09-06-12 The Treatment of Character

Julius Caesar

Play of Play

Julius Ceasar

Marcus Brutus

Marcus Antonius

assassination

conspirators

friend

revenge

friend

M. Aemilius Lepidus

• Cassius• Casca• Trebonius• Ligarius• Decius Brutus• Metellus Cimber

09-06-12 The Treatment of Character

Julius Caesar

Marcus Brutus

• 4 perspectives upon the situation

A private individual A husband Co-leader of the conspiracy An admired associate

09-06-12 The Treatment of Character

Julius Caesar

A private individual

Bru. What,Lucius,ho! I cannot,by the progress of the stars, Give guess how near to day. Lucius, I say! ----

Bru. It must be by his death and for my part, (10) I know no personal cause to spurn at him But for the general. He would be crown’d: How that might change his nature, there’s the question ---- ---- And therefore think him as a serpent’s egg Which, hatch’d, would, as his kind. Grow mischievous, And kill him in the shell.

P. 153

Caesar has not been

guilty of abusing his

position

Might become

solilo

quy

09-06-12 The Treatment of Character

Julius Caesar

Calling to Lucius soliloquy

indicate

the set of scene

State of his mind

night Outdoor---garden

Mental unrest

Walking for a long time

09-06-12 The Treatment of Character

Julius Caesar

Soliloquy---dramatic language

• Soliloquy accompanied By audience’s imaginative

• Audience participate in the process of thinking

Convince the audience of his humanity

assassination just and right cause

Marcus Brutus ---a complex creation

transfer

his experience

the content of his speeches

his difficulty in determining what constitutes right action

09-06-12 The Treatment of Character

Julius Caesar

A husband---familial role

Portia: Y’have ungently, Brutus, stole from my bed; and yesternight at supper You suddenly arose, and walk’d about, Musing, and sighing, with your arms across; And when I ask’d you what the matter was, You star’d upon me with ungentle looks. I urg’d you further; ----- ---- ---- ---- Gave sign for me to leave you.

p. 156 Sharp contrast

between his current behavior

and customary

manner

Disturbing effect from the contemplation of

assassination

09-06-12 The Treatment of Character

Julius Caesar

Relationship with his wife

• Used be a close one & strong bond

• Now unnatural & unusual Portia is not a handmaid to her husband but a woman with strong and noble mind, and the devotion of such a woman to Brutus enlists the sympathies of the audience on his behalf.

Effects on private life

09-06-12 The Treatment of Character

Julius Caesar

An admired associate & Co-leader of the conspiracy --- Public role

Bru. Would you were not sick!Cai. I am not sick if Brutus have in hand Any exploit worthy the name of honour.Bru. Such an exploit have I in hand, Ligarius, Had you a healthful ear to hear of it.Cai. By all the gods that that Romans bow before, I here discard my sickness. Soul of Rome! Brave son, deriv’d from honourable loins! --- --- --- To do I know not what; but it sufficeth That Brutus leads me on.

p. 157

09-06-12 The Treatment of Character

Julius Caesar

dialogue with Ligarius

Brutus’ capacity of inspire devotion

Charismatic aspect of his personality

demonstrate

His gentleness

×√

09-06-12 The Treatment of Character

Julius Caesar

Brutus and the audience

• Audience are allowed an insight into both the way Brutus’s mind works and the inner uncertainty underlying Brutus’s public confidence, while the audience are conscious of such limitations of which Brutus himself is unaware.

09-06-12 The Treatment of Character

Julius Caesar

Antony: (to the dead man)

O mighty Caesar! Does thou lie so low? Are all thy conquests, glories, triumphs, spoils, Shrunk to this little measure? Fare thee well. I know not, gentlement, what you intend, Who else must be let blood, who else is rank: If I myself, there is no hour so fit As Caesar’s death’s hour; nor no instrument Of half that worth as those your swords, made rich With the most noble blood of all this world

09-06-12 The Treatment of Character

Julius Caesar

Antony’s respond:

1. attitude of the spectator towards Caesar

tyrant—a man of unparalleled nobility

2. sympathies of the spectators

murderers --- the dead man Caesar his grieving friend Antony

09-06-12 The Treatment of Character

Julius Caesar

Let each man render me his bloody hand. First, Marcus Brutus, will I shake with you; Next ,Caius Cassius, do I take your hand; Now, Decius Brutus, yours; now yours, Metellus Yours, Cinna; and, my valiant Casca, yours; Though last, nit least in love, yours, good Trebonius. Gentlemen all- alas, what shall I say? …… Sign’d in thy spoil, and crimson’d in thy lethe (3,1,184-206)

09-06-12 The Treatment of Character

Julius Caesar

Antony: 3,1 admired Caesar passionately ,grief at the assassination modify the spectator

3,2 a manipulator—rouse the mob against the conspirators

4,1 a ruthless pragmatist, locked in a struggle for political power.

09-06-12 The Treatment of Character

Julius Caesar

His contemptuous attitude towards his fellow triumvir The readiness to condemn his own nephew to death

alienate the audience from him The diatancing of Antony from the audience in the course of 4,1 prepares the way for the play’s most remarkable shift of focus Antony---Cassius

09-06-12 The Treatment of Character

Julius Caesar

Cassius: Up to this point most arid ,most calculating of the conspirator

much more complex

09-06-12 The Treatment of Character

Julius Caesar

Quarrel Cassius’ apparent refusal to send Brutus money to maintain his army overturn the spectator’s assumption about the characters of the two men. Cassius---more circumspect of the joint leader

09-06-12 The Treatment of Character

Julius Caesar

Brutus, this sober form of yours hides wrongs (4.2.37-38)

selling ‘office for gold’ and ‘gold to pay legions’ contemptuous tone in which Brutus speak alignment audience with Cassius

09-06-12 The Treatment of Character

Julius Caesar

Cas. I denied you not. Bru. You did Cas. I didn’t .He was but a fool. That brought my answer back, Brutus ……

……

when thou didst hate him worst , thou lov’dst him better than ever lov’dst Cassius. (4.3.82-106 P163)

09-06-12 The Treatment of Character

Julius Caesar

Up to this point

Cassius appears to be using Brutus in order to lend probity to the assassination.

Emerges as the victim of Brutus’ personal magnetism

Cassius not the calculating master of political events

09-06-12 The Treatment of Character

Julius Caesar

The shift focus of that Shakespear engineers from scene to scene in this play is productive of a highly rewarding theatrical experience. Conspirators and avengers alike are complex human beings whose actions are shaoed by a varuety of pressure, rather than by consistent impulses to wards good or evil.