Julius Caesar By William Shakespeare (1564 – 1616) Essay, Research Paper

The reader cannot study Julius Caesar

with an eye to learning Roman history. As usual, Shakespeare significantly

alters actual sequences and events. For instance, the play is compressed

into six days’ time, while the events, as recorded in history, took place

over the space of three years.

The play’s central figure turns out to

be not Julius Caesar at all, but Brutus, who (like Hamlet) feels compelled

to commit a murder for the sake of a principle. All his life noble Brutus

had been faithfull- and through a labyrinthine tangle of plots, politics,

and power bids, he had distinguished himself for his integrity, honor,

and courage, so that, even after his defeat, his enemies recognize him

as their moral superior.

Aside from the political intrigue of the

plot, the play is filled with brilliant speeches, timeless both for their

declamatory techniques and for the passions they reflect and evoke. Read

from Cassius’ speech as he fumes over Caesar’s faults; or turn to the touching

plea of Brutus’ wife for her husband to surrender and return home to her.

And certainly, the two speeches delivered by Brutus and Antonius at the

funeral are classics in oratory.