How Shakespeare presents Cassius, and how the character develops across the text: the envious, persuasive organiser of the conspiracy, whose friendship with Brutus survives their quarrel.
The key quotations for this character and how to analyse them, with the context that shapes them.
How to use the lesson's key quotations in an essay, with a short worked paragraph.
Key quotations: 'I was born free as Caesar; so were you', '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', 'Upon what meat doth this our Caesar feed, / That he is grown so great?', 'Seldom he smiles, and smiles in such a sort / As if he mock'd himself', 'Well, Brutus, thou art noble', 'I know where I will wear this dagger then', 'Let Antony and Caesar fall together', 'You know not what you do: do not consent / That Antony speak in his funeral', 'Cassius is aweary of the world', 'You know that I held Epicurus strong / And his opinion: now I change my mind, / And partly credit things that do presage'.
Cassius as a shrewd judge of men whose warnings about Antony Brutus overrules, and his envy of Caesar against his loyalty to Brutus.
Context: the historical Caesar's distrust of Cassius.
