Fate or choice? This question has been heavily debated throughout history and there has not been a definite answer on whether fate or choice has more of an impact ever since the question was first asked. In William Shakespeare’s The Tragedy of Julius Caesar, there are numerous examples of fate and choice. It is a combination of these two that led to Julius Caesar’s untimely death and the following war. The role of fate played a major role in the play The Tragedy of Julius Caesar. The first major occurrence of fate was the infertility of Calphurnia. This is shown when Caesar wanted Calpurnia to stand in front of Antony. Caesar says “Forget not in your speed, Antonius,/To touch Calphurnia, for our elders say/ The barren, touchéd in this holy chase,/ Shake off their sterile curse” (I, ii, 8-11). This shows that Calpurnia is barren and that Caesar and Calphurnia are looking for an heir, but have no luck in finding one. …show more content…
All three times he made the choice to reject the crown, even though his temptation to accept it grew with each time it was offered to him. This shows how Caesar still made choices, and that everything was not just fate for him. Another part where choice played a major role in the play is when Julius Caesar chose to go to the capitol on the ides of March. Here, he made the choice to disobey the soothsayers warnings, he also chose to go against Calphurnia’s and the priests judgement, and he also brushed off Artemidorus’ warning to him . “What touches us ourself shall be last served” (III, i, 8). Here, Caesar is seen pushing away the warnings of Artemidorus, as he is in public and he is trying to maintain his image of being an unselfish person. This could be thought of as the last choice that Caesar made before his death. Choices can impact the future drastically, and because of that, one should always think about the choices they will make and think about all the possible
Another instance of fate relating to the death of Caesar was the night before he died. His wife had an awful dream, predicting that her husband was going to die in the House of the Senate the next day. Although Calpurnia told her husband of this, he chose to ignore, resulting in his assassination. This is a strong example of fate because frequently throughout time people see the future in dreams.
Shortly before his death Caesar was given several warnings throughout ActsⅡand Ⅲ , however he still went to meet with the Senate due to the fact he thought he was needed. He had an alliance with his adopted sons and valued soldiers Octavius and Antony. The play is about the events that follow his death making him an important secondary character that also portrays a protagonist. Caesar faced many conflicts throughout his lifetime, some internal and some external. He fought a war against Pompey ,which lead to conspirators plotting his death, and he was troubled by the fact that his wife could not provide him with a child. He showcased this by publicly asking Antony to touch her as he passed her, hoping that this would bring healing to her barren womb. He also went through several character changes. When he returned from war, he returned believing that the people would be ecstatic to have him as an emperor. Nonetheless when the people of Rome did not respond the way he expected he knew he had to play on their emotions. He did this by refusing the crown three times and by offering to kill himself to prove his honesty and trustworthiness. This gave him the desired effect, so he returned to knowing that the crowd wanted him as a king. The driving force of the play was the unfortunate murder of Caesar or what happened afterwards. Throughout this play many of the characters go through many unique changes, although Julius Caesar experienced some very significant character changes. The theatrical work exhibits Julius Caesar’s actions, alliances, character developments, and internal and external conflicts which in turn showcase his various changes. The Tragedy of Julius Caesar by William Shakespeare is a brilliant piece of work that thoroughly covers the story of Julius Caesar, a protagonistic secondary character. Julius Caesar was the unofficial emperor of Rome. He was a war General and he fought
As one of the most well known authors of the Elizabethan Era, Shakespeare had written numerous sonnets and plays reflecting the values of people of the time period. Shakespeare often display themes of love and death, fate and free will, and power and weaknesses throughout his works of literature. The play "The Tragedy of Julius” truly highlight the impact of fate and free will in the development of the plot, of the assassination of Caesar’s death. Some may argue that fate is actually the one responsible for the act, but they fail to recognize that it is the acts of men leading to the death. It is the free will at fault for this occurrence, that the Roman senators consciously killed Caesar and Caesar himself facing his mortality.
Caesar’s lack of somewhat savage Machiavellian traits foreshadows his downfall a multitude of times. From the beginning, the soothsayer warns him to watch out for the Ides of March. There are also bad signs; men in fire walks up and down the streets, and a lioness gives birth on the streets. Likewise, before he heads to the Senate House to receive the crown, Calphurnia tells him that she has had a nightmare, and pleads him to stay home. However, he ignores all the premonitions and moves toward where the Senators are, with no one to protect him when he is in danger. This action of Caesar contradicts the teachings of Machiavelli, “Before all else, be armed” (The Prince). As a result of his carelessness, the conspirators see that he has no chance of circumventing, and assassinates him. Similarly, he is unsuccessful in recognizing the outrage of Cassius and a few others; he isn’t doubtful enough of their secretive deeds and eventually loses the reigns to eliminate the defiance. "The same thing occurs in affairs o...
