Shakespeare's Julius Caesar is the story of the resulting conflicts from the
assassination of perpetual dictator and Roman emperor, Julius Caesar. A great
friend of Caesar, Mark Antony, comes to the senate to see the dead body of their
dictator. He pretends to not be angry at those who took part in the
assassination, and asks to speak at his funeral, a request which he is granted.
However, after the men leave, he begins a soliloquy in which he suggests that
Caesar's spirit will take revenge upon his murderers and invoke a war involving
the entire country. Antony begins the revenge of his death by speaking at the
funeral about the wrong done to Caesar, the man's generosity to the people, and
how Brutus tried to persuade them to believe his justification of the murder.
The crowd turns to agreement with Antony and then accuse the conspirators of
murder. The accused men flee, eventually leaving the bounds of the city, and the
citizens leave to loot and burn the houses of the guilty men. The armies of
Brutus and Cassius set up camps near another city and knowing that Antony's
soldiers are coming, they decide to march toward the enemy at once. The fighting
begins with the confrontation of the two sides, as Cassius' and Brutus' armies
arrive. Antony and his partner challenge the assassins to fight, and the bloody
battle begins. The armies of the conspirators fall into vulnerability many
times, and their side does poorly, losing many men. Cassius hears mistakenly
that one of his important soldiers has been captured, loses hope, and commits
suicide, while Brutus feels that his army has been cornered, and throws himself
onto another man's sword, killing himself also. They call off the rest of the
battle, for Antony's army now had victory over Brutus and Cassius, Caesar's
murder had been avenged, and order had been restored. CHARACTERS: There are a
couple of main characters in this story. Caesar is well liked by the citizens of
Rome, yet is a somewhat arrogant man and believes himself to be above everybody
else. He is given praise often and honored by events such as a holiday in his
name. However, several men do not agree that Caesar should have such a high
title, as they despise his character. These six men conspire to kill the emperor
to end what they see as his tyranny and oppression in Rome. A man named Cassius
organizes the event, while a powerful figure, Brutus, persuades Caesar to come
to the senate, where he is to be killed. While the emperor argues with one of
the conspirators, a man named Casca stabs him in the back, and the other men
follow and wound him with their swords until he falls to the ground, dead.
EVALUATION: In this play, Shakespeare gave morals to the audience about right
and wrong and acting upon one's opinion. He showed that one should not bring
death to someone else based on their personal desires, or whether they believe
it is in the best interest of their society, for they are only one person out of
the many who have a voice. He also implies that if one commits an act of wrong,
justified, or not, they can expect to be punished for it by the others who were
hurt by those actions.