the tragedy of julius caesar essay

Julius Caesar

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The Tragedy of Julius Caesar is a history play and tragedy written by William Shakespeare and first performed in 1599. The play dramatizes the events surrounding the 44 BC assassination of Julius Caesar, a Roman general and statesman. Shakespeare’s main source material for the play was Plutarch’s Lives , a series of biographies of famous men, published in the second century, and translated into English by Thomas North in 1579. Shakespeare sometimes deviated from his source material, presumably to make it easier to stage the play without having to explain long intervals of time in between the story’s main events.

Julius Caesar is one of four Shakespearean tragedies set in Ancient Rome, alongside Antony and Cleopatra, Coriolanus , and Titus Andronicus. It is also one of the most famous and most often performed of Shakespeare’s tragedies. Its cultural impact is evidenced by its many oft-repeated lines including “Beware the ides of March”; “Friends, Romans, countrymen”; and “Et tu, Brute?”

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Caesar marches into Rome after defeating Pompey’s sons in battle. As he parades through the city, a soothsayer—a person who tells the future—tells Caesar to “beware the Ides of March,” meaning the 15th of March, a holiday which represented the paying off of debts. Caesar dismisses the warning. Meanwhile, Roman Senator Caius Cassius plots Caesar’s assassination. He and his fellow Roman senator conspirators are nervous over what Caesar would do with more power; they believe his ambition makes him dangerous to the future of Rome as a free republic. Although Caesar secretly wants to rule Rome as a monarch, he presents himself as uninterested in becoming king. Fearing the public’s reaction to his ascension to the throne, Caesar denies the crown three times when Mark Antony presents it to him. Cassius is the instigator behind the assassination plot. He manipulates the other senators who are unsure, like Brutus and Casca, to join the conspiracy.

Brutus is ambivalent about getting rid of Caesar. Although they are close friends and Brutus believes Caesar is a good man, he wonders if power will go to Caesar’s head. He ultimately decides that killing Caesar is the only way to save Rome from possible tyranny. As the conspirators decide how they will kill Caesar, Caesar himself feels a sense of foreboding. He almost decides to stay at home that day, the 15th of March, but ultimately decides it would be weak of him to stay at home due to bad omens alone. Caesar ignores warnings from soothsayers, priests, and even his wife Calpurnia, who dreamed of his death.

The conspirators distract Mark Antony, who would come to Caesar’s aid if he were present. Cimber, one of the conspirators, pleads to Caesar for his brother to be able to return to Rome from exile. Caesar tells him he will not allow his brother back without reason. Brutus, Cassius, and others prostrate themselves before Caesar, which confuses him. He tells them he believes in reason, not in begging. It is all a distraction, as Casca strikes the first blow and stabs Caesar, with Brutus striking last. Caesar utters the famous line “Et tu, Bruté?” and then dies.

Devastated by the death of Caesar, Mark Antony is careful how he acts around the conspirators, lest they decide to do away with him as well. He also burns for revenge but keeps those feelings a secret. Although the conspirators agree to let Mark Antony publicly eulogize Caesar, they insist Brutus explain their actions first. Brutus explains to the public that Caesar’s death was for the good of Rome—his ambition was dangerous. He proclaims that while Caesar was good and honorable, Brutus would do anything for Rome, even murder his best friend. The public then praises him and claims he should be the next Caesar. Brutus brushes this off and turns the crowd to Mark Antony.

Mark Antony then gives his famous eulogy. He is careful in the way he addresses the crowd, as he wants them to revolt but cannot reveal those desires. He appeals to their emotions, in contrast to Brutus’s appeal to their logic. He reminds the crowd of Caesar’s goodness and generosity toward the Roman citizens, and although Brutus claims Caesar was ambitious, Caesar behaved in a way that was not markedly ambitious. He reminds them not to blame Brutus, as he is honorable as well. The public begins to wonder if the conspirators betrayed Caesar. Antony takes advantage of their reaction and shows them the wounds on Caesar’s body. The crowd begins to feel mutinous against the conspirators. Antony holds them off to tell them that Caesar’s will dictates that upon his death every Roman citizen shall receive seventy-five drachmas. The crowd then descends into chaos.

The play moves to Mark Antony, Octavius, and Lepidus, the future leaders of Rome in the Second Triumvirate. There is some tension between Octavius and Mark Antony—a foreshadowing for the events in Antony and Cleopatra . Meanwhile, Brutus and Cassius meet again, somewhat at odds. Brutus accuses Cassius of taking bribes, soiling Brutus’s belief that their murder of Caesar was noble. They argue but ultimately reconcile, as Brutus declares he has no emotional strength left after his wife Portia’s suicide. They speak of the inevitable war coming with the conspirators pitted against Antony and Octavius. When Brutus goes to sleep that night, he is met by the ghost of Caesar, who tells Brutus he will see him at Philippi where the battle will take place.

