Julius Caesar

Study Questions

The conspirators manage to kill Caesar, the physically infirm man, who is deaf in one ear, probably epileptic, and aging; indeed, it may be Caesar’s delusions about his own immortality as a man that allow the conspirators to catch him off guard and bring about his death. In many ways, however, Caesar’s faith in his permanence proves valid: the conspirators fail to destroy Caesar’s public image, and Antony’s words to the crowd serve to burnish Caesar’s image. Additionally, the conspirators fail to annihilate the idea that Caesar incarnated: that of a single supreme leader of Rome.

Death does not diminish Caesar’s influence on matters or his presence in the minds of those who loved him. Caesar seems to speak from the grave when Antony reads his will, stirring the people to rebellion. Cassius and Brutus attribute their deaths to Caesar when they fall in battle. Perhaps most important, Antony begins to call Octavius “Caesar” when Octavius starts to display an undeniable authority in military strategizing. This appellation has a double significance: it reveals both Octavius’s future as the bearer of Caesar’s personal legacy and the metamorphosis of Caesar the man into Caesar the institution. Even with his death, Caesar has initiated a line of Roman emperors, ending the era of Brutus’s beloved republic.

Early in the play, Caesar gives an order to Antony, who declares that Caesar is so powerful that words equal action by the mere fact of his having pronounced them. After Caesar’s death, words cease to have this kind of absolute power until Octavius arrives on the battlefield. When Antony tells him to attack from one side of the field, Octavius announces his intention to do the opposite. Like Caesar, Octavius is able to effect his will merely by speaking. Antony’s earlier recognition of Caesar’s power epitomizes one of the driving forces behind this power—the self-fulfilling prophecy of believing in Caesar’s supremacy. As a public figure, Caesar depends on the acceptance and awe of those over whom he rules to sustain the legendary, godlike aura surrounding him. With little resistance, Antony submits to Octavius’s notion of how they should proceed in battle. This recognition of Octavius’s inherently supreme nature and the consequent deference it inspires cements Octavius’s status as the emerging successor to Caesar’s great legacy. It is at this moment, notably, that Antony begins to call Octavius “Caesar.”