The play Julius Caesar was written in about 1599. He made the plot around the dramatic interest which arises from the three main characters Brutus, Cassius and Antony. Shakespeare wrote The Tragedy of Julius Caesar in 1599. This play is a tragedy like Romeo and Juliet written by Shakespeare. You do not feel sorry when Caesar dies, like you do for the two lovers, though. Caesar isn’t an innocent man and his power has become corrupt. The play still captures human interest, but it is not for the sentimental romance of Romeo and Juliet. It is because the issues that the characters face are so applicable today.
Julius Caesar deals with corrupt governments, one’s conscience, doing what will be good for everyone rather than thinking about one’s self, and the ability to change the populace’s minds. It also reaches into the area of grandness and becoming too ambitious. The play opens in Rome, at a parade for the great Caesar who has defeated the enemies in battle. Two working men are interrupted by Marullus, who scolds them for celebrating Caesar, a man who has killed Pompey’s sons. This is the first symbol that some of the public are unhappy with Caesar.
While Caesar is parading through the streets, a soothsayer warns him, “Beware the Ides of March. ” Caesar ignores this warning and thinks nothing of it, yet later in this book as you will see, he should have took notice of this warning. Caesar is offered the crown three times , refusing it to the ovation of the people. This could be seen as a way to win the hearts of the public. Meanwhile, Cassius is plotting to assassinate Caesar out of fear that Caesar is becoming to powerful and I also think that he is doing this as he is feeling jealous of Caesars power and wishes he was in this position.
Casca, Cinna, Decius Brutus, Trebonius, and Metellus Cimber join Cassius in his plot. Brutus does not want to join this plot because he thinks that Caesar is a good man and friend. However, his conscience keeps him awake during the night and forged letters from the conspirators urging him to join the plot finally convince Brutus that killing Caesar would be best for the people. I think that he feels in his heart that he doesn’t want to kill Caesar, but I think that due to pier pressure he makes the decision to join the plot.
The next day, Calpurnia urges Caesar not to go to the Capitol because she has had bad dreams and fears the worst for Caesar which is understandable as she is his wife. The priests also suggest that Caesar stays at home because they did not find a heart in the beast. When Caesar finally agrees to remain at home, Decius Brutus understands what ids happening in the dreams and tells Caesar to go. Caesar leaves for the Capitol with his “friends. ” The soothsayer warns Caesar again that the Ides of March March 15 has come.
Caesar almost receives a warning about the conspiracy from Artemidorus, but Caesar refuses to read it. Setting up a fake reason, the conspirators kill Caesar. Cassius stabs him first and Brutus last. Caesar, seeing his friend Brutus among the conspirators, says his famous words, “Et tu, Brute? ” This means “And you, Brutus? ” He can’t believe that even his good friend betrayed him. Freedom is what the conspirators wanted. Freedom is not what they got. Mark Antony, Caesar’s faithful friend, was not killed under Brutus’ orders “Our course will seem too bloody, Caius Cassius”.
Pretending to be the conspirators’ friend, Antony is even allowed to speak at Caesar’s funeral. I think that this is sick knowing that he killed him, yet he is at the funeral giving his condolences. Brutus delivers the first speech at the funeral. He is honest and wins the peoples’ hearts and voices quickly. In a matter of minutes, the populace has forgotten their devotion to Caesar. They now exalt Brutus as their leader. I think this is what Brutus wanted and now he has got what he wanted he is not worried that he killed Caesar.
Almost everyone knows at least the beginning of Antony’s famous speech. “Friends, Romans, countrymen, lend me your ears; I come to bury Caesar, not to praise him. ” In his speech, he stirs the people up to love Caesar once again and hate the conspirators. The people rise up in defiance, causing civil war in Rome. They go through the streets looking to murder the conspirators, even killing a poor poet who happened to have the same name as Cinna the conspirator. This shows the peoples love for Caesar and shows how much they miss him. Brutus and Cassius flee Rome.
This to me would look very suspicious to me as a murder has just taken place and they had no reason to flee Rome. Octavius and Lepidus join Antony to form the Second Triumvirate. They make a list of people that they must kill. The title is a bit misleading because the play’s focus is not really Caesar and Caesar doesn’t have a very big part in the play. Caesar is killed about halfway through the play. Most people will agree that Brutus is the true hero in Julius Caesar. The play is about the inner conflict in Brutus over whether or not he should kill a friend for the good of the Roman people.
Brutus is someone who remains good from the beginning to the end of the play. In the final scene, Mark Antony even says, “This was the noblest Roman of them all,” when looking down at Brutus. In the book Julius Caesar, I think that most of the characters have a mixed character and are not entirely good or bad. I think that this is evident throughout the story and is most evident in the character of Brutus. Brutus shows evil through killing Caesar but says that it has to be done for the good of the country. Brutus is a good man. Many characters in the play show there respect for Brutus.
Brutus shows his honour in many ways. Brutus is flattering when he is needed to support his fellow Romans. Brutus is an honourable man. “Am I entreated to Speak and Strike? O Rome I make thee promise, If the redress will follow, then receivest thy full petition at the hand of Brutus”. Brutus will obey to whatever the Romans suggest to him. So, Brutus joins the conspiracy in order to help the Romans rid Rome of Caesar. Brutus also understands that he is putting it all on the line for his Romans, therefore Brutus is an honourable man. Brutus is a careful man, whose qualities suffer. No not an oath, If not by the face of men, the sufferance of our souls, the time”s abuse-If these motives be weak, break off betimes, and every men hence to his idle bed; So let high sighted tyranny rage on, till each man drop by lottery”. Brutus said that if the conspirators do not join for a common cause, then there is no need for a promise because the conspirators are arrogant, and they are serving the Romans. If the conspirators don”t unite, then each man will go his own way, become a weakling, and die when it suits the tyrants fancy.
