Riassunti letteratura inglese: Shakespeare - Julius Caesar

THESE THINGS MEAN SOMETHING: THEY ARE MESSAGES THAT HAVE BEEN SENT. THEY DO NOT HAVE ANY NATURAL MEANING OR CAUSE. SO, HOW SHOULD THEY BE INTERPRETED?

Cicero pronounces his only words because then he’ll be killed!: we do not see him anymore and we’ll learn he’ll be dead in the proscription with Marc Anthony.

Cicero is introduced in this play with the only purpose to pronounce these words.

Cassius’s going to throw letters into Brutus’ room to persuade him that people expect him to act against Caesar… but Brutus hasn’t shown himself.

Everybody wants to know what’s happening in his mind, what he thinks, even what he’ll do then.

Double personality shown by Caesar and Cassius: ambiguity of the sign.

Storm: what does it signify? It’s much more than a simple storm to be interpret! Nobody explicates the reasons because anyone can know the real reality and because anything leads to different conclusions and judices.

Shakespeare lets Cicero talk in

This way to give something philosophical and well-founded of his thought. Casca is trying to interpret the storm in different ways. Relating the strange phenomenon to Caesar, proceeding by degrees in order to persuade Casca to join the conspiracy… however Casca understands he’s (‘tis Caesar that you mean?). Talking of Caesar, he understands all these signs are instruments of fear and of warning. Men are braver than women but in that moment men are acting like women (show us womanish), according to Cassius! They need to act! Cassius: we have the power to commit suicide. Caesar’s so strong because they’re all so weak and Caesar has power in his name! Win the noble Brutus to our party: he’s the important man in their conspiracy. Why? He’s got a high reputation in society and people would consequently join their cause. Old Brutus: reference to the ancestor that made the Republic fall… but many Brutus in Roman history and that could be Plutarch’s.

Act II

Soliloquy: reflects private and intimate personality, maybe not logical at all, reflection through things and images that you'll try to explain only afterwards in other terms. We think through metaphors and also irrationally.

Brutus' soliloquy: speech full of incoherence, but it shows a very high respect Brutus has for Caesar. He'll attend the conspiracy.

Caesar should be killed... but why? we do not know, he may be inventing reasons. Any personal reason to kill him because he speaks of general good: he wants to be crown and what would he become after he becomes king? How can he change that?

Metaphor of the adder, a poisonous snake: in his soliloquy, Brutus speaks of what Caesar would become because of the crown (power will change his nature?). But he's using a false metaphor. The adder comes out when it's a good day, but the adder it's already poisonous and dangerous. In other words, Brutus says the adder doesn't change its own nature because...

it's dangerous anyway! and Caesar now is not dangerous. He may change his nature and may (he may do danger with...) become dangerous but he'll not necessarily be dangerous! He's always been a moderate temperate person and he's never allowed passion to get power upon him and he's never lost control... the only justification to kill him would be that he could change his nature when he gets more power, but it is only a supposition and there are no more reasons!

Affections/reasons: mean that Caesar is a good leader and he's always been moderate and conscious, and he's never lost control.

adder ladder

Ladder: (word creates – an image that recollects other images) climb higher in the ladder and only keep looking higher and no more down. Need to stop now Caesar because he could want more and more and won't remember where he comes from. Not judge him what he'll be by the way he's now... because now he's good. You take the

only chance he has to become another person from what he is...but that's not a logical way of thinking. There's no justification of killing Caesar because of what he may become, because there's a very high respect for his person.

I must think Caesar as if he'd be the serpent's egg: kill him in his shell and destroy it. So: we must think of Caesar as something that has not born yet and that is still in the shell! Brutus has no reasons to kill Caesar.

Brutus = Hamlet. Brutus is a kind of forearm of Hamlet. Everybody tries to judge them (crucial issue).

Shakespeare eliminates explication of reasons why Caesar was dangerous because, according to Plutarch, this makes Brutus more and more mysterious: remove the historical and political justification, otherwise it'd be easier to understand.

Ex. Caesar crossed the Rubicon and by doing that he declared war to Rome or he put enemies in the cemetery of Rome: these facts can give a reason of killing him, but they are

only explicated in Plutarch's and not in Shakespeare's.

Time becomes slower and slower as we approach the assassination (to-Brutus becomes aware that the ides of March are nearer and nearer tomorrow)

After the assassination everything becomes exaggerate.

