During the life and times of William Shakespeare, prophecy held heavy influence over the Elizabethan people. The term prophecy represented the only certain method of predicting future events; Shakespeare uses this fact to his advantage in The Tragedy of Julius Caesar. Throughout the play, prophecy is utilized to aid in the development of primary characters such as Caesar, Casca, Cassius, and Brutus that will in turn emphasize important events in the tragedy.
Until he is assassinated, Julius Caesar is characterized by his lack of interest in warnings, specifically those that take the form of a prophecy. Toward the start of the play, a soothsayer warns, “Beware the ides of March” (I.ii.24). Caesar responds, “He is a dreamer, let us leave him. Pass” (I.ii.25). In doing so, the character of Caesar presents himself to the Elizabethan audience as scandalously bold, a hamartia that will follow him throughout the remainder of the play. For example, when Caesar’s wife, Calpurnia, dreams of Caesar’s statue bleeding, he says only, “What can be avoided / Whose end is purposed by the mighty gods?” (II.ii.27-28). Later, when the matter is again brought up before he leaves to attend the Senate meeting, he explains:
The gods do this in shame of cowardice:
Caesar should be a beast without a heart
If he should stay at home today for fear.
No, Caesar shall not; Danger knows full well
That Caesar is more dangerous than he. (II.ii.41-45)
By this point in the play, the audience would think Caesar’s death to be easily avoidable if not for his audacity. Thus, the Elizabethan viewers watch the assassination with far more distress than they would without Caesar’s character flaw.
In contrast to Caesar, the character of Casca is presented as entirely...
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...sting nature. Because the ghost has said nothing about any sort of harm coming to Brutus, he does not fear the ghost. This lack of response thus once again portrays Brutus’ admirable belief in the fundamental good of all people. As with Cassius, actions taken by Brutus as a result of prophecy serve to create more sympathy for him at the time of his death.
To conclude, The Tragedy of Julius Caesar is enhanced thoroughly by the character development presented through responses to prophetic occurrences, specifically those referring to such central figures as Caesar, Casca, Cassius, and Brutus. Shakespeare has provided actors, audiences, and readers everywhere with a work of art that fantastically presents the nature of people and emotional demise. As such, Julius Caesar and its creator are globally known and recognized for their importance in the world of literature.
The theme that stands out the most in this play is fate. There is no doubt that there is divine intervention in this play. The destiny of many of the characters in this play has been prearranged because there are so many predictions or visions of the future that actually come true. For example, the soothsayer predicted that Julius Caesar was going to die on the Ides of March. I. ii ll.
Some pieces of literature are said to rely on the use of supernatural events to allow the plot to advance or to provide foreshadowing. An example of this would be one of Shakespeare’s plays, The Tragedy of Macbeth. Shakespeare applies many magical events, because it gives the play some more depth and to extract out the reader’s emotions. However, in The Tragedy of Julius Caesar, a play also written by Shakespeare, while it does have a few moments, its uses are only intended for indicating how the amount of tragedy sums up and how affecting it is. Shakespeare is not only known for adding in unnatural events, but he also uses his own unique style of writing to express the story through his own views. Throughout the play, The Tragedy of Julius
Shakespeare’s complex play The Tragedy of Julius Caesar contains several tragic heroes; a tragic hero holds high political or social esteem yet possesses an obvious character flaw. This discernible hubris undoubtedly causes the character’s demise or a severe forfeiture, which forces the character to undergo an unfeigned moment of enlightenment and shear reconciliation. Brutus, one of these tragic heroes, is a devout friend of the great Julius Caesar, that is, until he makes many execrable decisions he will soon regret; he becomes involved in a plot to kill the omniscient ruler of Rome during 44 B.C. After committing the crime, Mark Antony, an avid, passionate follower of Caesar, is left alive under Brutus’s orders to take his revenge on the villains who killed his beloved Caesar. After Antony turns a rioting Rome on him and wages war against him and the conspirators, Brutus falls by his own hand, turning the very sword he slaughtered Caesar with against himself. Brutus is unquestionably the tragic hero in this play because he has an innumerable amount of character flaws, he falls because of these flaws, and then comes to grips with them as he bleeds on the planes of Philippi.
The play The Tragedy of Julius Caesar by William Shakespeare showcases many characters and events that go through many significant changes. One particular character that went through unique changes was Julius Caesar. The 16th century work is a lengthy tragedy about the antagonists Brutus and Cassius fighting with the protagonists Octavius, Antony, and Lepidus over the murder of Julius Caesar. Although the play’s main pushing conflict was the murder of Julius Caesar, he is considered a secondary character, but a protagonist. Throughout the theatrical work Julius Caesar’s actions, alliances, character developments, and internal and external conflicts display his diverse changes.
