THE IIS UNIVERSITY

TOPIC
A Thematic study of Julius Caesar by William Shakespeare

SUBMITTED BY:-
PARUL K. RATHORE
BA-B.ED
ICG/2017/22835
 CHAPTERS PAGE NO.
Author: An Introduction 1-2
Overview: Julius Caesar 3-5
Theme: A Study 6-9
Character Sketch 10-11
Conclusion
Works Cited
WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE
William Shakespeare (26 April 1564 – 23 April 1616) was an English poet,
playwright and actor, widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English
language and the world’s pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England’s
national poet and the “Bard of Avon”. His extant works , including
collaborations, consist of approximately 39 plays, 154 sonnets, two long
narrative poems and a few other verses, some of uncertain authorship. His plays
have been translated into every major living language and are performed more
often than those of any other playwright.
Shakespeare was born and brought up in Stratford-upon-Avon, Warwickshire.
At the age of 18, he married Anne Hathaway, with whom he had three children:
Susanna and twins Hamnet and Judith. Some time between 1585 and 1592, he
began a successful career in London as an actor, writer, and part-owner of a
playing company called the Lord Chamberlain’s Men, later known as the
King’s Men. At age 49 around 1613, he appears to have retired to Stratford,
where he died three years later. Few records of Shakespeare’s private life
survive, which has stimulated considerable speculation about such matters as
his physical appearance, sexuality, religious beliefs and weather the works
attributed to him were written by others. These speculations are often criticized
for failing to point out the fact that few records survive most commoners of his
period.
Shakespeare produced most of his known work between 1589 and 1613. His
early plays were primarily comedies and histories, which are regarded as some
of the best work ever produced in these genres. He then wrote mainly tragedies
until about 1608, including Hamlet, Othello, King Lear and Macbeth,
considered some of the finest works in the English language. In his last phase,
he wrote tragicomedies, also known as romances and collaborated with other
playwrights.
Many of his plays were published in editions of varying quality and accuracy
during his lifetime. However, in 1623 John Heminges and Henry Condell, two
friends and fellow actors of Shakespeare, published a more definitive text
known as the First Folio, a posthumous collected edition of his dramatic works
that included all but two of the plays now recognized as Shakespeare’s. It was
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prefaced with a poem by Ben Johnson, in which Shakespeare is hailed,
presciently, as “not of an age, but for all time”.
In the 20th and 21st centuries, his works have been repeatedly adapted and
rediscovered by new movements in scholarship and performance. His plays
remain highly popular and are constantly studied, performed, and reinterpreted
in diverse cultural and political contexts throughout the world.
Shakespeare’s works include the 36 plays printed in the first folio of 1623,
listed according to their folio classification as comedies, histories, and
tragedies. Two plays not included in the first folio, The Two Noble Kinsmen and
Pericles, Prince of Tyre, are now accepted as part of the canon, with today’s
scholars agreeing that Shakespeare made major contributions to the writing of
both. No Shakespearean poems were included in the first folio.
In the late 19th century, Edward Dowden classified four of the late comedies as
romances, and though many scholars prefer to call them tragicomedies,
Dowden’s term is often used. In 1896, Fredrick S Boascoined the term
“problem plays” to describe four plays: All’s Well That Ends Well, Measure for
Measure, Troilus and Cressida, and Hamlet. “Dramas as singular in theme and
temper cannot be strictly called comedies or tragedies”, he wrote. “We may,
therefore, borrow a convenient phrase from the theatre of today and class them
together as Shakespeare’s problem plays. The term, much debated and
sometimes applied to other plays, remain in use, though Hamlet is definitively
classed as a tragedy.

