examples of iambic pentameter in Julius Caesar?

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owlfred · Answer

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anonymous · Answer

When you read Shakespeare's plays, you'll find him switching from prose to iambic pentameter according to the dramatic needs of the scene. For example, in Julius Caesar, both Brutus and Mark Antony make speeches to the crowds in the streets after the assassination of Caesar. Brutus's speech, in which he wants to explain why he killed Caesar, as factually and honestly as he can, is in prose. Mark Antony's speech, however, is in iambic pentameters, because he wants to appeal to the feelings of the crowd -- he is not interested in facts, only in rousing the rabble against Brutus, so he uses stirring language, in iambic pentameters. One appeals to the intellect, the other to the gut. One uses plain speech, the other the pulse of war drums.