In Anthony’s soliloquy shows that he is sorry for being so friendly with the conspirators . I can tell this by the first sentence of the soliloquy “O, pardon me, thou bleeding piece of earth, that I am meek and gentle with these butchers!”. I can tell he is sorry as he say pardon which means he is asking to be forgiven. I can tell he is talking about the conspirators as he says butchers. He calls the butchers as the brutally murdered Caesar.He also thinks that Caesar is a mighty man and was a really important person. The quote ” Thou art the ruins of the noblest man that ever lived in the tide of times.”, tells me that. That quote asking has another meaning that. I think that meaning is that the remains of Caesar are only ruins. It is also a homophone it also could mean that they have ruined the live of the noblest man.
This soliloquy tells us what he really is thinking as he has no one to lie to. So we can tell if he lies in the future of the play and can tell if he lies earlier on in the play. Now we can tell that when Anthony smothered his hand in Caesar’s blood, he did not want to join the conspirators he just wanted to gain their trust. With their trust he then can gets Caesar’s revenge. I can tell that he wants to get Caesar’s revenge by the quote “And Caesar’s spirit, ranging for revenge, with Ate by his side come hour from hell”. This means that he is searching for revenge and with Ate (The Greek Godess of revenge) they will bring revenge from hell. I think he is referring Ate to himself so he will bring Caesar’s revenge to the conspirators.
November 15, 2015 at 1:35 pm
Your first paragraph shows some very purposeful exploration of langauge, that considers some interesting interpretations of the language and Antony’s motives.
I’m interested in how Antony’s language might present us with patterns to link to other parts of the play. For instance, when he calls the conspirators ‘butchers’, is this simply a coincidence that we have heard this languae previously in the play? Why?
Focus on some clear symbols used by Antony and explore how Shakespeare might have constructed these meanings. Are there any other language/dramatic devices present? Where?