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JULIUS CAESAR
When the play opens, Julius Caesar has just returned to Rome after defeating
the sons of Pompey in battle.
As Caesar parades through the streets of Rome like a rock star, the higher-ups
in Rome are nervous about his growing power and his popularity with the
commoners, who have abandoned their work to celebrate Caesar’s triumphant
return. Caesar seems headed towards absolute power, which is a big no-no in
the Roman republic.
Meanwhile, the festival of Lupercal is in full swing. Caesar is chilling at the
festival with his entourage when a soothsayer runs up and says “beware the ldes
on march”. Caesar looks at the soothsayer and is all “whatever man”.
While Caesar parties with his fans, Brutus and Cassius huddle together and talk
trash about him. Cassius is all bent out of shape because he thinks Caesar is
running around acting like a king. Without coming right out and and saying so
directly, Cassius suggests that may be Brutus should lead Rome. Brutus says he
gets what Cassius is saying, but he is also good friends with Caesar, so he needs
a little time to think about things before he makes any decisions.
Brutus and Cassius run into Casca, a conspirator, who reports that Antony just
offered Caesar the crown three times. Casca is mad, because each time Caesar
pretended he didn’t want the crown, which made the crowd the plebeians love
him even more. Not only that, but Caesar acted like a total drama queen and
fainted the third time Antony offered him the crown. This made the “stinking”
crowd go nuts.
A month passes which means we’re approaching the “Ides of March”. Casca
and Cicero are running around in a violent thunderstorm and comment on all
the crazy stuff that has been happening in Rome lately: a lion was roaming
around and a bunch of men in flames were spotted walking around the streets.
Cassius, who interprets these omens to mean that Caesar must be taken down,
continues to plot against Caesar. He sends someone to plant fale letters from
Roman commoners urging Brutus to eliminate Caesar, and attends a meeting
that night to plot Caesar’s death.
Meanwhile, Brutus has decided to go ahead and kill his friend Caesar because
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the man might become a complete tyrant if he gains more power. Brutus
reasons that, even though he and Caesar are BFFs, killing Caesar is the only
way to save the Roman Republic. Brutus finally meets with all the conspirators,
and they hatch a plan: they’ll arrange to bring Caesar to the capitol so they can
hack him into a million little pieces.
Meanwhile, Caesar has had a rough night, complete with a crying wife
(Calpurnia) who wants Caesar to stay at home because she’s had a bad dream
and fears something awful is about to happen to him. But Caesar ultimately
decides to go to the Capitol, because Decius (one of the conspirators) steps in
and says something like, “oh, hey, when Calpurnia dreamed that you were a
statue full of holes and spouting blood , that just meant that you’re going to be
the greatest leader Rome has ever seen.” Caesar is all, “Yeah, I think you’re
right.” Decius promises that Caesar’s going to be crowned king that day. Caesar
goes skipping off to the senate. On the way to the Capitol, an old man tries to
give Caesar a letter warning him about the assassination plot, but Caesar blows
him off.
At the Capitol, Caesar stands around bragging about how awesome he is. Just as
he’s making a big speech about how he’s the brightest star in the sky, cassius,
Brutus, and the other plotters surround him and stab him to death – 33 times,
just to be sure. Before falling, Caesar looks up and says “even you, Brutus?
What happened to us being best buds forever?”
The conspirators wash their hands in Caesar’s blood so they can walk the streets
and calmly tell everyone that Rome is free of tyranny. The idea is that they’ll
seem more convincing about their plans for a new dawn of peace if they’re
dripping with Caesar’s fresh blood. Surprisingly, instead of hailing Brutus and
Cassius as saviors, the people of Rome run around declaring that it’s
Doomsday. The situation is not going according to the plan.
Things really go awry when Antony shows up to weep over Caesar’s body.
While clearly distraught, he promises not to blame the conspirators as long as
he’s allowed to speak at the funeral in praise of Caesar’s virtue. Of course, we
hear in an aside that Antony plans mayhem and murder, so we’re not surprised
when he gets to the funeral pulpit and urges the people of Rome to riot against
Julius Caesar’s murderers.
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Meanwhile, Brutus and Cassius have fled and chaos has ensued. Even
politically unimportant folks like poets are being killed on the streets. Antony
has met up with Lepidus and Caesar’s adopted son, Octavius. Together they’ll
form the new triumvirate to lead Rome and battle against Cassius and Brutus.
Meanwhile, Cassius and Brutus get into a big argument at their first meeting
after the funeral. Cassius has been accepting bribes on the side, which
compromises their credibility. Still, they agree to March and meet the enemy
(Antony, Octavius, and Lepidus) at Philippi, despite a visit from Caesar’s ghost
to Brutus to say he’ll be at Philippi too. It’s going to be like a family reunion,
except this one will mostly end in death. Everyone has steeled himself for this
possibility, and Cassius and Brutus implicitly agree to pull a Romeo and Juliet
(kill themselves) in case anything goes wrong in the battle.
On the battlefield the two enemy fractions exchange some rough words, and
Brutus claims he’s not a Traitor. Fighting ensues, and Cassius and Brutus set up
on different parts of the field. Brutus is having some success in overtaking
Octavius’s army, but Cassius’ guys are held fast by Antony’s, so they’re at a
stalemate.
Then Cassius jumps the gun and kills himself over a misunderstanding: he
thought his friend Titinius has been overtaken by enemy hordes, when it was
really only Brutus’s friends trying to hand a crown to Titinius so he could give
it to Cassius. Titinius finds Cassius’ body and kills himself too, so when Brutus
arrives, his buddies are already dead. Then Brutus decides to kill himself. He
gets his old friend Strato to hold his sword while he runs at it. As he dies, he
says he didn’t kill Caesar with half so strong a will as he kills himself now, so
we know he dies willingly.
Antony and Octavius know they’ve won even before they arrive to find
Brutus’s body. Antony gives a nice speech over the body in his usual style,
saying Brutus was the noblest Roman ever and the only one of the conspirators
who killed Caesar for Rome’s good and not out of envy. Finally, Octavius
agrees that Brutus’s body can stay in his tent for the night, befitting a dead
soldier, and they won’t even have to share a bunk, as Octavius and his friends
will be out celebrating all the death and victory. The end.

