Conflicting Perspectives in Julius Caesar #
Conflict is the essence of drama and Shakespeare is able to exploit conflict to create tension through images, symbols and language that is dialectical, polemical; language of extreme opposites or antithesis. Many of the characters are foils or contrasts of other characters revealing the conflicts evident in the play by their actions and words Shakespeare chooses for them.
The fickleness of the Mob is first referred to by Marullus when he points out that the adulation they once demonstrated for Pompey’s triumphs are now being lavished on Caesar, for a civil war, shedding Pompey’s son’s blood. Later, the easily distracted multitudes are referred to as “rabblement” by Casca on Caesar being offered the crown.
the rabblement hooted and clapped their
chapped hands and threw up their sweaty night-caps
and uttered such a deal of stinking breath
His derision is conveyed by the pejorative adjectives: “chapped, sweaty, and stinking”.
The fact that Brutus can easily sway the crowd to approve of the assassination of Caesar and then they swing back following Antony’s oration, illustrates how easily they can be manipulated by conflicting perspectives of language. Politicians, advertisers and other propagandists appreciate the mass persuasive techniques to radically change perception and manipulate public opinion.
For Contrasting the Orations of Brutus and Anthony check the sidebar menu.
Conflicts within characters: #
Caesar can be seen from differing perspectives as well. The fact that he owes his popularity and power to a successful military career and not from the aristocracy makes his position precarious. While the general population see his public spirited generosity, the vested powerful senators fear the erosion of their position and power. Cassius has private envious motives while Brutus professes more civic and patriotic ones.
Use the sidebar menu to see the conflicting views of the main characters.
Contrasting the Orations of Brutus and Anthony #
Each of those orations is exactly what the character would then have made and each reveals at once the strength and the weakness of the speaker who makes it.
Subject-Matter of Each #
BRUTUS
a) He asks for silence and a respectful hearing.
b) He says that he loved Caesar but loved Rome more.
c) He killed Caesar because he was a danger to Rome.
d) He says they had to choose between Caesar alive and slavery on the one hand, and Caesar dead and freedom on the other.
e) He protests that he has been quite impartial and just.
f). Caesar will be suitably honoured now that he is dead.
g) He bids them all stay to hear Anthony’s oration in honour of Caesar.
ANTONY a) He gains a hearing by using Brutus’ name-”for Brutus’ sake”.
b) He says he is not going to praise Caesar.
c) He admits that ambition is a grievous fault.
d) He shows that Caesar was not ambitious by referring to:
a) his public distribution of ransoms.
b his sympathy for the poor.
c his refusal of the crown.
e) He refers to their former love for Caesar and his own love for him.
f) He pauses to see how the crowd is affected.
g) He hints at the contents of Caesar’s will.
h) He pretends to be unwilling to read it but, as if by accident, tells them that Caesar has left all his wealth to them.
I) He consents to read it but first asks leave to show them Caesar’s body.
j) He calls attention to Caesar’s robe, showing where each of the conspirators stabbed through it.
k) He shows them the body.
- He disclaims all intention of stirring them up to mutiny.
m) He stops them to hear the will.
· Why does Antony’s funeral speech succeeds where Brutus’s speech fails?
The devil of Antony’s rhetorical brilliance is in its subtle details.
Antony begins by rewriting the clunky verbosity of Brutus’s opening, “Romans, countrymen, and lovers! hear me for my cause, and be silent, that you may hear’, with the elegant, instantly memorable compression of “Friends, Romans, countrymen, lend me your ears”, adding “Friends” to his list, the same word Brutus used to describe members of the crowd who saw Caesar as a friend.
Then, Antony wastes no time seizing on 2 other crucial keywords from Brutus’s speech (honour/honourable & ambitious/ambition), and neutralizing each one with repeated irony and sarcasm.
It’s as if Antony slashed Brutus’s speech to shreds with rhetorical daggers
TECHNIQUES: #
BRUTUS
Brutus is a vain man though noble; he has no sense of humour, does not understand the crowd. Important points about his speech:
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It is an appeal to reason not to the emotions, hence it is not suited to his audience.
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It is in prose, as you would expect in an appeal to reason.
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It is cold and rhetorical, merely a fine piece of logic.
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It is egotistic.
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It shows a complete ignorance of the psychology of the crowd.