The Tragedy of Julius Caesar. Prentice Hall Literature: Grade ten. Ed. Kate Kinsella, et al. Upper Saddle River: Prentice Hall, 2007.
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.
shakespeare was one of the most famous writer in the western literary world. his works shine like the morning stars in the sky. julius caesar is one of his masterpiece. it is a script described julius caesar’s assassination and people around him. in julius caesar shakespeare exposes the disadvantages of leadership through the actions, conflicts and failure of brutus. there are many place in the play show that brutus is not a good leader. brutus is a tragic hero in this play, he is a noble man, he want to kill caesar not for himself but for rome. under his leading, the people who followed him to kill caesar going to fail step by step.
Julius Caesar is another of William Shakespeare`s famous tragedies. This tragedy shows how character flaws can lead to one’s downfall. Julius Caesar is a man who becomes ruler over Rome. He believes that he wil...
With this speech, Caesar seals his fate. After disregarding three separate warnings that his life would be in danger and he still goes to the Senate that day, Caesar sits surrounded by the noblemen and denies their request to revoke the banishment of Cimber. He denies fate and believes that his free will is enough to save him. His ego and self-importance grows stronger by the word, as he compares himself to the brightest star in the sky. He is stabbed to death by men who, until they were convinced otherwise, had been loyal to Rome and Caesar. By the end of the play, Caesar’s supercilious opinion of himself proves true.
It truly must have shocked the people of that era when Caesar went to the Capitol against all warnings, because “Elizabethans generally believed that prophecies were to be taken seriously, and certainly that no prudent statesman could run the risk of ignoring them” (Ribner 58). The people of the Elizabethan era were very proper, and to see someone, even if only a character in a play, break one of the laws of nature in which they so firmly believed, was quite astounding.
	Shakespeare illustrated Caesar as a tragic hero by showing that he was a historical figure with a tragic flaw which lead to his death. Julius Caesar took over most of the Roman Empire and his events are very important to history. First, Julius Caesar is very historical because if he wasn’t then, we would not be talking about him today. As Cassius ironically said, "...How many ages hence /Shall this our lofty scene be acted over in states unborn..." (III,i,112-113). Secondly, Every tragic hero has a tragic flaw that leads them to their death and one of Julius Caesar’s flaw was arrogance. As Caesar himself said, "But I am constant as Northern Star.../There is no fellow in the firmament" (III,i,60-62). Finally, Caesar made a big mistake which lead him to his downfall when he didn’t take the soothsayer’s warning. Again this was the fact that Caesar was arrogant. The soothsayer said warning Caesar, "Beware of ides of March" (I,ii,23) then Caesar replied that the soothsayer was a fake, and to dismiss him.
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.
The motif of ambition runs continuously throughout Julius Caesar, written by William Shakespeare, which originates in Ancient Rome and highlights the power struggles, politics and deceit of those vying for power. Ambition leads many of the characters such as Caesar, Cassius, and Brutus to a fate different from what they expected. The play revolves around Caesar, his ascent to power and his eventual loss of everything. Although ambition may lead these public officials to power, it is the same ambition that will be their downfall, ultimately resulting in the death of Julius Caesar, Cassius, and Brutus.
In The Tragedy of Julius Caesar, a play by William Shakespeare, there is a man most noble above all others. His name is Marcus Brutus. Brutus was the man responsible for the death of Caesar who was his close friend. Though Caesar had been betrayed, no one was more melancholy than Brutus himself. Brutus would not kill his best friend without cause or without reason, however. After analyzing Brutus’ participation in the conspiracy, friendship to Caesar, and his significance to the plot, the truth can finally be understood.
In the play Julius Caesar, written and preformed by William Shakespeare, there are many characters, but two, Brutus and Cassius, stood out. The play begins in Rome where a celebration of Julius Caesar's victory over the former ruler of Rome, Pompeii. The victory leads to Caesar's betrayal by his jealous companions. Senators and other high status figures are jealous of Caesar's new and growing power, while others, like Brutus, fear the tyrannical rule Caesar could enforce. The conspirators, Brutus and Cassius being the most important, assassinate Julius Caesar and Marcus Antonius, better known as Antony, and Octavius Caesar, Caesar's heir to the thrown, revenge Caesar's death. Antony convinces the Roman populous to destroy the conspirators and eventually begins a war with Cassius and Brutus' armies. Both Cassius and Brutus commit suicide to save their honor and Antony and Octavius win the war. The characterizations of Brutus and Cassius show a distinct contrast in their character traits and motives for the assassination of Julius Caesar.