Julias Caesar

Julius Caesar

The play Julius Caesar is strewn with power hungry capitalist, that manipulate their way to the top through betrayal and death. Shakespeare's problem that he reveals in the play Julius Caesar is the need and want for power that ultimately leads to corruption. Corruption is exemplified in different levels of society from the beginning of the play to the end of the play in different significant scenes. The opening scene of the play is the first indicator of corruption already beginning in the play. As Flavius and Marullus walk through the city after the great triumph of Caesar over Pompey in battle, you can see the Roman citizens fickle as they are start to change allegiances from Pompey to Caesar . Marullus confronts a cobbler and scolds him for his ignorant attitude, “you blocks, you stones, you worse than senseless things!” (Shakespeare, 1:1:39-40). In the Roman society it si the citizens that give the power to the senators and generals.Thus the roman citizens are the sole reason why Caesar rises to power so fast. Besides the corruption of the citizens that give the senators power in Rome, there is also the corruption and manipulation between the senators themselves. Considered to be the tragic hero of the play Julius Caesar, Brutus is singled out to conform with the conspirators to construct a plot to kill Caesar. In ancient Rome there was a need to be great and to be recognized in the future for that greatness. Greatness is how Cassius plays into Brutus's better judgement, “there was a Brutus once that would have brooked th' eternal devil to keep his state in Rome as easily as a king” (shakespeare, 1:2:167-170). Cassius presses Brutus into believing that it is his ancestral calling to conspire against Caesar and what he stands for. The problem is, is that Rome is never really controlled by the people at any time in the play and Brutus sees this. Caesar was offered the crown three times and he denied it each time , and was it not Mark Atony, an upper class citizen that was offering the crown? Brutus is anything but a selfish power hungry man, and to have Cassius alter his mind about which side he needs to stand on he (Cassuis) evokes the help of a forged letter from the people asking him to do something about Caesar's rise to power. As seen in the play Brutus is truly for the people and when he sees that even the citizens of Rome urge him to rise up against Caesar it is his moral obligation to concede. Cassius and Brutus do get one thing right and that is that Casear is truly an ambitious man. Ambition is a very good word to put to Caesars downfall, for Calphurnia and his servant both bring him grave signs that his death is near but the realization that he could very well be crowned is too much for him to idle on. Caesar is the first one to see the dangers of power first hand. Has Caesar had an undying will to become great, yes, for that is with all men, there is always the need to be great and Caesar pays the price for it. Calphurnia is the first one to warn him of his dangers and Caesar does yield to stay home until Decius gives another interpretation of Calphurnia's dream and Caesar abandons his plans to stay home. Caesar expresses hubris when he says “the gods do this in shame of cowardice” (Shakespeare, 2:2:44) and then he goes on to say that “danger knows full well that Caesar is more dangerous than he” (shakespeare, 2:2:46-47). Having come off of a bright day at the marketplace where he was offered the crown three times Caesar has reached a point in the play where he is uncontrollable and does not know his own boundaries. Caesar has become so absorbed with the thought of power that he neglects his own welfare, and basically says that there is nothing out there that can hurt me and that if there was they would be too stunned by my presence to do such a thing. Not only does he have great thoughts about himself, but he also believes that the people for who he is about to govern also adore him and worship him. That is not the case, for fear has shaped some people into the thought that he is not fit for the crown and that power is exactly not what Caesar needs. The conspiracy is formed and power is underway to overthrow Caesar. Brutus is not power hungry but rather is still under the belief that what they do to Caesar is for Rome and that he is fulfilling his ancestral calling. It appears that Brutus is the only conspirator that really means to do it for Rome, when asked to swear an oath to bond together the conspirators Brutus replies “and what other oath than honesty to honesty engaged that this shall be or we will fall for it” (Shakespeare, 2:1:137-140). Brutus means not to have power but rather to restore a well balanced power to Rome(the People). Cassius and Metellus on the other hand, along with the other conspirators have other motives in mind. Metellus says that Cicero should join their group since “his silver hairs will purchase us a good opinion and buy men's voices to commend our deeds” (Shakespeare, 2:1:156-158). This statement shows that they are looking for men who are well accepted with the citizens of Rome, so that they have more leverage when it comes to convincing the public that what they did was right not in only the conspirators eyes but also their own. This is a sign that they are looking for the power of the Roman public behind them so that they have a bigger support group so that if someone was on the edge of taking Antony's side over theirs they would be swayed by the public opinion. The conspirators do seek power for themselves, but there is also a person that benefits from Caesar's death and that is Mark Antony. Mark Antony is a huge advocate for Caesar at the beginning of the play, this is shown when he offers the crown to Caesar at the beginning of the play. When Caesar dies Mark Antony has to make a decision whether or not to join the conspirators or rise up against them or devise his own plot to revenge Caesar's brutal death. Mark Antony chooses to rise up against, “let slip the dogs of war” (Shakespeare, 3:1:299) he says, and in this line you see that Mark Antony seeks revenge. During the speech that Antony gives he does not speak ill of any of the conspirators but rather applauds them in a way and then turns the conversation over to how great a leader Caesar actually was and then sways the crowd back over to Caesars side. Antony is finally seeing the way the crowd can be moved to his favor, and like Caesar “while grasping power for their own interests, they convince those who give it to them that they use it only for the “general good” thus establishing a set of imagined social relations that masks the real ones” (Kahn, 219). In this Antony sets a course of events that chase the conspirators out of Rome. Now we see that Antony is corrupted by the potential of power in Rome that could very well be his. Antony is now just as power hungry as Cassius and they can both be closely related now that they strive toward the same ultimate ending, to be crowned the new Caesar. Shakespeare's problem that he reveals in the play Julius Caesar is the need and want for power that ultimately leads to corruption. It is clear that when the lure of gaining power is in the air people will do just about anything to it. The only person who ever remained some what impervious to the power was Brutus after all “this was the noblest Roman of them all” (Shakespeare, 5:5:74).