Julius Caesar
The title of Shakespeare play
Julius Caesar is a tragedy. In his day people believed that the universe was
essentially good and orderly. All order stemmed from the authority of god, the
supreme ruler. The monarch has the right to rule come from god too, and so
opposition to the anointed ruler was considered opposition to god. When the
chain of authority was shaped, the heavens would be offended, and a whole
society could be plunged into disorder.
There are many themes in
Shakespeare play one is power when it seem evident to the conspirators in
Shakespeare’s play that Julius Caesar is headed for absolute power, he becomes
a threat to the ideals and values of the roman republic. They assassinate
Caesar before he can be crowned king. The irony is that Caesar’s death results
in civil war. As two factions with questionable motives grab for power, chaos
ensues and the republic is never the same again. Second theme is manipulation
in Julius Caesar, manipulation seems like a professional sport. Politicians use
their rhetorical skills to gain power and to influence large, fickle crowds,
and seeming friends lie outright to each other. Persuasion and suggestion is
rhetorical skills that play central roles in Julius Caesar, but they also
highlight the willingness of individuals in hard times to hear what they want
to hear. It’s often unclear whether others manipulate characters, or do they
simply find in the speech of others an inspiration to do what they might
otherwise have been too afraid to do.
A ladder is used for
symbolism as a growing power. Caesar is depicted as growing in power and each
of the rungs of the ladder to his success marks a common man that he has
stepped on the rise to the top. The fear of the conspirators is that when
Caesar finally reaches the top rung and is potentially named ”king” that he
will turn his back on all the people that got him to the top, much the way
someone turns his back a ladder.
“Cowards die many times
before their actual deaths” in this quote it is better to create than to learn
because creating is the essence of life. In act 1 the exposition introduce the
main characters and their conflicts that create problems. During the rising
action, the basic conflict introduced in act 1 is complicated by secondary
conflicts and obstacles designed to keep our protagonist from reaching his or
her goal, including lesser antagonists that can work together with or without
the main antagonist.
Also known as “turning point,”
the climax marks a notable change, for better or worse, in the protagonist’s
journey towards their goal. With tragedy, the protagonist begins the story on
top of world before everything begins to unravel, while comedies generally doo
the opposite. During the falling action, the conflict between the protagonist
and antagonist finally comes to a head, and a clear winner and loser are
determined.