Microcosm of man becomes macrocosm of society = there's a parallel between anxiety and the way they act

Brutus doesn't like conspiracy (because it's tragic and tremendous) but he's about to join it.

Brutus/Cassius: whisper it's a trick that Shakespeare plays. They're speaking and Brutus confesses he'll join them (Why? we do not know) but the audience does not hear him.

Mettle: Cicero would not want to join them but they want him. He'll say no because, according to Plutarch, he's not brave at all and Brutus gives them another reason, the one according to which he doesn't continue anything he hasn't started.

Let Anthony and Caesar fall together? Maybe, because Anthony could

be a problem then because he’s his friend. will seem too bloody… But Brutus says no, because it but he does not understand how dangerous Anthony will be, while Cassius is right because he recognises there’s a problem because he’s Machiavellian.

Metaphor: Anthony’s only a limb, even if dangerous, to Caesar’s head and for Anthony, think not of him for he can do no more … and body. Anthony should not be dangerous because he’s only the arm. Removing the head (Caesar) won’t resolve the problem because he’s intelligent and is a great resource (in fact he’ll fight successfully the conspirators... and that demonstrates he’s not only the limb but also the head). So, they should kill both to completely solve everything. It’s a metaphor that tricks Brutus because he should do what he doesn’t. spirit is the thing they They’re destroying the body to destroy his spirit (the want) Julius but they’ll only manage to kill.

and destroy Caesar physically:will die, but not Caesar. The spirit of Caesar will continue to live!kill Caesar in a noble way,Brutus would and not stubbing him in a nastyway… but it’s what it will happen!Metatheatrical reference to roman actors.

Portia: Brutus’ wife, she’s worried about her husband and he enters the mindof the woman suddenly [it’s a trick Shakespeare loves playing!]. She wants to(you have some sick offence within yourknow why her husband is so troubledmind) and she’s right because Brutus would like to tell her, but he doesn’t.She extremely loves his husband that she has already hurt herself because shedidn’t know why he was so troubled and wanted to give him a reason to be so.Upon her knees: she indirectly says what she’ll do (indirect stage directions,news on what the actor is going to do).We do not hear again.What happens in Caesar’s house is always based on what Plutarch says.Opinions of priests because

they could see the future and so well interpret the signs.

Caesar speaks: Caesar as usual uses the third person when he talks about himself. And he demonstrates to have a high opinion of himself (when they shall see the face of Caesar, they are vanished)

Face of Caesar’s terrifies: so, they’ll act on his back.

These things are happening to me (Caesar) because they’ll happen to the world, they’re not only personal, but they are general.

Calpurnia: Death comes to everyone, but if you fear death you die every day, if you do not fear it, you’ll die only once.

Caesar should be a beast without a heart, so they couldn’t find the heart... but not having a heart means that he’d be paralyzed by fear.

Different interpretations of the same sign by Calpurnia and by Caesar, because he says that if he won’t go to the Senate, he shows that he is afraid of them. They elaborate a trick sending Marc Anthony to the Senate saying he’s not well and he won’t go there.

As he loves Calpurnia (it's the person that is speaking) and agrees with her. However, always the same important interpretation, even if different: CAESAR IS IN DANGER! From this event, European history can change, and Caesar is aware of this! Brutus + his wife / Caesar + his wife: two parallel scenes. Brutus might have said what's in his mind to his wife Portia. "I am not well. I stay at home": it's Caesar as a person who speaks, and not the politician. He'd not go to the Senate. Assassination as an accident, an arbitrary thing that will happen and anything can stop it. It's all an interpretation of a dream: destiny depends on it. And we need to interpret them well. Letter to warn him if he'd read it carefully, maybe there'd be no assassination. Portia: the idea that women should be quiet... but she's anxious about the destiny of her husband going to the Capitol. Artemidorus prepares the letter to warn Caesar of the big danger he is in, but he's

conscious that Caesar may also not read the letter! the conspiracy–might have not taken place if he listened to this warning! Soothsayer is going to the Capitol to see Caesar pass there. Portia’s heart is weak, and she can imagine of what will happen to Caesar.

Act III

Decius and the others are not in favour of Caesar because they’ve joined the conspiracy before. Soothsayer + Artemidorus: they all want to warn him. Artemidorus insists on reading the letter but he doesn’t and he goes to the Capitol.

sweet Performative speech + 3 person: Caesar’s not an ordinary man:rd – words affects fools (ordinary men) and not me as I am Caesar! Voice very important (in Hamlet also, there’ll be a voice speaking).