In the play Julius Caesar, Cassius tells Brutus, "Men at some times are masters of their fate." But is this true? Can we do anything we chose or is the universe's fate fixed? The answers to these questions we may never know. But we can guess. In Antigone, Creon is faced with a decision. Should he condemn Antigone to death or should he let her get away with a crime? He feels as if he has a choice between the two. But, he doesn't. It was determined that he would put Antigone in a cave and try to get her out after contemplating it carefully. No matter what he did, he could not have defied this. He had the choice between the two, but it was determined that no matter what advice he received from Haemon and Tieresius, he would inevitably choose to put her in the cave. As Oedipus portrayed, you cannot escape fate no matter how you try.
Julius Caesar is remembered as one of the greatest military minds in history and credited with arranging the basis for the Roman Empire. Caesar’s military brilliance bought Rome more land and more power, which led into the increase of size and strength of Rome. Caesar’s dictatorship helped the strength in Rome. Julius Caesar was assassinated which lead to a monarchy that was ruled by Octavin. Caesar’s death caused an effect to the collapse of the Roman Empire. Many people today in the 21st century try and follow the greatness of Julius Caesar. The assassination of Julius Caesar was a tragedy with the contributions Caesar made to strengthen Rome’s success.
The Tragedy of Julius Caesar had the ongoing theme of Fate versus Free Will, but it seemed that fate was mostly shown. Many of the omens proved true and showed that no matter how hard a character tried to take their own path, fate would take control. Thus proving fate is stronger than free will in this
In the play The Tragedy of Julius Caesar by William Shakespeare, I saw two main characters as tragic heroes. First, I saw Julius Caesar as a tragic hero because his will to gain power was so strong that he ended up losing his life for it. The fact that he could have been such a strong leader was destroyed when he was killed by conspirators. I saw Marcus Brutus as a second tragic hero in this play. Brutus was such a noble character that did not deserve to die. The main reason why he did die, however, was because he had led a conspiracy against Caesar and eventually killed him. These two characters were the tragic heroes of the play in my opinion.
William Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar is centralized on the debate of whether or not man is bound to a fate predestined by some divine force hidden within the stars or a fate controlled by one’s own actions. Based on Sir Thomas North’s Plutarch’s historical accounts, Shakespeare depicts the characters within the play to believe that fate is either controlled by the divine, as indicated through portents or omens, Roman values, or human decision alone. However, Shakespeare ultimately makes the argument that the decisive actions of humans, both good and bad, are what ultimately shape history and therefore fate. Through the use of Plutarch’s writings, Shakespeare develops the life and death of Julius Caesar into a tragedy determined not by the fault
In Shakespeare’s “Julius Caesar,” Public vs. Private self is a reoccurring theme. Throughout the play, characters tend to view their public persona more important than their private persona. The characters all think they know what is best for Rome but in the end only put themselves on the path that leads straight to their death.
Shakespeare in The Tragedy of Romeo and Juliet depicts the conflict between fate and free will through use of his characters’ actions and beliefs. Fate is the main driving force between the demise of the two main protagonists. Because of it, superstition, the actions of others, and the idea of chance are allowed a main role in the play building up to events that lead to a tragic end.
Tragedies most often refer back to the actions of men. The play Julius Caesar, by William Shakespeare, provides a good example to how the quote is shown to be accurate." The calamities of tragedy do not simply happen, nor are they sent [by the gods]: they proceed mainly from actions, and those actions of men." This statement is profoundly proven through the past and present actions of the conspirators throughout the play. From the beginning of the play, the reader can identify who will necessarily betray and plot to murder Caesar.
Fate may state what will be in one's life however, how that destiny comes about is a matter of man's own choice. In other words, incidents don't occur because our destinies are written. In the play Macbeth, Shakespeare expertly uses the theme of fate vs. free will and raises the pre-eminent question of which holds power over the characters. In Shakespeare’s tragedy, fate is not the cause of his downfall, his own desires and choices prove to be the deciding factor.
Caesar's death was a most tragic event indeed, for he would have made a great Roman monarch. However, there were many unheeded warnings. caveats which might have averted his death. In the first act itself we see that Caesar comes across a soothsayer. who fore tells that the future holds terrible things for Caesar.
Past the climax and the falling action - although they were mainly controlled by Brutus and Antony - we see Cassius is used through his dreadful action to finally bring the play to its completion. During the battle of Philippi, it is seen that Cassius mistakenly commands his army to advance, prior to the time that was planned, resulting in the enemy taking advantage of his error. His mistake led to the most provocative action Cassius could ever take. After noticing that he and his army was about to lose, he took his life. This lead to a series of events, Brutus looking at Cassius’s defeat he decided to take his life. which took the plot even further to its denouement. These previous mentioned series of events brought Julius Caesar to its