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THEME
1. FATE AND FREE WILL
Julius Caesar raises many questions about the force of fate in life versus the
capacity for free will. Cassius refuse to accept Caesar’s rising power and
deems a belief in fate to be nothing more than a form of cowardice. He says
to Brutus: “Men at sometimes were masters of their fate. The fault, dear
Brutus, is not in our stars, but in ourselves that we are underlings”. Cassius
urges a return to a more noble, self-possessed attitude towards life, blaming
his Brutus’s submissive stance not on a predestined plan on their failure to
assert themselves.
Ultimately play seems to support a philosophy in which fate and freedom
maintain a delicate coexistence. Thus Caesar declares: “it seems to be more
strange that men should fear, seeing that death, a necessary end, will come
when it comes.” In other words, Caesar recognizes that certain events lie
beyond human control. To crouch in fear of them is to enter paralysis equal
to, if not worse than death. It is to surrender any capacity for freedom and
agency that one might actually possess. Indeed, perhaps to face death head
on, to die bravely and honorably, is Caesar’s best course. In the end, Brutus
interprets his and Cassius’s defeats as the work of Caesar’s ghost-not just his
apparition, but also force of the people’s devotion to him, the strong legacy
of a man who refused any fear of fate and in his disregard of fate, seems to
have transcended it.

