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honour, patriotism, and friendship.
Marcus Brutus is Caesar’s close friend and a Roman praetor.
Brutus allows himself to be cajoled into joining a group of conspiring senators because of a growing suspicion — implanted by Caius Cassius — that Caesar intends to turn republican Rome into a monarchy under his own rule.
Caesar’s assassination is one of the most famous scenes of the play, occurring in Act 3. After ignoring the soothsayer as well as his wife’s own premonitions, Caesar comes to the Senate.
The conspirators create a superficial motive for the assassination by means of a petition brought by Metellus Cimber, pleading on behalf of his banished brother.
As Caesar, predictably, rejects the petition, Casca grazes Caesar in the back of his neck, and the others follow in stabbing him; Brutus is last.
At this point, Caesar utters the famous line “Et tu, Brute?” (“And you, Brutus?”, i.e. “You too, Brutus?”). Shakespeare has him add, “Then fall, Caesar,” suggesting that Caesar did not want to survive such treachery.
The conspirators make clear that they committed this act for Rome, not for their own purposes and do not attempt to flee the scene. After Caesar’s death, Brutus delivers an oration defending his actions, and for the moment, the crowd is on his side.
However, Mark Antony, with a subtle and eloquent speech over Caesar’s corpse — beginning with the much-quoted “Friends, Romans, countrymen, lend me your ears” — deftly turns public opinion against the assassins by manipulating the emotions of the common people, in contrast to the rational tone of Brutus’s speech.
The play ends with a tribute to Brutus by Antony, who proclaims that Brutus has remained “the noblest Roman of them all” because he was the only conspirator who acted for the good of Rome.
There is then a small hint at the friction between Mark Antony and Octavius which will characterise another of Shakespeare’s Roman plays, Antony and Cleopatra.
According to Wikipedia, Maria Wyke has written that the play reflects the general anxiety of Elizabethan England over succession of leadership.
At the time of its creation and first performance, Queen Elizabeth, a strong ruler, was elderly and had refused to name a successor, leading to worries that a civil war similar to that of Rome might break out after her death.
Advance booking for Julius Caesar is now open at The Spotlight and several schools have already placed their block bookings, for which there is a special discounted price and a means by which the schools can do their own fund-raising from ticket sales. More information on this can be obtained from the Reps office.
Online Reporter