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

CASSIUS

For once, upon a raw and gusty day,

The troubled Tiber chafing with her shores,

Caesar said to me 'Dar'st thou, Cassius, now

Leap in with me into this angry flood

And swim to yonder point?' Upon the word,

Accoutred as I was, I plungèd in

And bade him follow; so indeed he did.

The torrent roared, and we did buffet it

With lusty sinews, throwing it aside

And stemming it with hearts of controversy.

But ere we could arrive the point proposed,

Caesar cried 'Help me, Cassius, or I sink!'

I, as Aeneas, our great ancestor,

Did from the flames of Troy upon his shoulder

The old Anchises bear, so from the waves of Tiber

Did I the tired Caesar. And this man

Is now become a god, and Cassius is

A wretched creature and must bend his body

If Caesar carelessly but nod on him. (1.2.107-125)

There's nothing like a little (un)friendly male competition, is there?  Here, Cassius tells Brutus the story of how Caesar, as a young boy, challenged him to swim across the Tiber River, where Caesar's show of masculine bravado nearly cost him his life.

CASSIUS

'Alas,' it cried 'Give me some drink, Titinius'

As a sick girl. Ye gods, it doth amaze me

A man of such a feeble temper should

So get the start of the majestic world

And bear the palm alone. (1.2.134-138)

In order to undermine Caesar's power and authority as a Roman leader, Cassius relates a story about how Caesar once fell ill and begged for water "like a sick girl."  Apparently, for these Romans, becoming sick or "feeble" and showing signs of weakness compromise one's masculinity and ability to rule. 

CASSIUS 

Let it be who it is. For Romans now

Have thews and limbs like to their ancestors.

But, woe the while, our fathers' minds are dead,

And we are governed with our mothers' spirits.

Our yoke and sufferance show us womanish. (1.3.83-87)

Hmm.  We seem to be detecting a pattern here.  In the last passage, Cassius equated Caesar's illness with "girliness."  Here, he claims that "the yoke" of Caesar's tyranny has turned all the Roman men into "womanish" mama's boys. 

PORTIA

Dear my lord,

Make me acquainted with your cause of grief. 

[...]

Within the bond of marriage, tell me, Brutus,

Is it excepted I should know no secrets

That appertain to you? Am I your self

But, as it were, in sort or limitation,

To keep with you at meals, comfort your bed,

And talk to you sometimes? Dwell I but in the suburbs

Of your good pleasure? If it be no more,

Portia is Brutus' harlot, not his wife. (2.1.275-276; 302-310)

When Brutus refuses to confide in his wife, Portia takes issue with his secrecy: as a married couple, she says, they should have no secrets.  In other words, Portia is sick and tired of being excluded from her husband's world just because she's a woman.  She also suggests that, when Brutus keeps things from her, he's treating her like a "harlot, not his wife." 

PORTIA

I grant I am a woman; but withal

A woman well-reputed, Cato's daughter.

Think you I am no stronger than my sex,

Being so father'd and so husbanded?

Tell me your counsels; I will not disclose 'em.

I have made strong proof of my constancy,

Giving myself a voluntary wound

Here, in the thigh. Can I bear that with patience.

And not my husband's secrets? (2.1.215-325)

Yikes! Portia seems to buy into the all-too-common idea that women are weaker than men. Here she says she knows she's just a girl but reasons that, since she's the daughter and wife of two really awesome men, that makes her better than the average woman. To prove her point, she stabs herself in the thigh without flinching and demands that her husband treat her with more respect.

History Snack: When Portia says she knows she's just "a woman" but she also thinks she's "stronger" and more constant (i.e., masculine) than most, she sounds a lot like Queen Elizabeth I (Shakespeare's monarch) who famously said "I know I have the body but of a weak and feeble woman; but I have the heart and stomach of a king" ("Speech to the Troops at Tilbury," 1588). Queen Elizabeth I, like Portia, buys into the idea that women are generally weaker than men but presents herself as the exception to the rule.

CAESAR 

Cowards die many times before their deaths;

The valiant never taste of death but once.

Of all the wonders that I yet have heard,

It seems to me most strange that men should fear,

Seeing that death, a necessary end,

Will come when it will come. (2.2.34-39)

For Caesar, being a man means being completely fearless in the face of death.

CAESAR

Calphurnia here, my wife, stays me at home.

She dreamt tonight she saw my statue,

Which, like a fountain with an hundred spouts,

Did run pure blood; and many lusty Romans

Came smiling and did bathe their hands in it

And these does she apply for warnings and portents,

And evils imminent, and on her knee

Hath begged that I will stay at home today. (2.2.80-87)

When Calphurnia dreams of Caesar's body spurting blood like a fountain, she correctly interprets it to mean that something bad is going to happen to Caesar and warns her husband to stay home that day.  At first, it seems like Caesar is going to heed his wife's warning (even though he doesn't want people to think he's staying at home because he's afraid).  But Calphurnia's attempts to protect her husband are completely undermined when Decius shows up.  Keep reading... 

DECIUS

This dream is all amiss interpreted.

It was a vision fair and fortunate.

Your statue spouting blood in many pipes,

In which so many smiling Romans bathed,

Signifies that from you great Rome shall suck

Reviving blood, and that great men shall press

For tinctures, stains, relics, and cognizance.

This by Calphurnia's dream is signified.

[...]

Besides, it were a mock

Apt to be rendered, for some one to say

'Break up the senate till another time,

When Caesar's wife shall meet with better dreams.'

If Caesar hide himself, shall they not whisper

'Lo, Caesar is afraid'? (2.2.88-95; 101-106)

Decius not only says that Calphurnia isn't capable of correctly interpreting her dream, he also tells Caesar that everyone will think he's a sissy if he doesn't go to the Capitol just because his wife had a bad dream. 

CAESAR

How foolish do your fears seem now, Calphurnia!

I am ashamèd I did yield to them.

Give me my robe, for I will go. (2.2.110-112)

In the last passage we saw Decius warn Caesar that he would be seen as weak if he listened to the advice of a woman.  Here Caesar completely disregards Calphurnia's interpretation of her ominous dream in favor of what Decius has to say.  Of course, it turns out that Calphurnia was right all along – Caesar gets stabbed in the guts 33 times and his assassins wash their hands in his blood.  So even though Caesar and the other characters don't put much stock in what women have to say, it seems pretty clear that Calphurnia isn't so dumb after all.  In fact, it also seems like things would have turned out differently if the play's female characters hadn't been ignored.

PORTIA

I must go in. [Aside] Ay me, how weak a thing

The heart of woman is! (2.4.45-46)

OK, OK, we get it.  The characters in Julius Caesar (including Portia, one of only two female characters in the play) think women are "weak."