2. PUBLIC SELF AND PRIVATE SELF

Much of the play’s tragedy stems from the characters’ neglect of private
believe to be the public good. Similarly, characters confuse their private
selves with their public selves, hardening and dehumanizing themselves or
transforming themselves into ruthless political machines. Brutus rebuffs his
wife, Portia, when she pleads with him to confide in her; believing himself
to be acting on the people’s will, he forges ahead with the murder of Caesar,
despite their close friendship. Brutus puts aside his personal loyalties and
shuns thoughts of Caesar the man, his friend; instead, he acts on what he
believes to be the public’s wishes and kills Caesar. Cassius can be seen as a
man who has gone to the extreme in cultivating his public persona. Caesar,
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describing his distrust of Cassius, tells Antony that the problem with Cassius is
his lack of a private life-his seeming refusal to acknowledge his own
sensibilities or to nurture his own spirit. Such a Man, Caesar fears, will let
nothing interfere with his ambition. Indeed, Cassius lacks all sense of personal
honor and shows himself to be a ruthless schemer.
Ultimately, neglecting private sentiments to follow public concerns brings
Caesar to his death. Although Caesar does briefly agree to stay home from the
senate in order to please Calpurnia, who has dreamed of his murder, he gives
way to ambition when Decius tells him that the senators offer to plan him the
crown. Caesar’s public self again takes precedence. Tragically, he no longer
sees the difference between his omnipotent, immortal public image and his
vulnerable human body. Just preceding his death, Caesar refuses Artemidorus’s
pleas to speak with him, saying that he gives last priority to his most personal
concerns. He thus endangers himself by believing that the strength of his public
self will protect his private self.
3. MISINTERPRETATIONS AND MISREADINGS
Much of the play deals with the characters’ failures to interpret correctly the
omens that they encounter. As Cicero says, “Men may construe things after
their fashion, clean from the purpose of the things themselves”. Thus, the night
preceding Caesar’s appearance at the senate is full of portents, but no one reads
them accurately: Cassius takes them to signify the danger that Caesar’s
impending coronation would bring to the state, when, if anything, they warn of
the destruction that Cassius himself threatens. They are calculated misreadings
as well: Cassius manipulates Brutus into joining the conspiracy by means of
forged letters, knowing that Brutus’s trusting nature will cause him to accept the
letters as authentic pleas from the Roman people.
The circumstances of Cassius’s death represent another instance of
misinterpretation. Pindarus’s erroneous conclusion that Titinius has been
captured by the enemy, when in fact Titinius has reunited with friendly forces,
is the piece of misinformation that prompts Cassius to seek death. Thus, in the
world of politics portrayed in Julius Caesar, the inability to read people and
events leads to downfall; conversely, the ability to do so is the key to survival.
With so much ambition and rivalry, the ability to gauge the public’s opinion as
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well as the resentment or loyalty of one’s fellow politicians, can guide one to
success. Antony proves masterful at recognizing his situation, and his accurate
reading of the crowd’s emotions during his funeral oration for Caesar allows
him to win the masses over to his side.
4. IDEALISM
Brutus wishes for an ideal world. He is happily married, lives in a beautiful
home, and is successful according to all measures of Roman living. However,
Brutus wishes for perfection in his life, and although, he loves Caesar, Brutus
fears Caesar is too power hungry, and might possibly destroy the Republic.
Cassius understands Brutus’ idealism and takes advantage of it in order to
manipulate Brutus into joining the conspiracy against Caesar. At heart, it is
Brutus’ idealism that causes his ultimate downfall. Antony recognizes this fact
when addressing Brutus’ dead body at the conclusion of the play, saying “this
was the noblest Roman of them all”.
5. INFLEXIBILITY AND COMPROMISE
Both Brutus and Caesar are stubborn, rather inflexible people who ultimately
suffer fatally for it. In the play’s aggressive political landscape, individuals
succeed through adaptability, bargaining, and compromise. Brutus’s rigid
though honorable ideals leave him open for manipulation by Cassius. He
believes so thoroughly in the purpose of the assassination that he does not
perceive the need for excessive political maneuvering to justify the murder.
Equally resolute, Caesar prides himself on his steadfastness; yet his constancy
helps brings about his death, as he refuses to heed ill omens and goes willingly
to the Senate, into the hands of his murderers.
Antony proves perhaps the most adaptable of all the politicians: while his
speech to the Roman citizen centers on Caesar’s generosity towards each
citizen, he later searches for ways to turn these funds into cash in order to raise
an army against Brutus and Cassius. Although he gains power by offering to
honor Caesar’s will and provide the citizens their rightful money, it becomes
clear that ethical concerns will not prevent him from using the funds in a more
politically expedient manner. Antony is a successful politician-yet the question
of morality remains. There seems to be no way to reconcile form moral
principles with success in politics in Shakespeare’s rendition of ancient Rome;
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thus each character struggles towards a different solution.
1. RHETORIC AND POWER
Julius Caesar gives detailed consideration to the relationship between Rhetoric
and Power. The ability to make things happen by words alone is the most
powerful type of authority. “when Caesar says ‘do this,’ it is performed,” says
Antony, who attaches a similar weight to Octavius’s words towards the end of
the play. Words also serve to move hearts and minds, as act iii evidences.
Antony cleverly convinces the conspirators of his desire to side with them: “let
each man render me with his bloody hand”. Under the guise of a gesture of
friendship, Antony actually marks the conspirators for vengeance. In the
forum, Brutus speaks to the crowd and appeals to its love of liberty in order to
justify the killing of Caesar. He also makes ample reference to the honor in
which he is generally esteemed so as to validate further his explanation of the
deed. Antony likewise wins the crowd’s favor, using persuasive rhetoric to
whip the masses into frenzy so great that they don’t even realize the fickleness
of their favor.

