Julius Caesar

Shakespeare, Williams. Julius Caesar. 2006. 192p. ISBN 0300108095. Available at 822.3 SHA on the library shelves.

One of Shakespeare’s most famous tragedy, Julius Caesar tells a story of ambition, greed, murder, and revenge. Inspired from real events, Shakespeare used this play to convey some of his political analysis of current-day England into the safe environment of Rome.

Having won many wars, Julius Caesar returns to Rome and maneuvers to be granted a king’s crown from the people. This would spell the end of the Republic, and many senators and other Roman nobles are opposed. Cassius, who fears the arrival of a tyrant and who stands to lose some of his political capital if Caesar gets a crown, assembles a conspiracy of assassins to slay Caesar during the Ides of March. He convinces Brutus, a widely respected noble, to join the conspirators, and Brutus does so because he is worried Caesar will overthrow the ideals of the Roman Republic.

Upon killing Caesar, however, the conspirators unleash a wave of protest and rebellion, led by Marc Anthony and Octavius, Caesar’s nephew. Each side takes up arm, but passion runs high in Caesar’s supporters, and they eventually triumph over the conspirators, all of whom are either killed on the field of battle or commit suicide to avoid capture.

A seminal event in Roman history, Shakespeare encapsulates the drama of the time in a tragic play.