Caesar's Conflicting Perspectives

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Shakespeare manipulates the dramtic form in his play Julius Caesar to present conflicting perspectives srrounding the personality of Caesar in order to challenge his audiences understanding of good leadership; presenting the fallibility of political leaders. Shakespeares dramatic representation evokes his elizabethen audience to question the state of their monarcy and encourages a contemporary audueince to question their political eladers. Shakespeare presents Caesar as both an populous leader and an ambitious tyranny to illuminate the debate surrounding broader politicl issues, namely that of Republcanism and kingship. Shakespeare presents Caesar as a populous victorious leader in Act 1 Scene 1 where the common people loudly celebrate Caesars…show more content…
Shakespeare presents conflicting perspectives about the event as both an act of brutal murder and an act for the greater good of rome in Act 3 Scene 1. Shakespeare uses Brtuu’s perspective to religiously justify the act, conveyed through the highly symbolic imagery “let us bathe our hands in caesars blood up to our elbows”. This graphic action on stage is highly confronting for his audience, encouraging them to question the reasoning behind the assassination. This is immediately followed by Anotony’s soliloquy; here he is positioned on stage with caesars body, a prop which allows him to maniulate the crowd to transgress from Brutus perspective of the killing as a divine sacrifice to ac act of meaningless butchery. He undermines Brutus, conveyed through his lamenting tone “thou art the ruins of the noblest man” to further challanege the perspective that caesars thirst for power was a threat to the roman republic. Shakespeare furthers these conflicting perspectives in Act 3 scene 2 to demonstrate the power of political rhetoric. In the funerary speeches, Brutus’ patriotic tone in “not that I loved Caesar less but that I loved rome more” representes him as a protector of the roman republican values that Caesar threatened. This is sharply
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