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CHARACTER SKETCH
1. JULIUS CAESAR
A successful military leader who wants the crown of Rome.
Unfortunately, he is not the man he used to be and is imperious, easily
flattered, and overly ambitious. He is assassinated midway through the
play; later, his spirit appears to Brutus at Sardis and also at Philippi.

2. CASCA
Witness to Caesar’s attempts to manipulate the people of Rome into
offering him the crown, he reports the failure to Brutus and Cassius. He
joins the conspiracy the night before the assassination and is the first
conspirator to stab Caesar.

3. CALPHURNIA
The wife of Julius Caesar; she urges him to stay at home on the day of
the assassination because of the unnatural events of the previous night as
well her prophetic dream in which Caesar’s body is a fountain of blood.

4. MARK ANTONY
He appears first as a confident and devoted follower of Caesar, and he
offers Caesar a crown during the feast of Lupercal. He has a reputation
for sensuous living, but he is also militarily accomplished, politically
shrewd, And skilled at oration. He is able to dupe Brutus into allowing
him to speak at Caesar’s funeral and by his funeral oration to excite the
crowd to rebellion. He is one of the triumvirs, and he and Octavius defeat
Brutus and Cassius at Philippi.

5. A SOOTHSAYER
He warns Caesar during the celebration of the feast of Lupercal to
“beware the ideas of March.” He again warns Caesar as he enters the
Senate House.

6. MARCUS BRUTUS
A judicial magistrate of Rome. He is widely admired for his noble nature.
He joins the conspiracy because he fears that Caesar will become a
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 tyrant, but his idealism causes him to make several poor judgements and
impedes his ability to understand those who are less scrupulous than he.
Brutus defeats Octavius’s forces in the battle of Philippi, but loses the
second battle and commits suicide rather than be taken prisoner.

7. CASSIUS
The brother-in-law of Brutus and an acute judge of human nature,
Cassius organizes the conspiracy against Caesar and recruits Brutus by
passionate argument and by deviously placed, forged letters. He argues
that Antony should be assassinated along with Caesar, that Antony
should not speak at Caesar’s funeral, and that he (Cassius) and Brutus
should not fight at Philippi, but he eventually defers to Brutus in each
instance. He is defeated by Antony at the first battle of Philipp, and he
commits suicide when he mistakenly believes that Brutus has been
defeated.

8. DECIUS BRUTUS
The conspirator who persuades Caesar to attend the Senate on the day of
the ides of March by fabricating a flattering interpretation of Calpurnia’s
portentous dream and by telling Caesar that the senate intends to crown
him king.

9. OCTAVIUS CAESAR
The adopted son and heir of Julius Caesar; he is one of the triumvirs who
rule following the death of Caesar. He and Antony led the army that defeats
Brutus and Cassius at Philippi.

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