Symbolism, Imagery, Allegory - Analysis, Julius Caesar | Julius Caesar- Summary, Themes & Characters - Novels PDF Download

Poets and Teachers

These purveyors of words aren't central to any of the play's action, but they do stand out because of how widely they're disregarded, even when they have important things to say. While Shakespeare's work was considered important enough to get him royal patronage from King James I, poetry during Caesar's time was decidedly different. The most important pieces of literature from that time, whether poetic or not, focus on history and tradition. Livy's History of Rome, Caesar's own Gallic Wars, Tacitus' Histories, and Virgil's Aeneid had history at their core. The idea of writing for writing's sake wasn't popular.

Within that context, the presentation of the men of letters in Julius Caesarmakes a little more sense. The first and only person who can explicitly warn Caesar in detail of the plot to kill him is a teacher of rhetoric, Artemidorius. Caught up in his affairs of state, Caesar ignores this learned man's teaching, which costs him his life.

Next we see Cinna the poet torn to shreds for having the wrong name. Even after the mob realizes he's not that Cinna, they kill him anyway as punishment for his "bad verses." (That the mob is ignorant enough to be this blood-lusty casts some doubt on whether they're qualified to be literary critics.)

The final poet we encounter shows up outside Brutus and Cassius' tent after their quarrel. He asks them to love each other as brothers and suggests that they shouldn't be alone together. (Probably a good idea, considering that they almost killed each other.) The poet points out that he has lived longer than they have and might have something to teach them. They just laugh at him, threaten him, and finally dismiss him.

In all three instances, men of words seem pretty randomly inserted into the play. There's no real reason to have a scene solely devoted to killing Cinna, or for the strange little exchange with the poet at the end. None of those instances move the plot along.

But think about it: Shakespeare is a writer. He can't just insert important poets into history, but he can do his best to argue within the play that poets and learning should be central to politics. The poets we meet are on innocent and important missions, all of which are deterred or slighted with not-so-awesome results. So perhaps Shakespeare is suggesting that men of state should also be men of learning; to ignore poets and what they have to teach is to court doom. It's a jab against both ancient Rome and Elizabethan England, but mostly it's an example of Shakespeare using a little of his own influence to promote his craft.

Omens

Julius Caesar is full of cryptic omens: the soothsayer's advice for Caesar to "beware the Ides of March," bad weather, wacky animal behavior, scary dreams, and, of course, ghosts. We talk about each of these omens in more detail below but here are two overall points we want to make, so pay attention...or else something terrible might happen.

Point 1: Just about every omen in the play is subject to interpretation. (Kind of like all of Shakespeare's plays are subject to interpretation. And yes, we are most definitely drawing a parallel between how characters (mis)interpret omens and the way we perform literary analysis.) Take, for example, Calphurnia's dream about a bunch of Romans standing around washing their hands in Caesar's blood (2.2). Calphurnia correctly guesses that this is a bad thing but Decius convinces Caesar that the dream means he will be Rome's savior. Of course, it turns out Calphurnia was right, but nobody believes her (partly because she's a woman), so Caesar ends up getting stabbed 33 times. The play is full of people running around misinterpreting omens.

Point 2: You've probably already figured out what our second point is, but we'll say it anyway: the true meanings of the play's omens tend to be lost on most of the characters until it's too late to do anything about them. So does this mean we should talk about how dumb Caesar is to ignore Calphurnia's scary dream or the soothsayer's advice to "beware the Ides of March"? Should we criticize Cassius for failing to anticipate his own doom? Not necessarily.

As students of history and literature, we have an edge over the play's characters. First, we know how things will end in the play, because Shakespeare is writing about historical events. Second, it's pretty easy for us as readers to recognize a bad omen when we see one. In literature, lousy weather pretty much always signals that something bad is going to happen, right?

