Summary: Act I, scene iii
Casca and Cicero meet on a Roman street. Casca says that
though he has seen many terrible things in the natural world, nothing
compares to the frightfulness of this night’s weather. He wonders
if there is strife in heaven or if the gods are so angered by mankind
that they intend to destroy it. Casca relates that he saw a man
with his hands on fire, and yet his flesh was not burning. He describes
meeting a lion near the Capitol: bizarrely, the lion ignored him
and walked on. Many others have seen men on fire walking in the
streets, and an owl, a nocturnal bird, was seen sitting out in the
marketplace during the day. When so many abnormal events happen
at once, Casca declares, no one could possibly believe that they
are natural occurrences. Casca insists that they are portents of
danger ahead. Cicero replies that men will interpret things as they
will: “Indeed it is a strange-disposèd time; / But men may construe
things after their fashion, / Clean from the purpose of the things
themselves” (I.iii.33–35).
Cicero asks if Caesar is coming to the Capitol the next day; Casca
replies that he is. Cicero departs, warning that it is not a good
atmosphere in which to remain outside.
Cassius enters. He has been wandering through the streets,
taking no shelter from the thunder and lightning. Casca asks Cassius why
he would endanger himself so. Cassius replies that he is pleased—he
believes that the gods are using these signs to warn the Romans
about a “monstrous state,” meaning both an abnormal state of affairs
and an atrocious government (I.iii.71). Cassius
compares the night to Caesar himself, who
like this dreadful night,
. . . thunders, lightens, opens graves, and roars
As doth the lion in the Capitol. (I.iii.72–74)
He also calls Caesar “prodigious grown, / And fearful,
as these strange eruptions are” (I.iii.76–77).
Casca reports to Cassius that the senators plan to make
Caesar king in the Senate the following day. Cassius draws his dagger
and swears to the gods that if they can make a weak man like Caesar
so powerful, then they can empower Cassius to defeat a tyrant. He declares
that Rome must be merely trash or rubbish to give itself up so easily
to Caesar’s fire. Casca joins Cassius in his censure of Caesar,
and Cassius reveals that he has already swayed a number of high-powered
Romans to support a resistance movement.
A conspirator named Cinna enters. Cassius now divulges
his latest scheme in his plot to build opposition against Caesar:
the conversion of Brutus. Cassius gives Cinna the letters he has
forged to place in Brutus’s chair in the Senate, and others to throw
through Brutus’s window and place on Brutus’s statue. Cassius claims
that Brutus has already come three-quarters of the way toward turning
against Caesar; he hopes the letters will bring him the rest of
the way around. Casca comments that the noble Brutus’s participation
in their plot will bring worthiness to their schemes, for “he sits
high in all the people’s hearts, / And that which would appear offence
in us / His countenance, like richest alchemy, / Will change to
virtue and to worthiness” (I.iii.157–60).
Read a translation of
Act I, scene iii →
Analysis
This scene demonstrates the characters’ inability
to interpret correctly the signs that they encounter. The night
is full of portents, but no one construes them accurately. Cassius
asserts that they signify the danger that Caesar’s possible coronation
would bring to the state, while they actually warn of the destruction
that Cassius himself threatens. Meanwhile, Cassius plots to win
Brutus to his cause by misleading him with letters; he knows that
Brutus will take the written word at face value, never questioning
the letters’ authenticity.
