•	Julius Caesar begins with the celebration of Lupercalia-  for fertility  (touch barren women, commemoration of birth of Rome) februa-thongs, a symbol of purification
•	Also celebrating Caesar’s victory
•	Tribunes fear ambition of Caesar:  point to adorned statues of Caesar  (dress in robes)

•	Rome inspired Shakespeare
•	Rome in the Augustine Age, the Golden Age, Rise of Empire, Fall of the Republic
•	44BC at the opening of the play; city collapsing because generals are abroad and become more powerful than the senators
•	Plebians with right to tribunals but without political power
•	Conspiritors against the new emperor because:  1)power can corrupt     2)escalating ambition of one man, will subject Rome to tyranny   3)political enslavement   4)afraid he will become like Atreus

•	Senecan trappings in the play
•	issues of revenge, ghosts, stoicism
•	Statements of will and determination 
•	Stoicism=  showing no emotion
•	Brutus:attempts to regulate self and passion
•	Caesar: remarks everyone must die sometime, does not want to appear weak

•	Caesar and his power:  physically- spoken of as if he were a colossus, but has epilepsy deaf in one ear, perhaps physically weak
•	I.ii.211-212:   “I rather tell thee what is to be feared/Then what I fear, for always I am Caesar”
•	asserts that he is beyond fear because he must hold up that image, role as “godlike” leader 

•	Give an illusion of invulnerability right before a vulnerable moment 
•	despite appearances, he is still a man with fallabilities
•	He denies that he fears; struggling to uphold image-  there are signs of vacillation (as we see with his wife)
•	Although he ignores the soothsayer, he wants his wife “bumped”;  he to some extent believes in fates and destiny

•	Calphurnia’s dream is ignored because of a concern for appearances
•	He is afraid of mocking
•	The argument to ignore the warning appeals to 1) ambition  2)fear of looking weak
•	Vanity overrides sense

•	The reason for the murder:  to sustain/contain one man’s will
•	Brutus:   indecisive, contemplative, ambivalent, lacks panache (means flair)
•	l.37  Brutus hs been in an internal conflict; stoic repression
•	Likes Caesar, but doesn’t like what he is becoming

•	The idea of looking within (like a mirror) is turned around by Cassius;
•	l.51-  Cassius will be Brutus’ glass; only knowself through others.  Cassius will make Brutus know himself and show him what he himself does not  yet know
•	Cassius wants to show him he is noble and more worthy than Caesar
•	This is called “seduction”; think of Kaa in “The Jungle Book”

•	Letters in Brutus’ window do the same thing 
•	Is it a true Brutus Cassius will reflect?
•	He plays on jealousy, wants Brutus to see an altruistic liberator
•	mirror idea identifies these two characters (they are reflections of one another)
•	also puts forth the  image of Caesar for comparison
•	Inflates the image of Caesar, then brings it down and elevates Brutus instead

•	Conflict between stoicism and excitement and passion
•	Cassius convinces Brutus that mastering one’s own fate/destiny is different than succumbing to weakness
•	Brutus sees himself as divided in self and in loyalty, thus the “three parts” comment
•	His opinion of Caesar:  good/ reasonable
•	l.27-28= self-seduction;  a shaky argument about what Caesar “may” do

•	His argument is based on conjecture and speculation, very abstract
•	He has no reason to see Caesar as a tyrant
•	Convinces himself power will corrupt and he will have to be subservient
•	It is NOT stoic to take one’s fate into one’s own hands.  To be stoic means to passively accept. 
•	(28-30)  He is going to refashion his perception

•	This is a tragedy of misperception and misinterpretations
•	On the eve of the assassinations, there are strange happenings:  a lion roams the capital, people are on fire without burning, the sky is odd---  A world of signs to be interpreted
•	Cassius sees signs as warnings of what Caesar could become; a justification of what he’s about to do

•	Calphurnia’s dream of the statue spurting blood and Romans bathing in it is interpreted as “a reviving force”
•	Caesar puts faith in the wrong interpretation, just as Brutus will later misjudge Marc Antony
•	Casca and Cicero:  this icily calm meeting is planned and very important.  It says that people fashion their own reality, not from what is, but what they want

•	Rome is a city of professional persuaders.  Think of the Sophists of ancient Greece (very similar).
•	Brutus uses rhetoric against himself.  In the orchard scene, he fashions his own reality through interpretation.  He fails to grasp the shape of destiny itself.  Instead of opening the door for prosperity, he begins a history of despotic rulers.
ACT II SCENE 1  (l.161)
•	Brutus wants assassination seen as honorable; he calls it “purging”
•	doing it for the good of the people
•	“The thing” fashioned as killing the soul/spirit of Caesar; only killing part of Caesar, the bad part
•	Spirit unshackled from the body; a necessary sacrifice “a dish for the Gods” 
•	Senecan connection; sees it as a ritual sacrifice, not a murder

•	Act III s.I l.40 Metellus Cimber pleads for his brother’s return
•	Caesar declares himself invulnerable to persuasion. Caesar presents himself as constant, not compassionate, emotionless, and fearless
•	Exaggerated nature of claims shows his ego; reflects Brutus’ fears
•	places himself as “star” that has evolved into a superior form

•	Calphurnia’s dream comes true; Brutus sees blood as an understanding of freedom from tyranny (again the idea of interpretation)
•	They must proclaim “Liberty, freedom...” in the streets to convince the people
•	juxtaposition of this blood bath (literally) with Brutus’ idea of soul-killing
•	The conspirators become as egoistic as Caesar, discussing performances of the deed and concern about the legacy (This calls attention to the play as a play.  Is Shakespeare commenting about the theater?)

•	History is subjective (remember master narratives of postmodernism?)
•	The conspirators are determined to give Antony a reason for the deed; it was not a “savage spectacle”l.220
•	The orations to the public are important:  They claim assassinations are justified because he was ambitious and it was done for the good of Rome. 
•	 “Let him be Caesar” shows that he fails to kill Caesar’s spirit; notion of divisibility enforced.

•	The altruistic ideals make the viewer question their true motives.  Ironically they try to become what they’ve just eradicated.
•	Antony calls Brutus’ honesty and integrity into question.  He cleverly calls Brutus a liar without actually doing so.  (Contrasts what Brutus says with what happens.)
•	He is “killing them with kindness”  Pointing out same faults in Brutus that were in Caesar
•	He, on the contrary, portrays himself as smaller than he is.