Question

excerpt from act iii scene ii
julius caesar by william shakespeare
referring to the highlighted text, which rhetorical device is used in this excerpt to comment on caesar’s legacy?
antony. the evil that men do lives after them; the good is oft interred with their bones.
options:
irony to highlight contradictions
simile to compare good and evil
cacophony to create harsh sounds
parallelism to balance opposing ideas

Explanation:

The excerpt is from a literary work (Julius Caesar), and the question is about a rhetorical device analyzing the contrast between "the evil that men do" and "the good [that is] oft interred with their bones". Parallelism involves balancing opposing ideas (here, evil done and good buried), which matches the structure. Irony highlights contradictions but here it's a balanced contrast, simile compares (not here), and cacophony is harsh sounds (not relevant). So the rhetorical device is parallelism to balance opposing ideas.

Answer:

A. parallelism to balance opposing ideas (assuming the first option's text is "parallelism to balance opposing ideas" as per the layout, with the correct option being the one about parallelism for balancing opposing clauses like evil and good in structure)