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Analysis of caesar character in shakespeare's play julius caesar
Fate versus free will in julius caesar
Fate versus free will in julius caesar
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Liliana Garcia Final Exam Essay Julius Caesar begins with a view of class dispute, the plebeians against the tribunes. The plebeians are praising Caesar's win over the sons of Pompey, one of the previous leaders of Rome. The tribunes scathe the masses for their foolishness in celebrating the loss of a man who was once their leader. Caesar arrives to Rome joined by his allies and a crowd of citizens. It is the feast of Lupercalia, February 15, a day when two men run through the street and hit those they meet with goatskin thongs. Caesar orders Mark Antony to hit his wife Calpurnia to heal her infertility. A fortune teller evokes Caesar as he passes and alerts him against the ides of March, March 15. Caesar disregards the man and pardons him …show more content…
He persuades them to only kill Caesar, and not Antony, because he does not want them to "seem too bloody". After the men leave, Brutus is unable to sleep. His wife Portia finds him awake and asks him to tell her what is bothering him. At first, he says no, but after she stabs herself in the thigh he decides to tell her. In the meantime, Caesar's wife had a dream of a statue of Caesar bleeding from a hundred cuts. Caesar demands the priests to kill an animal and read the guts to see if he should go to the Senate that day. The priests tell him that the animal did not have a heart, a very bad sign. However, one of the plotters arrives and re-explains Calpurnia's dream to mean that all of Rome sucked the reviving blood of Caesar for its benefit. Caesar agrees with him that it is ridiculous to stay home because of a dream. The other conspirators arrive at his house to take him to the Senate House. On the way to the Senate House, Caesar is greeted by the same fortune teller that earlier alerted him about the ides of March. He again doesn’t listen to the man and continues. A man named Artemidorus then approaches him and tries to give him a letter telling the plan, but Decius cleverly tells Caesar the Trebonius has a suit he would like Caesar to read instead. Caesar refuses to look at what Artemidorus offers him. He explains, "What touches us our self shall be last served". The plotters show up at the Senate House and Caesar …show more content…
Antony comes and begs them to let him take the body and give Caesar a public eulogy to which Brutus agrees. Brutus defends the murder of Caesar alleging he was eliminating a dictator who was ruining the freedom of all Romans. He ends his speech by questioning the crowd if they want him to kill himself for what he did and they replied, "Live, Brutus, live,
In the following scene, Caesar is set to receive his crown. The night before, Calpurnia sees bad omens, and hopes that Caesar will stay home. On the other hand, the conspirators are planning the assassination of Caesar at the Capitol, and they need him there to receive his fate. Knowing Caesar well, Decius urges Caesar to go to the Capitol and receive his crown. Using various rhetorical devices, Calpurnia attempts to urge Caesar to stay home, while Decius tries to get Caesar to the Capitol.
Caesar, a strong and powerful man that doesn’t appear to have any fears. With only revealing slight fears to very trustworthy followers Caesar seemed to be invincible. “But I fear him not. Yet if my name were liable to fear, I do not know the man I should avoid so soon as that spare Cassius.” (I, II, 208-211). The Conspirators saw this as a threat and from that moment planned vengeance on Caesar. While intimidating and harsh the people of Rome adored him. The lines of Flavius when Caesar returns to Rome “Hence! Home, you idle creatures, get you home! Is this a holiday? What, know you not, being mechanical, you ought not to walk upon a laboring day without the sign of your profession?” (I, I, 1-5). They treated his return like a holiday, a festival. Even with this in mind, the Conspirators worries worsened that Caesar would become an overpowering dictator that put Rome at risk. In this situation most citizens would say spare Caesar, but the Conspirators were set on killing him. In the end the Conspirators did what they thought was right and killed Caesar in the senate, but were they right?
CAESAR: He is a dreamer. Let us leave him. Pass.” (1.2.28-29) Othsayer appears to be the fortuneteller who tries to warn Caesar of an unknown danger in this situation but Caesar quickly dismisses the idea. Caesar demonstrates his control of his own life, that the predictions are merely dreams that can never turn into reality. Under such conditions, it cannot be the fate but rather the free will of Caesar himself to blame for his death for taking risks and facing life in his own way. Another instance of fate is Casca's observations of a dreadful night. He describes the setting as if there are burning slaves, crawling lion, and ghostly women on the street of the Capitol. (1.3.25-32) These omens are usually associated with fate, as that supernatural sights hints the happening of a tragedy soon, but they don't necessarily define the tragedy itself. They can refer to a series of other events and not the assassination of Caesar. Lastly, the night before the assassination, Calphurnia convinces her husband to stay home due to a nightmare, but Caesar responds with as if it is no big matter in "CAESAR: Nor heaven nor earth have been at peace tonight. Thrice hath Calphurnia in her sleep cried out "Help, ho, they murder Caesar!" (2.2.1-3) In her dream, Calpurnia claims to see the death of her husband whose blood flows all over Rome. Her fear toward
“Remember March, March 15th. Didn’t great Caesar bleed for the sake of justice?” afterwards Brutus reminds Cassias of the reason he killed Caesar it was to save Rome, Great Caesar bled so Rome could live. Brutus loved Caesar as a friend, but he did not think he would be right to lead. “The only way is to kill Caesar.
