Julius Caesar Superstition

Traditions in a culture can influence how the citizens in a society live their day-to-day lives. A very influential tradition is superstition, which has guided many lives since the beginning of time. For this reason, superstition has played a main role in many important pieces of literature. This is seen in William Shakespeare’s who worked with many professionals such as Plutarch who helped influence Shakespeare into writing this tragedy, The Tragedy of Julius Caesar (1623), the tradition of superstition is gone against many times throughout the play. This being why the misinterpretation and going against the traditions of Roman culture lead the demise of many characters throughout The Tragedy of Julius Caesar. The tradition of superstition

This dream is explained by Caesar when he says “...she dreamt tonight she saw my statue, which, like a fountain with an hundred spouts, did run pure blood, and many lusty Romans came smiling and did bath their hands in it...”(act 2, sc2). The use of imagery is used to support the foreshadowing of Caesars death on the Ides of March. Often the characters throughout this play misinterpret these bad omens, this misinterpretation can be caused by the fact that when these omens occur the characters do not agree with what the omens are telling them. This can be seen when Calpurnia is telling Caesar about her dream, Caesar begins to think about what the dream meant Decius tells Caesar that this dream is good. So when Caesar is contemplating whether or not to take this dream seriously Decius arrives at Caesar’s home and begins to convince him that he has interpreted the dream incorrectly and that in fact the dream was a good omen not a bad omen,“ This dream is all amiss interpreted; It was a vision fair and fortunate; Your stature spouting blood in many pipes, in which so many Romans bathed, Signifies that from you great Rome shall suck, Reviving blood, an that great men shall press, for tinctures stains relics cognizance, this by Calpurnia/s dream is signified.”(act 2 scene 2). When Caesar ignores his wife Calpurnia’s warnings this shows

But when some ignore the signs of the superstition it can dramatically affect the lives in a negative way of those who go against the signs. This can be seen when Cassius and Caesar ignore the storm on the night before the assassination. In literature unfortunate weather is sign of a bad event coming, so when the storm happens Cassius says, “Now could I, Casca, name to thee a man, Most like this dreadful night.”(Scene 1 act 3). Instead of Cassius relating the storm to Caesars death and what will happen after his assassination, he relates is to Caesars powerful existence and how it is not good for Rome. So instead of being able to avoid the repercussions of Caesars death and listening to the bad omen of the storm he could have recognized how this plan would not was not beneficial in the long run. Cassius misinterpreted the storm in his own way, he did not want the storm to represent Caesars death, he did not even consider the fact that that the storm may relate to the conspirators plan. Cassius wanted to kill Caesar out of jealousy and anger and nothing was going to stop him no matter what bad omen may have came from Caesars death. Another misinterpretation that can be seen from this play is when he is about to be leave for the Senate and his servants come in and warn Caesar not to go to the Senate just like Calpurnia had before.