Shakespeare presents Caesar’s death in Act 3 Scene 1 by using language devices and sentence structure to show how his hubris leads to his downfall.
Shakespeare uses a metaphor on the 3rd line (in the extract). Caesar says ‘But I am constant as the northern star, Of whose true-fix’d and resting quality’. I think the language used here describes Caesar’s arrogance and is what causes the other characters to despise Caesar because he compares himself to the Northern star; a star commonly used for navigation at sea but with a religious association to Jesus Christ. This may mean that Caesar is comparing himself to God (as Jesus is the human embodiment of God). Furthermore, I also think that Caesar is also saying that he will never die or be forgotten hence the use of the words ‘constant and fix’ed’.
An interesting sentence structure which Shakespeare uses comes after Brutus gives Caesar the final stab during the assassination and Caesar says ‘Et tu, Brute?– Then fall, Caesar’. The first thing I can notice is the Latin at the beginning of the sentence; Caesar says ‘and you?’. This is quite peculiar as most of the play is in English and Shakespeare decided to use Latin instead of English. The next thing I can notice is that Caesar says ‘Then fall, Caesar’. From this I can infer that Caesar has come to a realisation that even the people he believed to be close to him have turned against him but his hubris is also shown in his final moments as he speaks of himself in third person (whether or not he means himself or Caesar as in leader).
This is how Shakespeare presents Caesar’s death.
React!