The play opened in a lively theatrical manner, noisy citizens soon grabbed the attention of Flavius and Marullus, the importance of the crowd was immediately established. The crowd were in holiday mood ready to cheer Caesar. We saw they were easily manipulated, Flavius & Marullus interrogated some of them with questions. They speak to a carpenter and a cobbler, the cobbler is in a jolly mood and answered Marullus in an impolite manner, Marullus soon demanded them to leave, ''Tongue - tired in there guiltiness,'' is what he says.
This is where we see excessive desire for power and freedom by Flavius and Marullus, in other words we see greediness and disliking of Caesar from Flavius and Marullus. Caesars wife Calphurnia, had failed to have any children, so Caesar decides that if Calphuria stands in Antony's way during the Lupercal ceremonies, then she would be able to conceive. Whilst Caesar was at the Festival of Lupercal, he was approached by a soothsayer, the soothsayer warns Caesar to ''Beware the ides of march. '' Caesar dismissed him as a dreamer and moved on, Caesar said 'He is a dreamer let us leave him: pass''.This clearly indicated Caesar did not really take into consideration what the soothsayer said. In Act 1 Scene 2 Cassius approaches Brutus, a close companion of Caesar.
Cassius aim was to persuade Brutus into disliking Caesar. Cassius started of by comparing himself and Brutus to Caesar, "I was born free as Caesar ; so were you ; we both have fed as well, and we can both endure the winters as well as he. '' Said Cassius. (Extract from Act 1 scene 2 lines 8,9,10) Cassius was trying to point out that Caesar is nothing different from them, he is nothing special.Cassius personal hatred now became clear he said "Caesar is now treated like god,'' but he himself is no more than a "wretched creature.
" who must bow and scrape for Julius Caesar. Cassius kept stressing on about Caesars physical weakness, he refers to epilepsy in Spain, when Caesar shook. There was a lot of jealousy in Cassius reference to Caesar, for example as "a sick girl. " Cassius clinches the meeting by a subtle appeal to Brutus's pride in his ancestry. He said "the last king to rule Rome was Tarquin," Tarquin who was driven out by citizens and Rome was once again a Republic.Cassius knew that the present Brutus, likes to trail his ancestry back to the earlier brutus.
At the end of this conference Brutus was persuaded by Cassius, and now felt his comrade Caesar was far to ambitious, and wanted to be king of Rome. In a busy market place Antony offered the crown of Rome to Caesar three times, but Caesar rejected it all three times. The crowd were pleased that he rejected it this was due to the hype surrounding Julius Caesar. Soon after Caesar and his followers went back to the Senate hall. Casca who saw this event take place at the market place, informed Brutus and Cassius of what had just happened.In Act 1 scene 3 there were violent storms Casca was very moved and Cicero was less impressed by the storm.
Cicero left Casca, and Cassius arrived. Casca and Cassius talked about the storm, Cassius sensed that Casca is disturbed in the head, and can easily be drawn into the conspiracy against Caesar. He explained to Casca that the storms are a warning from the heavens " Instrument of fear and warning" Casca picked the hint up immediately, Casca revealed the senators intent, on the following day to make Caesar king, of not only Rome but also the provinces of the Roman empire outside Italy.Dramatically Cassius revealed he rather kill himself than live under the rule of Caesar. Casca agreed to be in the conspiracy. Soon after Cinna arrived looking for Cassius, Cassius told him they need to win support of Brutus, Cassius handed over forged letters to Cinna, seeming to come from angry citizens calling on Brutus to protect the freedom of Rome against Caesar.
Caesars wife Calphurnia, had been disturbed and believed her husband was in terrible danger, she did not want Caesar to go to the Capitol.Caesar did not believe all this and thinks no one is against him. Calphurnia begged him not to go, but Caesar decided not to go. Later that day, Antony arrived for Caesar and persuaded him to go to the capitol. The rest of the conspirators arrived to accompany Caesar.
In Act 3 scene 1, Caesar arrived to the capitol followed by his conspirators and friends. The Soothsayer was amongst them as well, Caesar remembered the soothsayer from the Festival of Lupercal and told him that the "ides" have arrived, to which the soothsayer replied "The day is not over yet.Artemidorus pressed forward to give a paper to Caesar. Decius Brutus perhaps sensed danger and pushed Artemidorus aside and presented Caesar a suit from Trebonius.
Artemidorus pleaded to Caesar to read his first, but Caesar with a fatal touch of arrogance said "His personal issues will be dealt with last soon. " After Popilus Lena, a seneter not involved in the plot against Caesar, told Cassius that he hopes their enterprise will thrive. Popilius had clearly got wind of the plan to assassinate Caesar.Popilus approached Caesar, this put a scare into Cassius. Brutus was more composed and noticed that Caesar had not reacted to whatever Popilius said to him.
In a well timed move Trebonious toke Antony to the side to give the murderers a clear run at Caesar, Metallus Cimber pressed forward to present his petition to Caesar, he was told to move away from his brother. This was a plan by the conspirators to close in on Caesar. Brutus and Cassius also pleaded for Publius Cimber to be allowed to return.Caesar in a show arrogance said he would not change his mind. As Brutus kneeled before Caesar, Casca lifted his dagger and struck the first blow! they all stabbed Caesar left, right, and centre, finally as Brutus raised his knife Caesar cried "Et tu Brute? " Which mean 'you to Brutus'.
Caesar just did not expect his close friend Brutus to stab him. (That's the same as if Tony Blair was to get stabbed by Gordon Brown his close friend. ) those were the last words of Caesar, Caesar died.If we compare things back than to things now, in those days everyone in the empire would respect the ruler, even if they hated him they would obey his rule. Whereas now we live in a democracy, where everyone has an opinion, no single ruler, now The Prime minister Tony Blair has opposition 'The Conservative party'(the main opposition party) and 'The Liberal Democrats' who debate nearly all the agendas set by the prime minister and the Labour government. Secondly the Royal family, who back in the Shakespeare era were the ruler such as Henry viii.
They would have immense power and respect and hardly any critics, again anyone who was critical of there rule would have been killed. while now nearly the whole nation dislikes our Royal family, especially Charles and his love life (except the pensioners! ), this is mainly due to the media, especially the tabloid papers who expose nearly every move the Royal family makes in their private life, for example Prince Charles and his girlfriend Camilla, when in a conversation on the telephone he said I'd wish I was a tampon, then I could spend the whole day with you".I personally do not really think that is fair on anyone. A few weeks ago on a television interview Claire Short formally of the Labour government, started insulting Blair and his stance on the war on Iraq she said "Blair made a colossal error of misjudgement on the war on Iraq. " She also said how cowardly he is, This was very similar to what Cassius said about Caesar to Brutus to persuade him in the conspiracy against Caesar.
