Caesar's Character
Bill Long
The two most powerful characters in the play, Julius Caesar and Brutus, are the two most easily manipulated characters in the play. For example, Cassius says of Brutus once Brutus has left him,
"Well, Brutus, thou are noble; yet I see/ Thy honorable mettle may be wrought/ From that it is disposed (1.2.308-310)."
Act I, Scene 2 is a study in manipulation, as Cassius gradually and patiently weans the pliant Brutus's mind from a vague feeling of general discomfort to a focused desire to eliminate Caesar.
Caesar is also the victim of manipulation. When the conspirators discuss whether Caesar will actually come forth to the Senate on the Ides of March, Casca voices his doubts because of Caesar's new-found regard for omens and superstitions. (2.1.193-201). But Decius Brutus chimes in.
"Never fear that. If he be so resolv'd,/ I can o'ersway him (2.1.202-03)."
Flattery of Caesar
How does Decius Brutus think he can "o'ersway" Caesar? By flattery. He knows that Caesar loves to hear stories about how unicorns, bears and lions are easily deceived. He also loves to hear that men are "betray'd" with flatterers.
"But when I tell him he hates flatterers,/ He says that he does, being then most flattered (2.1.207-08)."
How does Decius Brutus actually flatter Caesar? By interpreting a bloody dream of Caesar's wife Calphurnia to signify not that people would be dipping their arms in Caesar's blood in vengeance and satisfaction, but that Caesar's blood shall be "reviving blood," blood that shall signify a rebirth of the spirit of Rome (2.2.83-90). Armed with this interpretation, and with the fear that if he did not go to the Capitol on the Ides of March he might not receive the crown, Caesar ignores the pleas of Calphurnia to stay at home, and ventures forth to his death.
Other Contradictions
But this is just one indication of a character that is riven with contradictions or deep flaws. Consider the following.
1. On the one hand, Caesar is harshly dismissive of the soothsayer who wants to warn him about coming to the Capitol (1.2.24), while on the other hand he is unduly concerned to observe the Lupercalian superstition of having the runner touch his barren wife Calphurnia in hopes that she might become pregnant.
2. He is portrayed as a colossus who bestrides the narrow world, a huge presence in the world of men (1.2.135), but at the same time the longest scene in which he is continuously portrayed has him in his nightgown, with no trappings of dignity or honor (2.2).
3. He launches into an eloquent speech in which he philosophically recognizes that "death, a necessary end,/ Will come when it will come (2.2.36-37)," but immediately thereafter he says, "What say the augurers?" (regarding the propitiousness of his going to the Capitol).
4. He speaks of himself in the third person (a grammatical device called "illeism," from the Latin word "ille" or "that one"), a tactic that gives the impression of near divinity. Indeed, he uses words reminiscent of Jesus' words in the Gospel of John emphasizing his divinity (note the repeated uses of "I am he" to stress Jesus' divinity in John 8:24, 28; 13:19 and, slightly differently, 18:5,8) when Caesar says he is not afraid to venture into danger, "for always I am Caesar" (1.2.212), but then he immediately tells a person speaking to him to speak into his right ear, because he is deaf in the other (1.2.213).
5. He changes his mind twice about venturing into the Capitol on the Ides of March, but once he ventures forth, he rejects the suit of various people to release Metellus Cimber, on the ground that to do so would be to change his mind, and he as Caesar is one "that unassailable holds on his rank,/ Unshak'd of motion, and that I am he (3.1.69-70)."
6. Finally, he manifests deep insight into human character, but cannot recognize the conspiracy that is right before his eyes. He sees Cassius and remarks, with great precision,
"He reads much,/ He is a great observer, and he looks/ Quite through the deeds of men. He loves no plays,/ As thou dost, Antony; he hears no music,/ Seldom he smiles, and smiles in such a sort/ As if he mock'd himself, and scorn'd his spirit/ That could be mov'd to smile at any thing (1.2.200-207)."
Yet, he cannot perceive that this dangerous man presents a peril to him because "always I am Caesar (1.2.212)." Later, in words that betoken his personal blindness, he invites the conspirators into his home to share some wine: "Good friends, go in, and taste some wine with me,/ And we, like friends, will straightway go together (2.2.126-27)."
Deception, manipulation, blindness and misunderstanding lie at the heart of the characters of Julius Caesar and especially of Caesar himself.
Copyright © 2004-2007 William R. Long |