Question

[CASSIUS.] Well, Brutus, thou art noble: yet I see Thy honourable mettle may be wrought From that it is disposed. Therefore it is meet That noble minds keep ever with their likes; For who so firm that cannot be seduced? Caesar doth bear me hard, but he loves Brutus. If I were Brutus now, and he were Cassius, He should not humour me. I will this night, In several hands in at his windows throw, As if they came from several citizens, Writings all tending to the great opinion That Rome holds of his name, wherein obscurely Caesar’s ambition shall be glancèd at: And after this, let Caesar seat him sure, For we will shake him, or worse days endure. –The Tragedy of Julius Caesar, William Shakespeare In this passage, it can be inferred that Cassius is motivated to use Brutus’s status to convince him to join the conspiracy. Which line best supports this motivation? “Caesar doth bear me hard, but he loves Brutus” “For we will shake him, or worse days endure” “Yet I see / Thy honourable mettle may be wrought” “Caesar’s ambition shall be glancèd at”

Answer 1

Cassius persuades Brutus to join the conspiracy against Caesar in an effort to save the Roman Republic from Caesar's perceived tyranny and to restore democratic governance.

Cassius is trying to convince Brutus to join a conspiracy against Julius Caesar because he views Caesar as a tyrant who threatens the Republic's democracy. The political situation in Rome was tense due to Caesar's considerable accumulation of power.

After being appointed dictator and receiving a term for life, many senators, including Cassius, feared Caesar's growing autocracy, stemming from a history of Roman distrust toward authoritarian rule. With the assassination led by Brutus and Cassius, they aimed to restore the Republic and prevent Caesar's potential despotism.

The probable question may be:

"In Julius Caesar, Why is Cassius is trying to convince Brutus to join a conspiracy against Julius Caesar?"