6 It deals with abstractions—”the cause”, “Honour”, “Wisdom” “Freedom” etc. These terms meant little or nothing to the commoners.
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His speech shows signs of being carefully prepared beforehand.
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It is very straightforward; he does no hinting.
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It does not move his hearers at all.
10 It is not at all dramatic.
ANTONY
Antony is a very clever speaker; he knows his audience perfectly; he is sincere in his affection for Caesar, but he makes capital of his own sincere feeling; he is cunning and resourceful; he is burning for revenge on the conspirators and at the same time means to profit by the whole affair.
Important points about his speech:
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It is an appeal to the emotions and passions, not to reason; hence it is particularly suited to the audience he has.
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Note the poetic quality of expression.
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It is swift and fiery; it appeals to imagination and passion.
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He depreciates his own gifts as an orator in comparison with those of Brutus, i.e. he appears very humble.
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It shows a fine understanding of the psychology of the crowd. He plays on them as on an instrument.
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He avoids all abstractions, giving concrete illustrations to show that Caesar was not ambitious, showing them Caesar’s cloak and body, and rereading the exact words of the will. He offers the material possessions instead of honour and freedom.
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It bears no signs of having been prepared; it is evidently extemporaneous
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He insinuates repeatedly that Brutus and the others are not honourable and disinterested.
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It arouses his listeners to a frenzy.
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It is very dramatic. Note the action and the pauses and the changes of tone.
THE POWER OF PERSUASION #
In the art of persuasive power we have learned a great deal. Mark Antony’s funeral speech is an exemplary masterwork of persuasion. Had he stated at the outset what his intentions were, he would have been ambushed and killed. Rather he carefully adopted a cautious lateral approach; adapted his approach by appearing to go along with the conspirators and ironically using Brutus’s words to make it appear he accepts their justifications for the brutal slaying of Caesar. To turn the fickle crowd around to his way of thinking he continues to use the words of the conspirators against themselves and instead of lofty abstract principles, appeals to concrete examples of Caesar’s generosity and good governance.
While Shakespeare has Brutus speak in prose, Antony speaks, as most great Shakespearean speeches; in poetry; high, classical iambic pentameter. He is out to win their hearts and minds and subtly appeals to their personal self – interest. His first statement “Friends, Romans, countrymen, lend me your ears” has become a time cherished phrase of intimacy and a call to patriotism.
Antony’s disarming and disingenuous statement “I come to bury Caesar, not to praise him” is followed by a subtle shift:
The noble Brutus
Hath told you Caesar was ambitious.
If it were so, it was a grievous fault, 3.2. 79 – 80
The small subordinate conjunction “if” casts the first doubt on the claims of the conspirators. This is followed by proclamations of friendship; “he was my friend, faithful and just to me”.
On firmer ground Antony turns his attentions to concrete undeniable evidence of Caesar’s benevolence and altruism;
He hath brought many captives home to Rome,
Whose ransoms did the general coffers fill:
Did this in Caesar seem ambitious? 3.2. 89 - 91
Further, Caesar was in tune with the people;
When the poor have cried, Caesar hath wept;
Ambition should be made of sterner stuff… 3.2. 92 - 93
Yet, Antony admits, Brutus says Caesar was ambitious “*and Brutus is an honourable man”. * It is the repetition of this ironic mantra that gradually becomes hollow and sways the audience against the conspirators. While Antony assures his audience *“I speak not to disprove what Brutus spoke” * this is exactly what he is doing. Combined with his self deprecation as a speaker, and his emotional breakdown (..Bear with me. My heart is in the coffin with Caesar, and I must pause till it come back to me.), these tactics work in tandem to endear him and his cause to a malleable fickle mob’s mentality.
Continuing to appeal to their emotions, Antony plays his highest card, his produces two tangible pieces of evidence to clinch is argument; Caesar’s will and his brutally massacred body. All his tactics have had one aim in mind; to incite the mob to riot, and to revenge Caesars brutal murder. His exploitation of group psychology by appealing to their non-rational aspects yet providing them with rational proof of Caesar’s generosity and selfless deeds, work together to achieve his ultimate objective.
