Julius Caesar Theme Julius Caesar

Julius Caesar Theme

Julius Caesar is in many ways the symbol of absolute power. Charged with great ambition, he disregards the signs of fate, i.e. his wife's prophetic dream and goes to the Senate hoping to be crowned king. It is precisely this ambition that determines his conspirators to plan his murder. Caesar shares Brutus' idealism. However, his notion of idealism revolves around being able to assume complete control of Rome without also assuming the consequences. Caesar's thirst for power has two opposing consequences in the sense that on the one hand, it brings about his untimely death, but on the other, it allows him to live on forever in men's minds.

Brutus is without a doubt the most complex character in Shakespeare's drama. He emerges as a tragic hero torn between his deeds, i.e. The conspiracy and murder of Julius Caesar, and his own questions regarding the morality of his actions. Because of his friendship with Caesar, Brutus oscillates between feelings of guilt and of selfless duty, i.e. The good of Rome. His biggest flaw is ironically enough, his idealism that can be interpreted as political naivete which leads to his involvement in the conspiracy.

As far as Antony, he has all of the qualities that Brutus lacks. He is impulsive and unscrupulous which serves his purpose perfectly as he manages to persuade both the conspirators of his dedication to the cause, and the plebeians of the injustice of the conspiracy. His duplicity teamed with skilled rhetoric earns him political support from the masses whereas Brutus builds his political discourse and strategy of action on the ideal of virtue and the absence of personal interest in politics.