Problem Passages and Julius Caesar

Problem Passages

Bill Long

Portia's Death (4.3.145-195)

Sometimes, as you read a play, you don't really know what is clever narration or dialogue and what stretches credulity. Because plays are relatively brief, and characters have to be described with economy, the reader "fills in" what is lacking by making inferences from earlier dialogues, knowledge of the playright's style or manner or just knowledge of life in general. Shakespeare is a master of compressed dialogue and description; whole worlds are sometimes hidden in few words.

Thus, one hesitates before boldly declaring that certain things in Shakespeare's plays just don't "fit" or are inartfully presented. Yet, in examining the fight and reconciliation scene between Brutus and Cassius (4.3), we come across several things that either don't ring true or are only partially presented. Three of them, described in this and the next mini-essay, are the descriptions of Portia's death, Brutus's perceptiveness about Cassius and the vehemence of the quarrel and suddenness of reconciliation.

Portia's Death

Her death is reported in two places. In the first instance Brutus reveals it to Cassius after they fought and made up. Brutus introduces it with the line, "O Cassius, I am sick of many griefs (4.3.144)." Then, after Cassius gently chides him for not making better use of his philosophy for comfort, Brutus announces that she is dead (4.3.147). This announcement has a powerful effect on Cassius, who suddenly thinks that Brutus would have been justified in killing him during the quarrel with the weight of this tragedy bearing upon him (4.3.150-151). The reader thus learns that Brutus has been bearing the weight of this terrible loss from the beginning of the conversation. But, how is the reader supposed to feel? Shakespeare is not only not clear on this, he does not even present the problem well. Is this supposed to make Brutus look more noble, more "stoic," to carry on without letting this concern come to the fore? Is it supposed to shame Cassius? Are we supposed to believe that her loss "weighed" on him during the entire speech or just stabbed him with remembrance when he and Cassius are reconciling? Even if there was only one presentation of Portia's death, then, we might wonder why Shakespeare has portrayed it so.

A Second Account of Portia's Death

But, there is another account of her death. A few lines later two servants, Titinius and Messala, enter. Messala communicates to Brutus that the Second Triumvirate has put a hundred senators to death (4.3.175). Brutus's letters only have 70 being put to death, with Cicero as one. Messala then asks whether Brutus has received any letters from his wife (4.3.181). The natural response, given the conversation with Cassius of thirty lines ago, would be, 'No, I haven't because she is dead,' or words to that effect. Brutus just says he has received nothing. After a few more lines, Brutus then asks Messala, "Hear you aught of her in yours (i.e., your letters, 4.3.185)?" Messala says he has not, and then, at the urging of Brutus, tells him what is really on his mind, "For certain she is dead, and by a strange manner (4.3.189)." Brutus's response is a rather bland, "Why, farewell, Portia. We must die, Messala./ With meditating that she must die once,/ I have the patience to endure it now (4.3.191-192)."

Hm. Most scholars argue for imperfect editing here. Some try to "salvage" the apparently contradictory passages by suggesting that when Brutus reveals the word to Cassius he is speaking in his "private" capacity; when hearing from Messala, in his "public." Since "private" v. "public" is a big theme for many scholars, there may not be a contradiction.

But that stretches things too far. The text as we have it rings hollow not only because we have two contrary accounts of Portia's death but because even if we had only the first account we would wonder how we are supposed to react to it. Indeed, as I argue in another essay, the mode of Portia's death is significant: the woman who is silenced by external forces--by not being able to speak the news of Caesar's imminent death, is now silenced by internal forces, the coals on which she chokes to death. But the two accounts of her death just sit there, staring at us. They make us think that this scene was not as carefully crafted as the preceding three Acts. Indeed, other things about it, in the next essay, tend to confirm that judgment.

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