can we talk about cassius/brutus and memesis? can we talk about "since you know you cannot see yourself so well as by reflection, I your glass, will modestly discover to yourself that which you know not of" and how cassius is aware of their mimetic relationship?
mirrors before 1835 were pretty shitty, basically just polished metal, which means that the reflection was always a distorted corrupted version of the original. cassius isn't saying that he's a true reflection of brutus, but just a vaguely accurate reflection. because cassius knows that he'll never be able to reflect brutus' nobility. he's more like a shadow than a reflection and he knows it. and he uses it, pretends that this is fine because he can use it to manipulate brutus into his conspiracy against caesar. but even sadder (because with cassius it always gets sadder) is that cassius is secretly hoping that he can show brutus something dark in himself so that he can finally be worthy of brutus and they can be shadowy, sketchy reflections together