Cassius believes that he should not be ruler of Rome for a few very specific reasons, so to combat this he convinces Marcus Brutus to join his conspiracy by forging fake letters. Brutus is very honorable and is loved by many people in Rome, so he would bring the people to their side. On the 15th of March Caesar went to the capital despite the multiple warnings he was given. Calpurnia ,Caesar’s wife, dreamt of his statue running with blood and begged him to stay home. Although Caesar ignored it when Decius convinced him that it represented the good and richness that he would bring to Rome.
The conspirators had already decided how and when they would kill Caesar, and Brutus, Cassius, along with Decius, knew they had to lure Caesar close. They had an advantage at this because they knew that all they would have to do was prove to Caesar that they had a good, solid friendship, and this would help their situation and leave Caesar completely sightless to the fact that his situation had grown dire. So they decided to use their friendship with Caesar in a horribly deceptive manner, effectively, in order to kill him. Decius managed to start this off well by using flattery and quick wit in order to trick Caesar into going to the senate house, despite the fact that Caesars wife, Calpurnia had dreams of Caesars murder the night before.
Alvin B. Kernan. The Tragedy of Julius Caesar. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2009. Print.
After the murderous confrontation, it was not too late to prevent the anger of Caesar’s allies and the citizens or, even, to avoid future civil war. But it was here that Brutus made his second and third mistakes. Marcus Brutus rose before the Roman populace and attempted to offer a justification of Caesar’s murder. His flawed judgment came when he deemed Antony trustworthy and allowed him to speak at Caesar’s funeral. Brutus naively let Antony draw the mob in his favor. No one could dare refute Antony’s impassioned pleas in behalf of Caesar.
This turns out to be very foolish by Caesar, not. Long after this mockery, Caesar is stabbed by a group of conspirators. After Caesar is murdered, Brutus allows Mark Anthony to address the crowd at Caesars funeral. However, there is one condition, Brutus. instructs Anthony "You shall not in your funeral speech blame us."
The first event is the celebration of the feast of the Lupercal. It was the citizens’ positive reaction to Caesar during his triumphant return after his victory over the sons of Pompey that fueled the fear of caesar’s becoming king. The citizens’ opposition to Pompey’s allies caused great disturbances in the streets because a short while before, Pompey was their hero. Now Caesar, victorious, is the hero of the hour. Their response also influenced the idea that Caesar was becoming too ambitious. Thus, the citizens of Rome had a role in the fate of Julius Caesar.
At this point, Caesar is aware of his upcoming death, he had two different warnings, one from a man, that he deemed insane and the other from his wife. The warnings came in different forms, one in a vison and the other in a dream, but what they had in common, is that Caesar should stay inside and beware of the date March the fifteenth, as that is the day they predict that Caesar will meet his death. So, Caesar knows when he is going to die, so he has a choice and he could have used that choice to prolong his life, instead he chose to meet his fate, as he feels it is foolish to waste his presumed last hours of life hiding. Caesar wants to die with honor, instead of being a coward, especially for no reason, when Caesar acknowledges that death will come in every man’s life, so why prevent what will eventually
This Elizabethan belief influences Caesar to consider staying home on the Ides of March, however, he decides not to listen to these warnings. The first supernatural warning to Caesar is from the soothsayer, "Beware the Ides of March" (I.ii.18). This warning, however, does not influence Caesar as much as it should. The second occurrence of a warning in the form of an Elizabethan belief is from Caesar's wife, Calpurnia. Three times in her sleep, Calpurnia cries out, "Help, ho! They murder Caesar!" (II.ii.4). Calpurnia dreams of holes in Caesar’s statue representing the stab wounds to come in his assassination and also the people of Rome bathing in her husband's blood. The use of the supernatural is crucial in this scene because, without it, the dream would not have been as accurate or convincing enough for Calpurnia to beg her husband to stay home. This warning makes Caesar seriously consider staying home from the Capitol. Not only is Calpurnia's dream foreshadowing Caesar's death, but the weather in the scene is also reflecting the moods of the people. It is stormy and loud. This scene shows both Elizabethan beliefs, the supernatural and the reflection of the character’s moods in nature. There is one more supernatural warning to Caesar before his assassination. Before going to the Capitol on March 15th, an animal is sacrificed for the event, and a servant comes to warn
The conspirators had planned the death of Julius. Brutus and Cassius, along with Decius, knew they had draw in to Caesar close. Proving Caesar that they had a firm friendship, that would solidify their situation and leave Julius completely sightless to his doomed fate. Caesar's wife Calphurnia would have a dream. She would see Caesar's statue run with blood and men with swords surrounding him.
Calpurnia’s dream predicted Caesar’s death well, after being stabbed by all of his friends and bleeding to death, the men that killed him bathed in his blood happily thinking Rome will be safe. The omen of Caesar’s ghost visiting Brutus represented Brutus’s death. Caesar said “I will see you in Philippi,” meaning he will see Brutus at the place of the battle and watch him die, which he did. The Tragedy of Julius Caesar had the ongoing theme of Fate versus Free Will, but it seemed that fate was mostly shown.
of March.” (Act 1. Scene 2. Line 21) On March 15, the date that Caesar was