{"id":203777,"date":"2026-04-27T17:42:31","date_gmt":"2026-04-27T21:42:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/?p=203777"},"modified":"2026-06-28T10:29:02","modified_gmt":"2026-06-28T14:29:02","slug":"2026-shakespeare-reading-project-julius-caesar","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/?p=203777","title":{"rendered":"2026 Shakespeare Reading Project: Julius Caesar"},"content":{"rendered":"

My progress:
\nShakespeare Reading Project<\/strong>
\nHenry VI<\/em>, parts 1, 2, 3 and Richard III<\/em><\/a>
\nTwo Gentlemen of Verona<\/a><\/em>
\nThe Taming of the Shrew<\/a><\/em>
\nTitus Andronicus<\/a><\/em>
\nThe Comedy of Errors<\/a><\/em>
\nLove\u2019s Labour\u2019s Lost<\/a><\/em>
\nRomeo & Juliet<\/a><\/em>
\nA Midsummer Night\u2019s Dream<\/a><\/em>
\nRichard II<\/a><\/em>
\nKing John<\/a><\/em>
\nThe Merchant of Venice<\/a><\/em>
\nHenry IV, Part 1<\/a><\/em>
\nHenry IV, Part 2<\/a><\/em>
\nThe Merry Wives of Windsor<\/a><\/em>
\nMuch Ado About Nothing<\/a><\/em>
\nHenry V<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

Julius Caesar<\/i><\/h1>\n

If King John<\/a><\/em> should have been called “Three Mothers and One Illegitimate Man,” then Julius Caesar<\/em> should be called “Brutus”. Caesar is assassinated at the halfway mark, and except for his Ghost, we never see him again. Brutus is the center of the play, morally and emotionally. He is the least “clear” of the characters, the one most privately tormented by his actions, the one with an interior life. He has to be convinced to join the conspiracy, and Cassius plays him like a violin – “seduces” him, which Cassius does deliberately, using the word. Brutus is not easily flattered – he’s man of moral upstanding, not really given to outward displays of emotion (see his botched oratory at Caesar’s funeral), but Cassius’ arguments do flatter him. Cassius’ tactic is, at first, “You are so wonderful, I wish you could see yourself the way others see you.” This would be difficult for most people to resist. The first two acts of the play involve the seduction of Brutus. <\/p>\n

Brutus lives by a code. He has specific ideas about how the world should work. People like this, unfortunately, are often more susceptible to whispering seduction than those who are independent loosey-goosey. People don’t join cults. They join groups who share their strong beliefs about how the world should work. Brutus believes in abstract concepts like honor. He turns himself inside out to justify the murder of Caesar, he says he cares more about Rome than he cares about Caesar. He totally identifies himself with Rome. We can see what happens when someone totally identifies themselves – their whole world and persona – with a political cause or political group. <\/p>\n

We know things are going wrong when Brutus starts referring to himself in the third person, like Caesar did. Brutus has been all “I” “I” “I”, and confidently so, but after Caesar’s death the third person creeps in. In order for Brutus to be “in politics”, he needs to kill the part of himself who knows who he is. His wife Portia feels this too. He has shut her out. This is one of the few good marriages in Shakespeare’s plays. You feel the love they have for each other. Brutus’ tenderness towards Lucius – his child servant – is also truly touching. <\/p>\n

Julius Caesar<\/em> is relatively short, compared to Shakespeare’s other works, and the language is noticeably different than anything in any other of his plays. There are almost whole entire scenes where the language is monosyllabic. It’s striking! It sounds weird and “other”. Perhaps this was Shakespeare’s idea of how ancient Romans spoke, and maybe they did speak like that, who knows … but the overall effect is very strange in a way that serves the play. The language is appropriate for blunt feelings and actions, and also a language where interiority has no place – or, at least, the language is not built to express ambivalence. Brutus murmurs his interiority late at night to himself, and Antony the extrovert blasts out his feelings during HIS funeral oration, in marked contrast to Brutus’ abstract rhetorical speech. In Antony’s speech, something else – something informal, something primal – – is allowed to speak. <\/p>\n

You could say that in Antony’s speech, he is consciously playing the crowd, manipulating them: he knows they are fickle and easily swayed (he’s right: no matter who’s screaming at the podium, they scream back in agreement). Antony is also furious at what has been done, and is already plotting his revenge. Antony goes out there, knowing what he wants to accomplish, but his words are not just crowd manipulation. Brutus and the conspirators don’t stand a chance against Antony’s powerful eloquence.<\/p>\n

When you watch Marlon Brando do the speech in the 1953 film … you see the real feeling powering those manipulative brilliant words. By the end of the speech, Brando is drenched in sweat – real sweat, you watch it appear on his face in real time, and he’s clearly on the verge of losing his voice. Brando uses the repetition built in – all of those “Brutus is an honorable man” – each time he hits them, they’re different, the ditch of the speech gets larger and larger. He’s using the words to do what he wants them to do, while pouring in complexity and real feeling. The whole “Marlon Brando mumbled” thing is stupid. No, he didn’t. He didn’t mumble in Streetcar<\/em>. He doesn’t mumble here, either. I also have to point out what Brando does with the penultimate line: “when comes such another?” His voices rises, and he elongates the vowels into a scream: “when comes such anOOOOTHEEER”. Goosebumps. <\/p>\n

The speech is all cut up in pieces on YouTube – the whole thing has to be about 15 minutes long: <\/p>\n

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