Themes in Julius Caesar

Part of the case Cassius lays before Brutus in convincing him of Caesar’s unworthiness is a devaluation of Caesar’s status from God to man. Cassius is unconvinced that Caesar’s leadership is “in the stars,” or destined. Cassius spins an account of Caesar as a flesh-and-blood man, rendering him no more worthy to rule than any other mortal. This moment ties into the play’s ongoing debate over whether Rome’s political fate is in the hands of gods or men.

Casca uses alchemy–the antiquated practice of turning lead to gold–as a metaphor for the power of political rhetoric. Throughout Julius Caesar, nothing is truly lead or gold, but the right words can make it seem so.

Cassius’s understanding of the world centers around a belief in free will and agency. He seeks to assign responsibility to himself and his fellow Romans for the current state of political affairs. Not content to buy into a narrative that renders Caesar’s rise inevitable, he blames the citizens of Rome for allowing it to happen. Cassius in turn takes on the responsibility to shape events to come.

Like many of the characters in Julius Caesar, Artemidorus has a precarious notion of fate. On the one hand, he chooses to take matters into his own hands by warning Caesar of the conspiracy. On the other, he acknowledges that fate alone will decide whether Caesar gets the message.

In a fascinating address to the Fates themselves, Brutus speaks of the inevitability of death. On one level, he is justifying the murder of Caesar by pointing out how death comes to everyone. To kill a man is to free him of the dread of death. On another level, Brutus is foreshadowing his own death, as well as the deaths of his fellow conspirators. After all, he says, “That we shall die, we know.”

Brutus’s case for his murder of Caesar hinges on two arguments. First, Caesar was ambitious, and ambition is punishable by death. Second, that Caesar was tyrannical, putting the Roman people in the position of bondmen (slaves). Note that Brutus offers no evidence to support these claims. Mark Antony’s ensuing speech is remarkable in the way that he uses evidence to dismantle Brutus’s position here.

So ends the philosophical discussion between Cassius and Brutus on the topics of foresight and determinism. Brutus arrives at the position that the future is ultimately unknowable until you have reached it. To Brutus, this state of affairs is not ideal but will have to do.

By ending the play with the discussion of Brutus’s character and legacy, Shakespeare asks us once again: Who is the play’s protagonist? Despite the play’s title, Julius Caesar is not as prominent or vocal a presence as Brutus or Cassius. These final moments, in which Antony, working himself into a rapture, proclaims that “Nature might stand up/And say to all the world, ‘’This was a man!” indicates that Brutus stands at the play’s heart. Brutus’s honor is important, and so is the honor bestowed upon him in his elegy.