Monday, February 17, 2014

What is an example of parallelism in Brutus' speech?

In Act III, scene ii of Julius
Caesar
, Brutus uses much parallelism (parallel construction: using the same
pattern of words to show that two or more ideas have the same level of
importance.)


He begins his speech
thusly:



Then
follow me, and give me
audience, friends.



Notice the
repetition of "me" in the object placement in both
clauses.


Later, he says:


readability="7">

Those that will hear
me speak, let 'em stay here;
Those that will
follow Cassius, go with
him;



Notice the repetition of
the "those that will" at the beginning of each
clause.


Still later, he returns to the "me" as object
coupled with the "that you may":


readability="13">

hear me for
my
cause, and be silent, that you may hear:
believeme
for mine honour, and have respect to
mine honour, that
you may
believe:
censure me in your wisdom, and
awake your
senses, that you may the better
judge.



The speech builds as
the level of parallelism increases.

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