"JULIUS CAESAR" - William Shakespeare - INTRODUCTION

PLOT

Act I.

Shakespeare's famous Roman play opens to the scene of two Tribunes, Marullus and Flavius scolding Roman citizens for blindly worshipping Caesar. Their conversation reveals deep-seated fears that Caesar is growing too powerful, too arrogant and must be stopped. Hoping to reduce the blind hero worship of Caesar, the two men remove ceremonial decorations off Caesar's "images" (statues) despite the obvious dangers of doing so...

A little later, we see Caesar leading a procession through the streets of Rome. A Soothsayer or fortune teller tells Caesar to beware the "ides of March [the 15th of March]" a warning that Caesar will die on this day. It is ignored. Cassius, who fears Caesar's ever growing power, begins to recruit Brutus, a close friend of Caesar's 636h75g , towards his conspiracy by implying that Caesar is becoming too powerful.We also learn that Marullus and Flavius, the two tribunes pulling decorations off Caesar's statues have been put to silence for "pulling scarfs off Caesar's images [statues]." Brutus is suspicious of Cassius' motives but tells Cassius that he will think it over. Casca, another conspirator, reveals information to Brutus that suggests Caesar may be getting more ambitious.

Cassius' conspiracy gains momentum when he recruits a suspicious Casca to their cause against Caesar by pointing out that several recent strange occurrences are omens warning them against Caesar. To ensure Brutus joins his conspiracy, Cassius has Cinna place some forged letters where Brutus will find them convincing Brutus to join their cause. Cinna reveals that Brutus' good name will be an asset to their conspiracy.

Act II.

Brutus cannot sleep, revealing for the first time his own true fears that Caesar may be growing too powerful. A letter is discovered, which Brutus reads, convincing him to join the conspiracy. The complete group of conspirators meets at Brutus' house, discussing Caesar's assassination. Brutus argues against Caesar's right hand man, Mark Antony being assassinated as well. Cassius and Trebonius have their doubts but go along with Brutus. Brutus' troubled wife Portia tries to find out what her husband is planning, worried for him.

Calphurnia, Caesar's wife, wakes Caesar up after herself awakening from a terrible nightmare. She tells Caesar, that her dream foretells doom and succeeds in convincing Caesar not go to the Senate (also referred to as The Capitol) on the "ides of March" which is tomorrow. Decius Brutus arrives and hearing that Caesar will not be at the Senate tomorrow, flatters Caesar into going so as not to show fear (allowing Brutus and company to kill him there).

Artemidorus waits in a street with a letter warning Caesar of the conspiracy, hoping to avert Caesar's assassination...

Portia worries for her husband, hoping his "enterprise" today will succeed. The Soothsayer who warned Caesar about the "ides of March" in Act I, waits in a narrow street hoping to warn Caesar of his imminent danger...

Act III.

Caesar arrogantly tells the Soothsayer that today is the "ides of March", but the Soothsayer tells him the day is not over yet... Artemidorus nearly warns Caesar but Decius Brutus prevents this. Popilius wishes the conspirators good luck, scaring them that Caesar may already know their plans.

Metellus Cimber petitions Caesar to lift his brother's banishment order. Caesar refuses and the conspirators kill Caesar. Mark Antony flees. Mark Antony pretends to treat Caesar's murderers as friends. He asks to speak at Caesar's funeral. Cassius thinks this is dangerous, Brutus, disagreeing, lets Mark Antony speak at the funeral.

Mark Antony reveals his true hatred for the conspirators. Octavius, Mark Antony's ally is remain safely outside of Rome a little longer... Brutus and Cassius explain to the citizens of Rome why they killed Caesar, gaining their support.

Using the immortal words, "Friends, Romans, countrymen, lend me your ears;" Mark Antony turns the citizens of Rome against Brutus and Cassius by making the citizens feel remorse for Caesar's cruel death and by bribing then with the news that Caesar's will gifts each citizen money from his will. Mark Antony uses this fact to suggest Caesar was a great man who should not have been murdered.

The crowd, now an angry, crazed mob, go after the conspirators including Brutus and Cassius who flee in fear...

A poet called Cinna who bears the same name as one of the conspirators is killed by the angry mob which shows Shakespeare's insight into the senselessness of the mob mentality...

Act IV.

The Triumvirs (Octavius, Mark Antony and Lepidus) decide which of the conspirators shall live and which shall die. Mark Antony assures Octavius that Lepidus does not and will not ever have any serious power... The two men start planning their attack on Brutus' and Cassius' forces.

Brutus learns that Cassius has finally arrived. Brutus is angry with Cassius, Cassius saying he has done his friend no wrong. Brutus wanting privacy from his troops, tells Cassius to step into his tent where he will discuss the issue further...