The Ides of March

Historically and in Shakespeare's play, the "Ides of March" refers to March 15, the day Julius Caesar was assassinated by the Roman conspirators. The term first appears in Julius Caesar when a soothsayer approaches Caesar and cryptically warns him (twice) to "beware the Ides of March" (1.2.21), which Caesar arrogantly dismisses as the meaningless ranting of a silly "dreamer" (1.2.29). "Ides of March" is repeated no fewer than seven times in the play, which serves as an ominous reminder of Caesar's impending doom.

The soothsayer's warning raises an interesting question about the relationship between fate and free will, an important theme we discuss at length in this learning guide: if Caesar had actually heeded the warning to "beware the Ides of March," could he have changed the course of his future?

Weather

This one's kind of a no-brainer. As in most of Shakespeare's tragedies, here's the rule: where there's lightning and thunder, bad stuff happens. (Just read Macbeth if you don't believe us.) On the night Cassius and the conspirators are plotting to murder Caesar, thunder and lightning shake the streets like no one has ever seen. Casca interprets the weather as an omen of bad things to come: "Either there is a civil strife in heaven, / or else the world, too saucy with the gods, / Incenses them to send destruction" (1.3.11-13). Hmm, that pretty much alerts us to the fact that the conspirators' plot against Caesar will cause a big old civil war, don't you think? But Cassius thinks the bad weather and other signs are a "warning" to the Romans about Caesar's "monstrous state" of tyranny in Rome (1.3.73; 74). The important thing here is that you can interpret omens in different ways depending on what you want them to mean.

Animals

Every time there are bad omens in the play, animals, especially birds, center prominently.

When Casca talks about how fearsome the night that Cassius gathers the plotters is, there's thunder and lighting, but there's also the strange occurrence of a nocturnal bird showing up at the marketplace at high noon, shrieking doom.

Calphurnia warns Caesar not to go to the Capitol because she's seen a war in the air, the domain of the birds.

Finally, when Cassius accepts that he has to die in the battle against Antony and Octavius, he knows it because two great eagles that fed from the hands of soldiers were replaced the next day by ravens, crows, and kites – dark birds that filled the air with shrieking and spread a shadow of death over the army. Cassius knows the eagles feeding from soldier's hands symbolize him and Brutus, two noble men whose fates rest with their armies. After the eagles fall, the black army of Antony and Octavius will spread the shadow of tyranny over the land, like those scavenger birds.

Other animals show up on occasion, such as the lions both Calphurnia and Casca see in visions. Calphurnia envisions a lioness giving birth in the streets, a strange location for this to take place. The lion that Casca saw walked by him sulkily without attacking. So the lion (king of the jungle) acts unnaturally in the play, perhaps symbolizing the fact that Caesar, who could become king (of men) will not reach this status.

Just to beat us over the head with the symbolism, Cassius refers to Caesar as "the lion in the Capitol" when he talks about the need to overthrow him. And when Caesar claims he's more dangerous than danger itself, he says: "We are two lions litter'd in one day, And I the elder and more terrible." By identifying himself with such a powerful and fearsome animal, Caesar forces the "hinds" (deer) of Rome to gang up against him.

Finally, as far as animals go, there's also the unknown beast that Caesar has sacrificed, whose lack of a heart is definitely a bad omen. Again, Shakespeare reminds us that omens can be interpreted in many ways. Caesar takes it to mean that if he doesn't go to the Capitol that day he is a coward. Caesar borrows here from the Latin word for "heart" ("cor"), from which we get the word "courage," since the heart was thought to be the source of that particular passion. Of course, we readers know that the omen might better be interpreted as a sign that the conspirators don't have hearts or mercy when they agree to take Caesar's life.

Ghosts

Ghosts appear a few times in the play and are obvious symbols for bad news. On the fateful night before the Ides of March, Casca meets terrified women who claim the streets are filled with men in flames – visions no one else can see. Brutus is visited twice by a ghost, which he believes to be the ghost of Caesar. Obviously, this can't be good – you don't come all the way out of the grave to deliver a casual "howdy."

Northern Star: Julius Caesar Superstar?

