How Is Julius Caesar Manipulated

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Effects of Manipulation

Manipulation is very prevalent in today’s society, and always has been. Whether it’s someone tricking her sibling into making her food or fetching the remote from across the room, manipulation is an everyday occurrence. It usually does not have a very drastic outcome, but when it comes to killing one’s closest friend, things tend to get pretty serious. William Shakespeare’s play The Tragedy of Julius Caesar, is a true story of a Roman dictator who is killed and the effects it has on the people who killed him. Several characters in the play use manipulation, the act of managing or influencing, to get others to do what they want. In The Tragedy of Julius Caesar, Brutus is easily manipulated which ultimately leads to serious consequences and his own demise.

Brutus is an obvious example of a character whose life is put in danger because he is manipulated. He is very loyal to Rome, which makes him vulnerable. Cassius wants Brutus to

join the conspiracy, so he first tries to flatter him by stating, “‘Brutus’ and ‘Caesar’: what should be in that ‘Caesar’? / …show more content…

He was given many signs of his death, such as the Soothsayer’s warning, “Beware the ides of March” (I.ii.25) and the giant storm with raining fire. He had finally decided not to go to the Senate because of Calpurnia’s dreams, but when he tells Decius this, he replies, “Most mighty Caesar, let me know some cause, / Lest I be laughed at when I tell them so” (II.ii.69-70). Caesar doesn’t want to seem weak or scared so he tells Decius about Calpurnia’s dreams where he dies several times. Decius reinterprets the dream and tells Caesar:

This dream is all amiss interpreted.

It was a vision fair and fortunate.

Your statue spouting blood in many pipes,

In which so many smiling Romans bathed,

Signifies that from you great Rome shall suck

Reviving blood, and that great men shall

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