a man!'
Subject: ____________________________________________________________________________________
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Occasion: ___________________________________________________________________________________
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Audience: __________________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________________________
Purpose: ____________________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________________________
Speaker: ____________________________________________________________________________________
Tone: ______________________________________________________________________________________
Attach an analysis of this passage that reflects on those elements that contribute to the tone: particularly the choices in diction, metaphoric and ironic
devices, image patterns, symbols, and the syntactical arrangements. You may wish to label your analysis (diction, syntax, figurative devices, ironic
devices) but the best analyses usually “walk us through” the passage, pointing out authorial choices as we go.