julius caesar close reading exercise

Question 1

narrative significance

Answer 1

the importance of the passage within the story (two sentences)

Question 2

thematic significance

Answer 2

(2-3 sentences) major themes and ideas presented and considered in the passage (tragedy, ambition, honor, etc) include some textual evidence if relevant

Question 3

literary significance

Answer 3

(discussion of evidence) figures of speech, how words are repeated or relate to other words, effect of language on reader (no sentence limit)

Question 4

alliteration

Answer 4

the repetition of consonants, especially at the beginnings of words (“there is no fellow in the firmament…”)

Question 5

anaphora

Answer 5

the repetition of a word or phrase at the beginning of successive clauses (“therein, you gods, you make the weak most strong; therein you gods, you tyrants do defeat”)`

Question 6

antithesis

Answer 6

the opposition of two ideas that are put together to achieve a contrasting effect (“we shall be called purgers, not murderers”)

Question 7

chiasmus

Answer 7

ideas repeated in reverse order, in the same or a modified form (“not that i love caesar less, but that i loved Rome more”)

Question 8

hyperbole

Answer 8

exaggeration for emphasis (“wilt thou lift up Olympus?”)

Question 9

litotes

Answer 9

understatement for emphasis- often an ironic understatement to affirm its opposite (“but as you know all, a plain blunt man/that love my friend”)

Question 10

metaphor

Answer 10

comparison without like or as (“thou bleeding piece of earth”)

Question 11

metonymy

Answer 11

the name of a thing is replaced with the name of something else (“an idea, attribute, or another thing) with which is closely associated, (shakespeare wrote for the stage, stage= theatrical profession, abstract relationship)

Question 12

onomatopeia

Answer 12

the use of words to imitate sounds (the crowd hissed, clapped, and hollered)

Question 13

oxymoron

Answer 13

a compressed paradox. opposite or contradictory terms used close together for emphasis (julius caesar’s assasination was organized chaos)

Question 14

paradox

Answer 14

a statement that is contradictory or illogical, but ultimately expresses a truth ( brutus, with himself at war)

Question 15

pathetic fallacy

Answer 15

a kind of personification that involves the attribution of human emotion to the natural world (angry clouds scowled over rome)

Question 16

personification

Answer 16

giving something a human quality or characteristic, or representing an abstract quality in human form (ambition’s debt is paid)

Question 17

simile

Answer 17

comparisons that feature like or as (i am constant as the north star)

Question 18

synecdoche

Answer 18

the name of a part of a thing stands for the whole (caesar won the war, caesar = imperial army, concrete relationship)