Character Analysis Caesar
In using Julius Caesar as a central figure, Shakespeare is less interested in portraying
a figure of legendary greatness than he is in creating a character who is consistent
with the other aspects of his drama. If Brutus and Cassius were eminently evil men
insidiously planning the cold-blooded murder of an eminently admirable ruler, Julius
Caesar would be little more than a melodrama of suspense and revenge. On the other
hand, if Caesar were wholly the bloody tyrant, there would be little cause for Brutus'
hesitation and no justification for Antony's thirst for revenge. In fact, Shakespeare
creates in Caesar a character who is sometimes reasonable, sometimes superstitious,
sometimes compassionate, and sometimes arrogantly aloof. In so doing, he has
projected Caesar as a man whom the nobility have just reasons to fear, yet who is not
a villain.
Flavius concludes his criticism of Caesar in Act I, Scene 1, by expressing his fear that
Caesar desires to "soar above the view of men / And keep us all in servile
fearfulness." His opinion is given credence when, moments later, Casca and Antony's
attitude toward Caesar demonstrates that they consider him a man whose every wish
should be considered a command by the citizens of Rome. Caesar's opinion of
himself throughout shows that he complies with that attitude. He does not fear
Cassius because he believes himself to be beyond the reach of mere humans, and he
caps his explanation of his incapability of experiencing fear by observing, ". . . for
always I am Caesar." However, his reference to his partial deafness provides an
obvious contrast between the conceptions of the vain man who perceives himself in
godlike terms and the actual, aging man who stands in imminent danger of
assassination. His potential for evil is further emphasized by the swiftness with which
he summarily has Flavius and Marullus "put to silence." Finally, at the very moment
preceding his death, Caesar compares himself to the gods of Olympus in his
determination to continue his arbitrary administration of Roman justice.
Caesar's teeming arrogance and pride more than offset his proven ability to reason.
He expresses a fatalistic acceptance of the inevitability of death when he tells
Calphurnia how strange it is to him "that men should fear; / Seeing that death, a
necessary end, / Will come when it will come." But it is not his belief that the hour of
his death has been predetermined and thus cannot be avoided that causes him to
ignore the portents, his priests, and Calphurnia. Instead, he ignores them because of
Decius' challenge to his sense of pride and to his ambition. Caesar, who is so
perceptive in his analysis of Cassius, cannot always look "quite through the deeds" of
a calculating deceiver.
From his first appearance, Caesar openly displays a superstitious nature, but also
from the beginning he displays a propensity to ignore warnings and signs that should
alert a man of his beliefs. He enters the action of the play by advising Calphurnia to
seek a cure for her sterility by ritual, and he exits fifteen lines later, dismissing the
soothsayer as "a dreamer." He ignores the soothsayer, Calphurnia, the many portents,
his priests, and finally Artemidorus because he has ceased to think of himself as a
fallible human being, and because he passionately wants to be crowned king. He does
not fear Cassius, although he knows him to be a danger to political leaders, because
he believes that he and Cassius occupy two separate levels of existence. Cassius is a
man; Caesar, a demigod. He even comes to think of himself in terms of abstract
qualities, considering himself older and more terrible even than "danger." His sense
of superiority to his fellow humans, as well as his overriding ambition to be king,
ultimately prevent him from observing and reasoning clearly.
Caesar as a viable character in the play endures beyond his assassination. Brutus
wants to "come by Caesar's spirit / And not dismember Caesar." In fact, Brutus and
the conspirators succeed in dismembering the corporeal Caesar, but they fail to
destroy his spirit. Antony invokes the spirit of Caesar first in his soliloquy in Act III,
Scene 1, and he uses it to bring the citizens of Rome to rebellion in Act III, Scene 2.
The ghost of Caesar appears to Brutus at Sardis and again at Philippi, signifying that
Brutus has failed to reconcile mentally and morally his participation in the murder, as
well as signifying that his and Cassius' fortunes are fading. Caesar's spirit ceases to
be a force in the play only when Cassius and Brutus commit suicide, each
acknowledging that he does so to still the spirit of Caesar.