Conflicts between Anthony and Octavius #
Anthony and Octavius have secured complete control of the city and we instantaneously see the corruption of power in the cold, cruel, unscrupulous natures of these two men. Antony’s dismissive and derisive treatment of Lepidus, his callous manner of executing suspects and subversion Caesar’s will, all undermine the warmth, charisma and high principled impression he conveyed during the oration scene. We can assume that Anthony even then was thinking chiefly of his own interest.
It warns us of the coming battle and foretells the fate of Lepidus.
The following scene succinctly reveals the character of Octavius by showing how easily he spars for dominance: ACT V Scene 1 ll. 15 – 20.
ANTONY
Octavius, lead your battle softly on,*
Upon the left hand of the even field.*
OCTAVIUS
Upon the right hand I; keep thou the left.
ANTONY
Why do you cross me in this exigent?
OCTAVIUS
I do not cross you; but I will do so.
The right hand side equates with strength, while the left represents the weaker or subordinate side so when Antony, a seasoned soldier , though of dubious reputation, offers young Octavius the left, he asserts himself imperiously insisting on taking the right side, identifying and symbolising him as the commander-in-chief. He denies “crossing” Antony but simply threatens he will if opposed.
Cassius and Brutus #
There are many opposing points of view expressed throughout the play. In both camps, the conspirators and in Antony and Octavius’s camp there is rivalry and dissension on the best strategy. Generally it is a power struggle for control. First we look at the tension in the camp of the conspirators in Act IV sc. 2 & 3. Again Shakespeare reveals both admirable and negative qualities in his characters by dramatisation, interaction and language.
Scene 2
This scene takes place at Sardis in Asia Minor in the camp of Brutus and Cassius. Brutus is awaiting the arrival of Cassius and his forces. Brutus is angry because of the way Cassius has been raising money.
The linguistic features of the conflict:
Cassius enters and at once peevishly accuses Brutus of wronging him. Cassius begins with an accusatory tone and his first peevish words and impetuous actions begin the quarrel.
Most noble brother, you have done me wrong.
At the beginning of the quarrel Brutus calmly has the presence of mind to realise how their dispute is unseemly so on the suggestion of Brutus they retire to their tent to continue their quarrel out of hearing of the army.
Brutus, this sober form of yours hides wrongs;
Later Brutus becomes more heated and Cassius gives way.
On the other hand, the loyalty of Pindarus to Cassius, and the fact that Cassius is loved by all the soldiers indicates that he must have been an excellent general.
Scene 3
This is the famous “Quarrel Scene”. Brutus and Cassius quarrel bitterly. Brutus accuses Cassius of raising money for the campaign by dishonourable means–by accepting bribes from the Sardians and by selling offices in the army and government. Cassius says Brutus has disregarded his prayers in behalf of Lucius Pella. Finally Cassius offers his life to Brutus and Brutus is softened and forgives him. They become reconciled. Then Brutus tells Cassius of the death of Portia. Titinius and Messala enter and the four discuss plans for operations against Anthony and Octavius. Cassius wishes to stay where they are and let the enemy come to them but Brutus over-rules him. It is decided that they shall march at once against Anthony and Octavius and offer battle at Philippi. Brutus, left alone, reads in his tent. The ghost of Caesar appears and warns Brutus that he shall see it again at Philippi.
The fight becomes nasty as both continue to hurl accusatory insults:
BRUTUS
….. Cassius, you yourself*
Are much condemn’d to have an itching palm;
CASSIUS
I an itching palm!*
You know that you are Brutus that speak this,
Or, by the gods, this speech were else your last.
BRUTUS
Away, slight man!
Cassius makes a claim of superiority over Brutus and they quibble over words:
CASSIUS
I am a soldier, I,
Older in practise, abler than yourself
To make conditions.
BRUTUS
You shall digest the venom of your spleen,*
Though it do split you; for, from this day forth,
I’ll use you for my mirth, yea, for my laughter,
When you are waspish.
CASSIUS
Is it come to this?
BRUTUS
You say you are a better soldier:*
Let it appear so; make your vaunting true,
And it shall please me well: for mine own part,
I shall be glad to learn of noble men.*
CASSIUS
You wrong me every way; you wrong me, Brutus;*
I said, an elder soldier, not a better:
Did I say ‘better’?
Brutus asserts his views in a domineering manner and Cassius’s defers to Brutus. Because of his seniority Brutus’s view prevails over that of Cassius whose expertise in military strategy should have carried greater weight.