REVIEW: FIGURATIVE LANGUAGE AND CHARACTERIZATION
We are going to review the connection between stylistic choices a writer makes and the purpose for making those
choices.
REVIEW:
What is figurative language?______________________________________________________________
Examples of figurative language:____________________________________________________________
What is direct characterization?___________________________________________________________
What is indirect characterization?_________________________________________________________
ELEMENTS OF STYLE
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diction
details
point of view
organization
syntax
figurative language
SHORT DEFINITION
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see above
PURPOSE (Why would a writer
consider these things?)
establish a specific tone
evoke a certain mood
convey a particular theme
reveal character traits
DIRECTIONS:
On the back, read Brutus’s soliloquy. You are going to write a paragraph following the model I provided to practice (1)
identifying and analyzing figurative language, (2) connecting the author’s use of that figurative language to a specific
purpose, and (3) writing a well-developed paragraph with insightful commentary. Once you have learned how to do
these things, you will not need to adhere to such a formulaic model. Before you begin your paragraph, highlight or
underline figures of speech in this soliloquy that reveal Brutus’s assessment of Caesar as a person. Then, use the
following structure to write an academic paragraph analyzing Brutus’s soliloquy
PRACTICE MAKES PERFECT:
Topic Sentence: In Brutus’s soliloquy, Shakespeare includes figures of speech to show (what about Caesar’s character?).
Concrete Detail: (Insert a transition), Shakespeare writes, “(identify simile, metaphor, personification, hyperbole that
reveals what you have written in your TS)” (2.1. insert line numbers). NOTE: Make sure to use slashes (/) if you use
more than one line.
Commentary: What is being compared and in what sense are these things comparable? Explain how the figure of
speech works.
Commentary: Expand it out, go deeper, explain HOW this figure of speech helps Shakespeare shape Caesar’s character.
Now that Brutus has said this, what do we (the audience) understand about Caesar?
One or two more concrete details, with commentary.
Closing Sentence: After Brutus reveals his true feelings about Caesar, (What? Finish the thought. Why is this soliloquy
and Brutus’s characterization of Caesar important at this point in the play?).
ANALYZING BRUTUS’ SOLILOQUY
EXCERPT: (from Act II, scene i)
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;
And that craves wary walking. Crown him?--that;--
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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,
I have not known when his affections sway'd
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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.
He then unto the ladder turns his back,
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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,
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,
And kill him in the shell.
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