Julius Caesar Flattery Essay, Research Paper

Flattery for Personal Gain Flattery is used to manipulate people in real life and in fiction. Julius Caesar hasmany examples of this kind of behavior. Some examples of using flattery to manipulatepeople in the story is when Decius tells Caesar a different interpretation of Calphurnia sdream making Caesar seem to be a hero in it. Another example is when the conspiratorsbow down to Caesar at the capitol to draw his attention away from Casca and the firststab. The last example is when Mark Antony reads the will of Caesar in front of thepeople and reveals that Caesar had left them each seventy five drachmas. To begin with, when Caesar heard of Calphurnia s dream and decided to stayhome on the ides of March, Decius persuaded Caesar to go to the capitol by telling him adifferent interpretation of the dream. Calphurnia said her dream was a sign of death forCaesar. She saw lusty Romans bathing their hands in blood coming form Caesar s statue. Decius said Your statue spouting blood in many pipes, in which so many smiling Romansbathed, signifies that from you great Rome shall suck reviving blood. (Shakespeare 2,2,90-92). He also told him that the people were dipping objects in the blood to have somesort of piece of Caesar because he was so great. He said this so that he could get Caesarto the capitol and carry out his job that the other conspirators had assigned him. Deciusgot what he wanted, and so did the other conspirators. They had successfully drawn

Caesar into his own death. Secondly, the conspirators knelt down before Caesar so he would think of himselfas a mighty and powerful person. They did this to distract him from Casca and the othersthat would stab him. Metellus knelt down to ask Caesar to let his brother come back intotown after being banished. Caesar then told him not to bother with begging because itwould get him nowhere. The others then join Metellus in asking for forgiveness of hisbrother. Caesar was successfully distracted, and because of this, he was killed. Lastly, when Mark Antony read Caesar s will to the people, he wanted the peopleto go on his side and think of Caesar as a great person. Antony had said to every Romancitizen he gives, to every several man, seventy-five drachmas. (Shakespeare 3,2,255-256). Antony was trying to make Caesar look like a great hero, rather than a tyrant. He wanted to get the people on his side and make them think what the conspirators haddone was wrong. Antony was successful in persuading the people by using Caesar s willas the main point of interest. In conclusion, flattery is often used by people to get what they want, even if itinvolves a lie. Julius Caesar has many examples of this such as the time when Deciusgave Caesar a different interpretation of Calphurnia s dream, or the time the conspiratorsknelt down to Caesar to distract him, and also the time Mark Antony used Caesar s will topersuade the people into going on his side and making them think the killing of Caesar waswrong.