Overview Act II Julius Caesar

Act II Overview

Bill Long

Themes and Movement

Act II takes place mostly at night. Brutus can't sleep and calls for his servant Lucius to light a candle in his study. While waiting for this to happen, Brutus gives reasons for his decision to join the conspiracy against Caesar. Four themes or movments arise in this Act that give us insight into the characters and the flow of the action.

Theme I: Brutus's Faulty Reasoning

When we first met Brutus in Act I, he was vexed by interior thoughts, conceptions he felt were only proper to himself, regarding the dual loyalites that tugged at him: loyalty to Caesar as friend and Rome as a state. In Act II he has decided to join the conspirators, and we become privy to his reasons for doing so. They are flimsy in the extreme. He argues from the analogy of nature (that adders are brought forth in the bright day--meaning that the "bright day" of Caesar's kingship might bring forth his venomous qualities) even though he knows that Caesar has shown no tendency in this direction. He also fills in the gaps in a letter thrown in at his window (at the instigation of Cassius) in such a way as to encourage him to action. Brutus is especially vulnerable to self-deception, probably because he believes in his ability to reason through a problem and, as I suggest in another essay, because of his inner emotional vacuity. In any case, I see him as ponderous and moralistic, with no capacity for self-discernment.

Theme II: Caesar's Fickleness and Sense of Invulnerability

Caesar is a one-of-a-kind. His authority is unquestioned by all. He is the greatest man in the world. In Act II we meet the greatest man in the world in his nightgown. He is fickle. For example, he firmly believes that death will "come when it will come" (2.2.37), but in the same line he also wants to know what the augurers (priests reading entrails or flight of birds for clues about the future) say about the future. He decides to go to the Forum because, after all, "Danger knows full well/ That Caesar is more dangerous than he (2.2.44-45)," but then he acquiesces in his wife's wishes to stay home. Finally, when Decius Brutus comes to him and holds out the promise of kingship if Caesar enters the Forum, he reverses himself again and decides to go after all. He also cultivates a sense of invulnerability. Earlier he had stressed his unassailability: "I rather tell thee what is to be fear'd/ Than what I fear; for always I am Caesar (1.2.211-212)." That earlier sentiment stays with him in Act II. He is the valiant one: "Cowards die many times before their deaths, /The valiant never taste of death but once (2.2.32-33)."

Theme III: Women Silenced

Brutus's wife Portia is the woman whose character receives greatest development in this play. But Brutus withholds information from her about his role in the conspiracy until she begs him to reveal it. She does not want to reside in the "suburbs" of his good pleasure (2.1.285--harlots, rather than soccer moms, dwelled in suburbs) and wants no exception of the "secrets" that "appertain" to him (2.1.281). But when Brutus tells her his role, and then goes off to the Forum, she is strangely silenced. She sends off a servant to find out how things are going at the Senate-house, since she could not go herself (2.4). But she can say nothing. She is aware that for her to "keep counsel" (not reveal her secrets) is torture (2.4.9), but she must remain silent. Ultimately she will commit suicide, testimony to her inability to reconcile a "female" role with a "masculine" knowledge and mind.

Theme IV: Brutus Takes Charge

Once Brutus joins the conspirators, he moves directly into the inner circle of the plot. He will nix Cassius' ideas repeatedly, often interrupting him in the middle of his thoughts. As a result, Brutus will make several fatefully wrong decisions. The manipulator, Cassius, has gotten his desire, which is to have Brutus on his side. Now, ironically, Brutus will take over the plot and direct it to its deadly conclusion to the detriment of the conspirators. I believe that Brutus' need to control the conspiracy arises not only out of the stature he bears in the Republic but also from his lack of self-knowledge. As a later essay will argue, there is a close connection between lack of personal self-awareness and desire to exert control.