During Caesar's famous "I'm the brightest star in the sky" speech, he claims to be the most "constant" (steady) guy in the universe because he can't be swayed by the personal appeals of other men. While this is one of the most arrogant diatribes ever, it's also full of some snazzy literary devices and reveals a lot about Caesar's character. Let's take a look at Caesar's speech so we can think about how his elaborate galaxy metaphor creates meaning in the play:

I could be well moved, if I were as you.
If I could pray to move, prayers would move me.
But I am constant as the northern star,
Of whose true fixed and resting quality
There is no fellow in the firmament.
The skies are painted with unnumbered sparks;
They are all fire and every one doth shine.
But there's but one in all doth hold his place.
So in the world, 'tis furnish'd well with men,
And men are flesh and blood, and apprehensive.
Yet in the number I do know but one
That unassailable holds on his rank,
Unshaked of motion; and that I am he
Let me a little show it, even in this:
That I was constant Cimber should be banished
And constant do remain to keep him so. (3.1.64-79)

The first thing to notice is that when Caesar aligns himself with the "Northern Star," he attempts to elevate himself above all other men. Even though there are other stars (men) in the sky (Rome), "there's but one in all doth hold his place." In other words, Caesar claims that he's the only guy solid enough to rule Rome (as evidenced by his refusal to relent after having banished Cimber).

The irony here is that Caesar delivers this big, fancy speech mere seconds before he's assassinated. Just as our superstar is declaring how "unshak[able]" and immovable he is, the conspirators surround him and stab him to death, unseating him from power.

As a side note, it's not uncommon for Shakespeare's powerful political leaders to align themselves with celestial bodies. Prince Hal, for example, compares himself to the sun in Henry IV Part 1. And Hal's dad, Henry IV, compares himself to a comet.

Antony's Goatskin Whip

During the feast of the Lupercal, Caesar orders Antony to spank Calphurnia (Caesar's "barren" wife) with his goatskin whip so she might become pregnant. Weird? Yes. But before your imagination runs too far, let us explain what's going on here.

Historically, during Lupercal festivities, it was traditional for young men to run naked through the streets, whipping everyone in sight. The idea was that touching women with the special whip would help them give birth to healthy babies. (We're not kidding. If you don't believe us, you can read Plutarch's biography of Julius Caesar, which describes in detail the kind of aforementioned whippings that went down at Lupercal festivals.)

So when Caesar tells Antony not to forget to "touch Calphurnia" when he's running through the streets, it's because the "elders say / The barren, touchèd in the holy chase, / shake off their sterile curse" (1.2.9-11). In other words, Caesar is hoping that Calphurnia will bear him children. This seems pretty random, don't you think? Why does Shakespeare go out of his way to include this bizarre moment in the play? Here are a few ideas:

1.    Although Caesar blames Calphurnia's for being "barren," it's possible that Caesar could be the one who's impotent or sterile. (After all, it's not like they had fancy fertility doctors at the time.) We can't know for sure, but Shakespeare may be trying to plant the idea in the audience's mind that Caesar isn't as perfect as he thinks he is. There are lots of other references to Caesar's "shortcomings" in the play. In Act 1, Scene 2, Casca tells us how Caesar fainted when he was offered the crown (1.2), and Cassius happily reports that when Caesar was younger he became ill and acted like a "sick girl" (1.2).

2.    When Caesar asks Antony to whip "barren" Calphurnia, we know that he's anxious about not having kids. For a guy who might become a king, it's important to have an heir to inherit the throne, right? Remember, Caesar pretends he doesn't want to be crowned king in Act 1, Scene 2, but he's lured to the Capitol in Act 2, scene 2 by Decius' promise that the Senate wants to crown him king. So the play raises the possibility that Caesar really does have dynastic ambitions. It's not only possible that Caesar wants to be a monarch; it also seems like he wants a little baby Caesar to inherit the throne.

3.    Finally, this could be a not-so-subtle reference to the childless Queen Elizabeth I, who was way too old to have kids and hadn't yet named an heir to England's throne when Shakespeare wrote the play.