Brutus is advocates peace, freedom and liberty, for all Romans, which shows that Brutus is an altruistic as well as an honourable man. Brutus also had a care for Caesar when he had killed Caesar. “If then that a friend demand why Brutus rose against Caesar, this is my answer: Not that I loved Caesar less, but that I loved Rome more”. Brutus had honoured Caesar but Brutus felt that Caesar was to pushy. Brutus also felt that Caesar made the Romans as slaves. Therefore, Brutus is an honourable man. Brutus is a noble man who was revered by many. Brutus had joined the conspiracy because he had the desire to help the commoners.
He was a follower of idealism, where the Romans would possess peace, liberty and freedom. Brutus wanted the kill Caesar, because he believed that all of the people of Rome would eventually be slaves, thus Brutus resorted to the assassination if Caesar. Marcus Brutus was a good friend to Julius Caesar, but not good enough. He had good standards dealing with Rome and its people. Brutus” standards then made him join a conspiracy against Caesar put together by Cassius. Brutus joined this mainly because he didn”t want Caesar to turn his back on Rome so there would be a reasonable reason for killing Caesar.
If Brutus wasn”t in the play, there would be no “Tragedy” in Julius Caesar. The first character quality Antony shows is respect, as revealed in Act 1 Scene 2. In lines 9-12, Caesar tells Antony, “Forget not, in your speed, Antonius, To touch Calpurnia; for our elders say, The barren, touched in this holy chase, Shake off their sterile curse. ” In lines 13-14, Antony replies with, “I shall remember, When Caesar says “do this,” it is perform”d”. It isn’t much of a dialogue, but in it reveals that Antony obeys Caesar without question. In other words, Caesar could tell Antony to do anything he wanted and Antony would ask, what to do.
Another character quality of Antony is skill. This is revealed in Act 3, Scene 2. In Antony’s famous speech starting on line 82, he “turns” the crowd from supporting Brutus and the other murderers of Caesar to being against them. Not only that, but he does it without making appear as if he didn’t mean to. By just presenting facts that make the conspirators look bad, and then repeatedly “supporting them”, he turns the crowd against them. Antony says in lines 97-103, “He hath brought many captives home to Rome, Whose ransoms did the general coffers fill, Did this in Caesar seem ambitious?
When that the poor have cried, Caesar hath wept, Ambition should be made of sterner stuff, Yet Brutus says he was ambitious, And Brutus is an honourable man”. Antony appears to support Brutus by calling him an honourable man while showing facts that clearly go against what Brutus claimed about Caesar. Antony is also loyal. After Caesar is killed in Act 3, Scene 1, Antony mourns the death of Caesar, and he begs, “the voice and utterance of my tongue. He puts a curse on the men for killing his beloved Caesar. The last trait I will touch on is compassion. In Act 5, Scene 4, some of the soldiers from Antony’s army catch Lucilius.
Instead of allowing them to treat him badly, Antony tells them to, “keep this man safe and give him all kindness: I would rather have such men my friends than enemies. Go on and see whether Brutus be alive or dead and bring us word unto Octavius “tent and how every thing is chanced. ” Superstition, supernatural and psychology play a major part in Julius Caesar. In Act 2, Scene 2, a storm takes place. In Elizabethan times, a storm such as that would be taken by the people to mean that something bad is going to happen. Later in the play, Caesar is killed. Also, other strange events happen.
Calpurnia tells Caesar, “Caesar, I never stood on ceremonies, Yet now they fright me. There is one within, Besides the things that we have heard and seen, Recounts most horrid sights seen by the watch, A lioness hath whelped in the streets, And graves have yawn”d, and yielded up their dead, Fierce fiery warriors fought upon the clouds, In ranks and squadrons and right form of war, Which drizzled blood upon the Capitol, The noise of battle hurtled in the air, Horses did neigh, and dying men did groan, and ghosts did shriek and squeal about the streets, O Caesar! hese things are beyond all use, and I do fear them”.
The theme of violence is very important in Julius Caesar. The way I understand violence is a brutal act. This is shown in Act 3, Scene 2 when the crowd of people listening to Antony realises that the murderers of Caesar did something worse than they first thought. After realising just what they had done, and done unfairly, the crowd begins to riot. “Revenge! About! Seek! Burn! Fire! Kill! Slay! Let not a traitor live! “, the crowd cries.
Also, “violence begets violence” is proven in that many of the conspirators who murdered Caesar end up dying also. Brutus is the main one that dies, and it is perhaps more important in that Brutus was trusted by Caesar, and he betrayed that trust. I think that this is Shakespeare’s way of showing that “what goes around comes around”. Also, it gives the reader a sense of satisfaction is knowing that Caesar’s murderers received what they deserved. I can conclude that the characters in Julius Caesar are not entirely good or bad.
The majority of the characters in the play commit a sin but they have a good side to them too. I would so that the most evil character in the play would be Brutus, but he didn”t kill Caesar for the fun of it he killed him for the love of the country. This shows that he has a good side and shows that he loves his citizens. I think that the most good character in the play is Calpurnia as she is very innocent in the play and doesn’t know what is going on when the murder was being plotted. She didn’t really have a bad side in the play so I can conclude that I think she was the most good character.