Brutus angrily attacks Cassius first for contradicting his order to remove Lucius Pella for taking bribes and then Cassius himself for his own dishonesty. Cassius is upset by this but eventually Brutus chooses to forgive his friend. We learn that Portia, Brutus' wife has died, over one hundred senators have been put to death by the Triumvirs and that a large army led by Mark Antony and Octavius is approaching their position... Brutus is greeted by Caesar's Ghost which tells Brutus he will see Caesar again at Philippi.

Act V.

On the Plains of Philippi, Mark Antony's and Octavius' forces face Brutus' and Cassius' forces. The two sides insult each other, Mark Antony and Octavius then leaving with their army.

Later in battle with Mark Antony and Octavius, Brutus sends orders via messenger Messala to Cassius' forces on the other side of the battlefield.

Cassius' forces are losing ground to Mark Antony's forces. Brutus has defeated Octavius' forces but instead of reinforcing Cassius' forces, have instead sought out spoils or bounty from the field.

Needing information, Cassius sends Titinius to a nearby hill to report if it is friendly or not. Cassius instructs Pindarus to go atop a hill to report Titinius' progress to him.

Pindarus sees Titinius pulled off his horse and fears Titinius has been captured. This would mean Brutus' forces have been beaten so Cassius kills himself on Pindarus' sword. Titinius now returns realizing that Titinius was not captured but was greeted by Brutus' victorious forces. Brutus learns of Cassius' death. Titinius, mourning Cassius, kills commits suicide.

Brutus inspires his men to keep fighting. Lucilius who is mistaken for Brutus is captured. Eventually Mark Antony realizes this. The battle rages on and Antony issues orders for Brutus to be captured, dead or alive...

Tired, weary, but still alive, Brutus finds a place to catch his breath with his few remaining followers. One by one, Brutus asks first Clitius, Dardanius and Volumnius to kill him but each refuses. Finally Brutus gets his wish by falling on his sword, killing himself.

Octavius, Mark Antony, Messala and Lucilius now arrive. Strato explains how Brutus died. Mark Antony pays tribute to Brutus' noble spirit by famously saying, "This was the noblest Roman of them all..." Octavius tells his soldiers to stand down, the battle now over...

ANALYSIS OF MAJOR CHARACTERS

Brutus

Brutus emerges as the most complex character in Julius Caesar and is also the play's tragic hero. In his soliloquies, the audience gains insight into the complexities of his motives. He is a powerful public figure, but he appears also as a husband, a master to his servants, a dignified military leader, and a loving friend.

It is alslo important to see if the assassination that Brutus has committed with the other members of the conspiracy, was a noble, decidedly selfless act or proof  of a truly evil callousness, a gross indifference to the ties of friendship and a failure to be moved by the power of a truly great man.

Brutus's rigid idealism is both his greatest virtue and his most deadly fault. In the world of the play, where self-serving ambition seems to dominate all other motivations, Brutus lives up to Antony's elegiac description of him as "the noblest of Romans." However, his commitment to principle repeatedly leads him to make miscalculations: wanting to curtail violence, he ignores Cassius's suggestion that the conspirators kill Antony as well as Caesar. In another moment of idealism, he again ignores Cassius's advice and allows Antony to speak a funeral oration over Caesar's body. As a result, Brutus loses the authority of having the last word on the murder and thus allows Antony to incite the plebeians torevolt against him and the other conspirators. Brutus later risks his good relationship with Cassius by self-righteously condemning what he sees as dishonorable fund-raising tactics on Cassius's part. In all of these episodes, Brutus acts out of a desire to limit the self-serving aspects of his actions; ironically, however, in each case he condems the cause that he seeks to promote, thus serving no one at all.

Julius Caesar

The conspirators charge Caesar with ambition;he lives for the absolute power over Rome, reveling in the homage he receives from others and in his conception of himself as a figure who will live on forever in men's minds. However, his faith in his own permanence, in the sense of both his loyalty to principles and his fixture as a public institution, eventually proves his undoing. At first, he stubbornly refuses to heed the nightmares of his wife, Calpurnia, and the supernatural omens pervading the atmosphere. Though he is eventually persuaded not to go to the Senate, Caesar ultimately lets his ambition get the better of him, as the prospect of being crowned king proves too glorious to resist.

Caesar's conflation of his public image with his private self helps bring about his death, since he mistakenly believes that the immortal status granted to his public self somehow protects his mortal body. Caesar's behaviour seems to affect the general outcome of events in a mystic manner, while also inspiring Octavius and Antony and strengthening their determination. As Octavius ultimately assumes the title Caesar, Caesar's permanence is indeed established in some respect.

