Power Quotes - Julius Caesar | Julius Caesar- Summary, Themes & Characters - Novels PDF Download

BRUTUS

What means this shouting? I do fear the people

Choose Caesar for their king.

CASSIUS

                                              Ay, do you fear it?

Then must I think you would not have it so.

BRUTUS

I would not, Cassius, yet I love him well. (1.2.85-89)

This passage is interesting for a couple of reasons.  First, even though Brutus says he "love[s]" Caesar "well," he says he also fears that his friend will be crowned king, which goes against the ideals of the Roman Republic.  Second, even though Brutus, Cassius, and the fellow conspirators want to eliminate Caesar's threat, it's obvious that the commoners, or plebeians, adore Caesar.  When Caesar returns from defeating Pompey's sons in the first act, he's met with a huge celebration and is treated like a rock star.  

Why, man, he doth bestride the narrow world

Like a Colossus, and we petty men

Walk under his huge legs and peep about

To find ourselves dishonorable graves. (1.2.142-145)

As Cassius tries to convince Brutus that Caesar needs to be taken down, he conjures up a vivid image of the Roman leader as a "Colossus" – a giant statue, like the Colossus of Rhodes.  The funny thing is, Cassius also likes to go around talking about what a wimp Caesar is.  Just a few lines earlier, Cassius tells Brutus the story of how Caesar almost drowned as a young boy and how he once became so ill that he acted like a "sick girl."  So what's the deal with all of these competing images of Caesar in the play?  Is he really an all-powerful figure, or is he made out to be a bigger threat than he really is?  

CAESAR

Let me have men about me that are fat,

Sleek-headed men, and such as sleep a-nights.

Yond Cassius has a lean and hungry look.

He thinks too much. Such men are dangerous. (1.2.202-205)

Caesar makes light of his desire to be surrounded by fat and complacent yes-men, yet he realizes this is necessary to the safety of his power.  What does this suggest about his leadership style and ideas about how Rome should be governed?

CASCA

If the tag-rag people did not

clap him and hiss him, according as he pleased and

displeased them, as they use to do the players in the 

theater, I am no true man. 

[...]

Marry, before he fell down, when he perceived 

the common herd was glad he refused the crown, 

he plucked me ope his doublet and offered them his

throat to cut. An I had been a man of any occupation, 

if I would not have taken him at a word, I 

would I might go to hell among the rogues. And so

he fell. When he came to himself again, he said if he 

had done or said any thing amiss, he desired their 

worships to think it was his infirmity. (1.2.269-272; 274-282)

Casca knows that Caesar's dramatic refusal of the crown and fainting spell are just cheap tricks used to curry favor with the "hoot[ing]" and "clap[ing]" crowd. Casca also describes Caesar's adoring crowd as though they are an audience watching a performance at an Elizabethan playhouse, which suggests that political leaders like Julius Caesar are like actors on a very public stage. Check out "Themes: Art and Culture" if you want to know more about this.

We're also interested in Julius Caesar's dramatic fainting spell. We're not sure whether he really swooned or faked the whole thing, but for someone who's supposed to be such a threat to Roman freedom, Caesar sure does have a lot medical problems, don't you think (epilepsy, deafness in one ear, etc.)?

CASSIUS

And why should Caesar be a tyrant then?

Poor man! I know he would not be a wolf

But that he sees the Romans are but sheep;

He were no lion, were not Romans hinds.

Those that with haste will make a mighty fire

Begin it with weak straws. What trash is Rome,

What rubbish, and what offal when it serves

For the base matter to illuminate

So vile a thing as Caesar! (1.3.107-115)

Here Cassius doesn't specifically blame Caesar for his would-be tyranny. He believes it's the responsibility of the people to show they won't be subjugated like "sheep."  Cassius reasons that if a political leader behaves like a "wolf" or a "lion," it's only because the people have allowed him to do so.  According to Cassius, it's the people's job to keep their leaders in check.

BRUTUS

He would be crowned:

How that might change his nature, there's the question.

It is the bright day that brings forth the adder,

[...]

And therefore think him as a serpent's egg

Which, hatched, would, as his kind, grow mischievous,

And kill him in the shell. (2.1.12-15; 33-36)

Here Brutus compares Caesar to a "serpent's egg" that should be destroyed before it hatches and becomes dangerous.  This suggests that the conspirators see in Caesar a future threat to Rome.  They're afraid of Caesar not because he is a tyrant, but because he might become one if he is crowned king.

[...] I could tell you more

news too: Marullus and Flavius, for pulling scarves

off Caesar's images, are put to silence. Fare you

well. There was more foolery yet, if I could

remember it. (1.2.295-299)

Earlier we suggested that Caesar's problem is that he might become a tyrant if he gains more power.  Here, however, the play suggests that he's already behaving like one.  When Casca says that Murellus and Flavius have been "put to silence" for covering up pictures of Caesar during the Feast of Lupercal, we're left to wonder whether this means that Caesar had them put to death.  

CAESAR

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 furnished 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)

During Caesar's famous "I'm the brightest star" speech, he claims to be the most "constant" (steady) guy in the universe. This is an attempt to elevate himself above all others and make it look like he's the only guy fit to rule Rome.  The irony here is that just as Caesar declares how "unshak[able]" and immovable he is, the conspirators surround him and stab him to death, unseating him from power. 

BRUTUS

Stoop, Romans, stoop,

And let us bathe our hands in Caesar's blood

Up to the elbows, and besmear our swords.

Then walk we forth, even to the marketplace,

And, waving our red weapons o'er our heads,

Let's all cry "Peace, freedom, and liberty!" (3.1.117-122)

After the conspirators stab Caesar to death, they decide it would be a good idea to wash their hands in his blood, then run through the marketplace announcing that they have liberated Rome from bondage.  Good thinking – now everyone will know that Rome is safe from danger...right? 

Friends, Romans, countrymen, lend me your ears. (3.2.82)

Even though Antony promises he won't bad-mouth Caesar's assassins, his funeral eulogy for Caesar is a carefully crafted speech designed to 1) turn the people against the conspirators, and 2) launch Antony into a position of power.  The success of Antony's speech suggests that effective leadership goes hand in hand with rhetoric (the art of speaking persuasively).