This definitions covers Key Terms for Cassius & Antony within Cassius & Antony (characters) for GCSE English Literature. Revise Cassius & Antony (characters) in Julius Caesar for GCSE English Literature with 12 exam-style questions and 16 flashcards. This topic shows up very often in GCSE exams, so students should be able to explain it clearly, not just recognise the term. It is section 14 of 20 in this topic. Make sure you can use the exact wording confidently, because definition marks are often lost through vague language.
📜 Key Terms for Cassius & Antony
- Anaphora
- Repetition of a word or phrase at the start of successive clauses. Antony's repeated "Brutus is an honourable man" is anaphora deployed for ironic escalation, not emphasis.
- Soliloquy
- A character speaking their thoughts alone. Antony's "Cry havoc" speech (3.1) is a soliloquy that reveals his private purpose immediately after his public performance of grief.
- Dramatic irony
- When the audience knows something a character does not. Caesar's dismissal of his own correct warning about Cassius is the play's defining instance.
- Foil
- A character whose contrasting qualities illuminate another. Cassius and Antony are foils — both manipulators, but in opposite registers (private vs public, individual vs crowd).
- Tricolon
- A series of three parallel phrases. "Friends, Romans, countrymen" — three nouns that broaden from personal to civic to national in two words, drawing in the widest possible audience.
Practice questions for Cassius & Antony (characters)
At Caesar's funeral, Brutus speaks in prose and Antony speaks in verse. What does this formal difference tell us about how Shakespeare distinguishes the two men?
How does Shakespeare use Caesar's description of Cassius — 'He thinks too much: such men are dangerous' — to present Cassius's character and build dramatic tension?