Antony

Antony proves strong in all of the ways that Brutus proves weak. His impulsive, improvisatory nature serves him perfectly, first to persuade the conspirators that he is on their side, thus gaining their kindness, and then to persuade the plebeians of the conspirators' injustice, thus gaining the masses' political support. Not too scrupulous to stoop to deceit and duplicity, as Brutus claims to be, Antony proves himself a consummate politician, using gestures and skilled rhetoric to his advantage.

Antony never separates his private affairs from his public actions.

OTHER CHARACTERS

Cassius

A talented general and longtime acquaintance of Caesar. Cassius dislikes the fact that Caesar has become godlike in the eyes of the Romans. He cleverly leads Brutus to believe that Caesar has become too powerful and must die, finally converting Brutus to his cause by sending him forged letters claiming that the Roman people support the death of Caesar. Impulsive and unscrupulous, Cassius does not have illusions about the way that the political world works. He seems to be a great opportunist, he proves successful but lacks integrity.

Octavius 

Caesar's adopted son and appointed successor. Octavius, who had been traveling abroad, returns after Caesar's death; he then joins with Antony and sets off to fight Cassius and Brutus. Antony tries to control Octavius's movements, but Octavius follows his adopted father's example and emerges as the authoritative figure.

Casca

A public figure opposed to Caesar's rise to power. Casca relates to Cassius and Brutus how Antony offered the crown to Caesar three times and how each time Caesar declined it. He believes, however, that Caesar is the consummate actor, lulling the populace into believing that he has no personal ambition.

Calpurnia

Caesar's wife. Calpurnia invests great authority in omens and portents. She warns Caesar against going to the Senate on the Ides of March, since she has had terrible nightmares and heard reports of many bad omens. Nevertheless, Caesar's ambition ultimately causes him to disregard her advice.

Portia

Brutus's wife; the daughter of a noble Roman who took sides against Caesar. Portia, accustomed to being Brutus's confidante, is upset to find him so reluctant to speak his mind when she finds him troubled. Brutus later hears that Portia has killed herself out of grief that Antony and Octavius have become so powerful.

Flavius

A tribune (an official elected by the people to protect their rights). Flavius condemns the plebeians for their fickleness in cheering Caesar, when once they cheered for Caesar's enemy Pompey. Flavius is punished along with Murellus for removing the decorations from Caesar's statues during Caesar's triumphal parade.

Cicero

A Roman senator renowned for his oratorical skill. Cicero speaks at Caesar's triumphal parade. He later dies at the order of Antony, Octavius, and Lepidus.

Lepidus

The third member of Antony and Octavius's coalition. Though Antony has a low opinion of Lepidus, Octavius trusts his loyalty.

Murellus

Like Flavius, a tribune who condemns the plebeians for their fickleness in cheering Caesar, when once they cheered for Caesar's enemy Pompey. Murellus and Flavius are punished for removing the decorations from Caesar's statues during Caesar's triumphal parade.

Decius

A member of the conspiracy. Decius convinces Caesar that Calpurnia misinterpreted her dire nightmares and that, in fact, no danger awaits him at the Senate. Decius leads Caesar right into the hands of the conspirators

THEMES, MOTIFS & SYMBOLS

Themes

Fate versus Free Will

Julius Caesar suggests many questions about the force of fate in life versus the capacity of  free will. Cassius refuses to accept Caesar's rising power and deems a belief in fate to be nothing more than a form of passivity or cowardice. He says to Brutus: "Men at sometime were masters of their fates. / The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars, / But in ourselves, that we are underlings" (I.ii.140-142). Cassius urges a return to a more noble, self-possessed attitude toward life.

Ultimately, the play seems to support a philosophy in which fate and freedom maintain a delicate coexistence. Thus Caesar declares: "It seems to me most strange that men should fear, / Seeing that death, a necessary end, / Will come when it will come" (II.ii.35-37). In other words, Caesar recognizes that certain events lie beyond human control; to crouch in fear of them is to enter a paralysis equal to, if not worse than, death.

Indeed, perhaps to face death head-on, to die bravely and honorably, is Caesar's best course: in the end, Brutus interprets his and Cassius's defeat as the work of Caesar's ghost-not just his apparition, but also the force of the people's devotion to him, the strong legacy of a man who refused any fear of fate and, in his disregard of fate, seems to have transcended it.

Public Self versus Private Self

Much of the play's tragedy stems from the characters' neglect of private feelings and loyalties in favor of what they believe to be the public good. Similarly, characters confuse their private selves with their public selves, hardening and dehumanizing themselves or transforming themselves into ruthless political machines. Brutus refuses his wife, Portia, when she pleads with him to confide in her; believing himself to be acting on the people's will.

Brutus puts aside his personal loyalties and shuns thoughts of Caesar the man, his friend; instead, he acts on what he believes to be the public's wishes and kills Caesar the leader, the imminent dictator. Cassius can be seen as a man who has gone to the extreme in cultivating his public man. Caesar, describing his distrust of Cassius, tells Antony that the problem with Cassius is his lack of a private life, his seeming refusal to acknowledge his own sensibilities or to nurture his own spirit. Such a man, Caesar fears, will let nothing interfere with his ambition. Indeed, Cassius lacks all sense of personal honor and shows himself to be a ruthless schemer.