The battle then begins. With defeat all but certain, Cassius and Brutus agree they will not be led through Rome in chains and depart from each other. Distraught after hearing that his best friend Titinius is captured, Cassius forces his servant to kill him, remarking how Caesar is avenged. Titinius, who had not really been captured, returns and kills himself at the sight of his best friend’s body. Brutus survives the battle, but he knows his side has lost. He ultimately kills himself with his own sword, held by a servant; his sense of honor will not allow him to be led away as a captive. Antony and Octavius discover Brutus’s body. Antony praises Brutus as a noble man and the only one of the conspirators who had a selfless reason for killing Caesar. The play ends with Octavius’s call to celebrate the outcome of the day. 

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Caesar’s assassination is just the halfway point of Julius Caesar . The first part of the play leads to his death; the second portrays the consequences. As the action begins, Rome prepares for Caesar’s triumphal entrance. Brutus, Caesar’s friend and ally, fears that Caesar will become king, destroying the republic. Cassius and others convince Brutus to join a conspiracy to kill Caesar.

On the day of the assassination, Caesar plans to stay home at the urging of his wife, Calphurnia. A conspirator, Decius Brutus, persuades him to go to the Senate with the other conspirators and his friend, Mark Antony. At the Senate, the conspirators stab Caesar to death. Antony uses a funeral oration to turn the citizens of Rome against them. Brutus and Cassius escape as Antony joins forces with Octavius Caesar.

Encamped with their armies, Brutus and Cassius quarrel, then agree to march on Antony and Octavius. In the battle which follows, Cassius, misled by erroneous reports of loss, persuades a slave to kill him; Brutus’s army is defeated. Brutus commits suicide, praised by Antony as “the noblest Roman of them all.”

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Steep'd me in poverty to the very lips.       — Othello , Act IV Scene 2

The Tragedy of Julius Caesar

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• HISTORY MAGAZINE

Meet the only woman privy to the plot to kill Julius Caesar

Famous ancient Stoic Porcia Cato was a woman of firm political convictions. She helped her husband Brutus see the plot to the very end.

When Julius Caesar seemed increasingly likely to embrace authoritarian rule, two men emerged as the Roman Republic’s fiercest defenders: Cato the Younger, who led resistance to Caesar in the Senate, and his nephew, Marcus Junius Brutus, who led the conspiracy to assassinate Caesar. But there was another key player in the tumultuous events surrounding Caesar’s end: A woman who would come to embody strength under pressure and unwavering loyalty. Her name was Porcia. Daughter of Cato and wife of Brutus, Porcia Catonis (ca 73-43 B.C.) was “the only woman who was privy to the plot,” as the Roman historian Cassius Dio described her.

Porcia’s courage, logical mind, and willingness to sacrifice were celebrated by Roman historians and, centuries later, immortalized in William Shakespeare’s 1599 tragedy, Julius Caesar . Many factors shaped this extraordinary person, but two stand out: the volatile political climate and the teachings of her father.

( Who was Julius Caesar? )

Growing up Stoic

Much of what is known about Porcia comes largely from Greek historian Plutarch (in his books about Brutus and Cato) and from Cassius Dio’s Roman History, along with mentions in other works. In all ancient references, she is “remembered as the member of Younger Cato’s family who is most committed to her father’s cause,” according to Judith P. Hallett, professor emerita of classics at the University of Maryland and author of Fathers and Daughters in Roman Society: Women and the Elite Family .

Cato put virtue and civic responsibility above all else, values that imprinted on his daughter.

Porcia’s father, Cato the Younger (so named to distinguish him from his great-grandfather Cato the Elder), was an old-guard aristocrat and republican. A devotee of Stoic philosophy, Cato put virtue and civic responsibility above all else, an uncompromising idealism that deeply influenced his daughter.

Early in the second century A.D., Plutarch wrote that Porcia was “addicted to philosophy” and praised her “sober-living and greatness of spirit,” in keeping with the Stoic rejection of luxury and commitment to justice. Based on his depiction, Porcia is often regarded as the first female Stoic.

( What were Marcus Aurelius' rules for life? His self-help classic has the answers. )

Marriages and divorces

As a very young woman, Porcia was wed to a political ally of her father. She and Marcus Calpurnius Bibulus would have two children together before their relationship became complicated by a distinctive Roman practice. In addition to arranged marriages, elite Romans also practiced arranged divorces, ending one match in favor of another that was more advantageous.

Porcia was about 20 when one such proposal came her way. Another of her father’s allies, Quintus Hortensius Hortalus, asked to marry her. The aging, childless widower wanted Porcia as his wife in order to have an heir with her. After she gave birth, he promised to return her to Bibulus.