Ultimately, neglecting private sentiments to follow public concerns brings Caesar to his death. Although Caesar does briefly agree to stay home from the Senate in order to please Calpurnia, who has dreamed of his murder, he gives way to ambition when Decius tells him that the senators plan to offer him the crown. -Caesar's public self again takes precedence. Tragically, he no longer sees the difference between his omnipotent, immortal public image and his vulnerable human body. Just preceding his death, Caesar refuses Artemidorus's pleas to speak with him, saying that he gives last priority to his most personal concerns.

Misinterpretations and Misreadings

Much of the play deals with the characters' failures to interpret correctly the omens that they encounter. As Cicero says, "Men may construe things after their fashion, / Clean from the purpose of the things themselves" (I.iii.34-35). Thus, the night preceding Caesar's appearance at the Senate is full of portents, but no one reads them accurately: Cassius takes them to signify the danger that Caesar's impending coronation would bring to the state, when, if anything, they warn of the destruction that Cassius himself threatens. There are calculated misreadings as well: Cassius manipulates Brutus into joining the conspiracy by means of forged letters, knowing that Brutus's trusting nature will cause him to accept the letters as authentic pleas from the Roman people.

The circumstances of Cassius's death represent another instance of misinterpretation. Pindarus's erroneous conclusion that Titinius has been captured by the enemy, when in fact Titinius has reunited with friendly forces, is the piece of misinformation that prompts Cassius to seek death.

Antony proves masterful at recognizing his situation, and his accurate reading of the crowd's emotions during his funeral oration for Caesar allows him to win the masses over to his side..

Rhetoric and Power

Julius Caesar gives detailed consideration to the relationship between rhetoric and power. The ability to make things happen by words alone is the most powerful type of authority. Early in the play, it is established that Caesar has this type of absolute authority: "When Caesar says 'Do this,' it is performed," says Antony, who attaches a similar weight to Octavius's words toward the end of the play (I.ii.12). Words also serve to move hearts and minds, as Act III evidences. Antony cleverly convinces the conspirators of his desire to side with them: "Let each man render me with his bloody hand" (III.i.185). Under the guise of a gesture of friendship, Antony actually marks the conspirators for vengeance. In the Forum, Brutus speaks to the crowd and appeals to its love of liberty in order to justify the killing of Caesar. He also makes ample reference to the honor in which he is generally esteemed so as to validate further his explanation of the deed. Antony likewise wins the crowd's favor, using persuasive rhetoric to whip the masses into a frenzy so great that they don't even realize the fickleness of their favor.

Motifs

Omens and Portents

Throughout the play, omens and portents manifest themselves, each serving to crystallize the larger themes of fate and misinterpretation of signs. Until Caesar's death, each time an omen or nightmare is reported, the audience is reminded of Caesar's impending demise. The audience wonders whether these portents simply announce what is fated to occur or whether they serve as warnings for what might occur if the characters do not take active steps to change their behavior. Whether or not individuals can affect their destinies, characters repeatedly fail to interpret the omens correctly. In a larger sense, the omens in Julius Caesar thus imply the dangers of failing to perceive and analyze the details of one's world.

Letters

The motif of letters represents an interesting counterpart to the force of oral rhetoric in the play. Oral rhetoric depends upon a direct, dialogic interaction between speaker and audience: depending on how the listeners respond to a certain statement, the orator can alter his or her speech and intonations accordingly. In contrast, the power of a written letter depends more fully on the addressee; whereas an orator must read the emotions of the crowd, the act of reading is undertaken solely by the recipient of the letter. Thus, when Brutus receives the forged letter from Cassius in Act II, scene i, the letter has an effect because Brutus allows it to do so; it is he who grants it its full power. In contrast, Caesar refuses to read the letter that Artemidorus tries to hand him in Act III, scene i, as he is heading to the Senate. Predisposed to ignore personal affairs, Caesar denies the letter any reading at all and thus negates the potential power of the words written inside.

Symbols

Women and Wives

While one could try to analyze Calpurnia and Portia as full characters in their own right, they function primarily not as sympathetic personalities or sources of insight or poetry but rather as symbols for the private, domestic realm. Both women plead with their husbands to be more aware of their private needs and feelings (Portia in Act II, scene i; Calpurnia in Act III, scene ii). Caesar and Brutus rebuff the pleas of their respective wives, however; they not only prioritize public matters but also actively disregard their private emotions and intuitions. As such, Calpurnia and Portia are powerless figures, willing though unable to help and comfort Caesar and Brutus.