Bibulus was not a fan of this proposal and refused it. Cato also disliked the idea of breaking his contract with Bibulus. To avoid alienating Hortensius, Cato agreed to divorce his own wife, Marcia, and offered her instead. Hortensius agreed and the plan went ahead. After Hortensius’s death, Cato would remarry Marcia.

Porcia’s high-profile family was deeply involved with the Roman civil war that began in 49 B.C., when Caesar refused to yield his armies and territories to the republic. Rome would split into two factions, one led by Caesar and the other led by Pompey.

The conservative Cato and Bibulus both aligned with Pompey and found themselves on the losing side of the war. Bibulus, leader of Pompey’s fleet on the Adriatic, died of illness around 48 B.C. Cato took his own life in Utica (modern-day Tunisia) when Caesar’s troops won the nearby Battle of Thapsus in 46 B.C.

( Blood and betrayal turned Rome from republic to empire. )

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In Rome Porcia watched as Caesar amassed power. Rather than resign herself to a dictatorship, she continued to believe in the old republic. In 45 B.C. she married Marcus Junius Brutus, a onetime ally of Caesar who would famously turn against him. During the war, Brutus sided with Pompey, but in the aftermath of the war, Caesar pardoned him and even made him governor of Cisalpine Gaul (northern Italy). Brutus’s sympathies for the old republic, however, had not waned. Marrying Cato’s daughter (and divorcing his wife Claudia to do so) was a way to reaffirm his commitment.

Plans and plots

In the months that followed, Brutus, along with other senators alarmed by Caesar’s ambition, embarked on a plot to assassinate him. Although politics was primarily a male domain in Roman culture, Porcia pledged to aid her husband because of her family’s beliefs. According to Plutarch, she noticed a change in her husband and questioned him. When Brutus wouldn’t answer, she wounded her own thigh with a knife. The act was a plea that her husband show her trust and respect: “Brutus, I am Cato’s daughter, and I was brought into thy house, not, like a mere concubine, to share thy bed and board merely, but to be a partner in thy joys, and a partner in thy troubles.”

"My body ... can keep silence"

Her resolve prompted Brutus to reveal his plan to assassinate Caesar. Moreover, wrote Plutarch, she inspired him to see his plot to the end. “When he saw the wound, Brutus, amazed, and lifting his hands to heaven, prayed that he might succeed in his undertaking and thus show himself a worthy husband of Porcia.”

After Caesar’s death on March 15, 44 B.C. , Brutus fled Rome to avoid the wrath of Caesar loyalists, while Porcia remained in the capital. She followed her husband’s fortunes as he fought to defend the republic against Octavian, Caesar’s heir, in alliance with Mark Antony . Finally, Porcia received the news that Brutus had been defeated in the Battle of Philippi (42 B.C.) and, like her father, Cato, had taken his own life.

( Inside the conspiracy to kill Julius Caesar. )

What happened next is not known for certain. The more dramatic ending has a devastated Porcia killing herself, either by swallowing hot coals or inhaling carbon monoxide.

In one version, the poet Martial wrote that Porcia, seeking a weapon to end her life (they had been hidden by attendants), exclaimed: “‘You know not yet that death cannot be denied: I had supposed that my father had taught you this lesson by his fate.’ She spoke, and with eager mouth swallowed the blazing coals.” Plutarch tells a similar story.  

Symbol of strength

One key piece of evidence, however, puts Porcia’s suicide in doubt: The Roman statesman and orator Cicero wrote a letter to Brutus in 43 B.C. lamenting Porcia’s death, which means that Porcia died before her husband. Cicero’s words imply that she died of natural causes.

The legend of a violent suicide appeared later but took root in the popular imagination. Plutarch has Brutus say of his wife: “Though she lacks the strength of men, she is as valiant and as active for the good of her country as the best of us.”

A burning question

William Shakespeare in particular found great inspiration in the character of Porcia through his reading of Plutarch. In addition to the historical character of Porcia (spelled Portia) in Julius Caesar , her name also appears in The Merchant of Venice (1596-98), in which it is given to the brilliant woman determined to assert herself in a male world by impersonating a lawyer.

As a symbol of bravery and devotion, Porcia has resonated through history. Abigail Adams, wife of John Adams, the second U.S. president and first U.S. vice president, signed letters to him as Portia, in recognition of the “patriotic sacrifice” of Brutus’s Stoic wife.

( Roman Empress Agrippina was a master strategist. She paid the price for it. )

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Home — Essay Samples — Literature — The Tragedy of Julius Caesar — The Tragedy of Julius Caesar

Man Vs. Man in William Shakespeare’s Play ‘the Tragedy of Julius Caesar’

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Julius caesar lit anaylsis rough draft, man versus man in "the tragedy of julius caesar", julius caesar introduction essay, conflicts in julius caesar essay.

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