The audience are surprised by Cassius; from being supposedly an honourable citizen, to becoming a sly and cunning traitor. From now on, the audience wonder if Cassius will really convince Brutus to be part of his evil scheme.
After this soliloquy a very strange night comes. On this night a lion is passing through the capitol “and went surely by, without annoying me”, women were “transformed with fear” in the streets claiming that they saw “men all in fire walk up and down the streets”. A servant had “his left hand, which did flame and burn” but “his hand remain’d unscorch’d and the “bird of night” was up the whole day in the market place “hooting and shrieking.”
In Act II Brutus is now wrought with thought since the conversation he had with Cassius. He is now torn between his love for Caesar and his love for Rome. His love for Caesar tells him to trust in Caesar and trust him not to become a tyrant. But, his love for Rome tells him, don’t risk it, “And kill him in the shell” before he becomes king and unstoppable. But, just as Caesar said before his murder,
“Unshak’d of motion: and that I am he,
Let me a little show it, even in this,
That I was constant Cimber should be banish’d
And constant do remain to keep him so.”
He was saying how personal emotions should never come in the way of a judgement or punishment which has to be done.
Brutus is a truthful and honourable man. He is the only main character who doesn’t hide behind his words. He is the only character who is the same inside and outside; he always says what he is thinking and feeling. I think this is one of the main reasons for his downfall. It makes him vulnerable, as he shows his true character, because then people like Cassius can easily find the weak points in his character and use it for their own use.
Brutus speaks four soliloquies and all of them are in the same scene, Act II scene i. In his first soliloquy he knows he has to kill Caesar because it is the right and honourable thing to do. He argues with himself; he tries to see why he is doing this, for the good of Rome or personal jealousy, but, he comes to the conclusion that he is doing this for the good of Rome, “I know no personal cause to spurn at him”. He is now almost certain that he will take part in the conspiracy. From this soliloquy the tension starts to build up until Caesar’s death.
Brutus uses imagery to describe the situation more clearly by using a real life experience. He uses metaphors to explain how Caesar will act. He explains how Caesar started, “That lowliness is young ambition’s ladder”. This shows us how he started, just like everyone; a normal Roman citizen. Soon he starts climbing getting more and more power, until he reaches the top “round”, Caesar will then turn his back on Rome and will become a tyrant, “scorning the base degrees”.
He also compares Caesar to a snake. At that present time Caesar was “a serpent’s egg”, but if he becomes king, he will be “hatch’d, would, as his kind, grow mischievous”, and become a tyrant over Rome.
Tension starts to build in the audience because we are now starting to see Brutus falling into Cassius’s trap. He is now almost convinced about joining the conspiracy for the murder of Caesar. We feel very sorry for Brutus because what he thinks is an act of honour, really is an act of treason, which he will pay dearly with the life of his wife first, and then with his own life.
In his second soliloquy Brutus reads the letter found by Lucius, which happened to be on the window sill. He is now certain that he should join the conspiracy and kill Caesar whilst he is still in his “shell”. In this soliloquy he focuses the most on these three words, “Speak, Strike, Redress!”. He interprets these words to mean that he should, first speak and revolt against Caesar, strike and kill Caesar, and then everything will redress, become good and normal.
We see now even clearer how Cassius has found Brutus’ weak point, and how he has used it for his advantage. Brutus exposed himself and Cassius has taken complete advantage of it. The audience is shocked how Brutus is so easily convinced by Cassius to join them.
In his third soliloquy Brutus says about how his mind has been occupied since Cassius confronted him about Caesar. He has not slept because of it. He talks about how hard it is for him, the time from when he made the “first motion” deciding to join the conspiracy, till the time of the actual “act”, for him it is “like a phantasma or a hideous dream”.
We now know that the conspiracy will attempt to kill Caesar. They are just waiting for Brutus to agree to join them. Now that he has, they can now carry on and plan how they will kill him. The audience feels even sorrier for Brutus as the play goes on. He is now going through all this trouble and trauma for no reason apart from Cassius’s personal jealousy, not for the reason he thinks, Rome.
In his last soliloquy Brutus talks about the conspirators. He mocks them, saying that they have to hide their faces during the night “when evil is most free”. He says that if they keep on hiding like this they will get caught and their plan will be foiled, he suggests that they have to hide their plans “in smiles and affability”.
After his soliloquies Brutus talks to the conspirators and they discuss how they will do the murder. They discuss whether they should kill anyone else at the same time, but Brutus will have none of that because then, it will seem as a butchery not an act to purge Rome. Once they are done planning the murder, the conspirators leave.
Brutus’s weakness, which will lead him to his death, is that he is politically naive. He is always getting simple and straight forward decisions wrong. He is a very bad judge of character. He first misjudges Cassius for being an honourable man, he then mistakes Mark Antony twice, first by saying that he is just “a limb of Caesar”, and secondly by letting him talk at Caesar’s funeral, unsupervised. These grievous mistakes lead him to his death, later on in the play. Another flaw in his character is that he is too honourable. Brutus will do anything he can possibly do if he believes that the act is honourable.
Caesar has been convinced by Decius to go to the senate house, so that he can receive his crown and be claimed king over the whole Roman Empire. They go to the senate house but Caesar is then distracted by Metellus. They talk about Publius’ punishment, and banishment from the kingdom, which Caesar imposed on him. They carry on this conversation until Casca says, “Speak, hands, for me!”, and they then stab Caesar and he dies.
In his first soliloquy, Antony talks to the dead body of Caesar. He apologizes for being “gentle with these butchers”. It is ironic because that was exactly the opposite of how Brutus wanted the conspiracy to be projected as. Mark Antony is now filled with anger and desire for revenge against the conspirators. He prophesizes that because of this act there will be “domestic fury and fierce civil strife”. He says that the situation will be so horrific,
“That mothers shall but smile when they behold
Their infants quarter’d with the hands of war”.
He uses very graphic language in his soliloquy. This language makes the audience shudder when he says this soliloquy. The audience now sees the transformation of character in Mark Antony, from being “a limb of Caesar” to becoming this angry, revengeful person whose only desire is to take revenge on the conspirators for the ‘butchery’ of Caesar. He is so anxious for revenge that he is willing to put Rome and the Roman citizens in danger and jeopardise everything they have worked for, just to get his revenge. He portrays a picture to the audience of how he wants Rome to become. We see his anger and desire for revenge in this soliloquy.
“Domestic fury and fierce civil strife,
Shall cumber all the parts of Italy;
Blood and destruction shall so be in use,
And dreadful objects so familiar”.
In this soliloquy Antony uses the imagery for several purposes. First he talks about how Caesar was a “bleeding piece of earth” showing how important he was to him. He says how important and noble Caesar was. Now that he is dead “Caesar’s spirit, ranging for revenge,
With Ate by his side come hot from hell,
Shall in these confines with a monarch’s voice
Cry ‘Havoc!’ and let slip the dogs of war”.
We see that he still considers Caesar as a king because he says that he will cry “Havoc!” which only a king had the right to say. He shows the thirst for vengeance which is inside him, puts it into Caesar’s spirit and compares himself to Ate. He will create such chaos and havoc that he could be compared to him. The last line of his soliloquy uses personification to show the extent of hatred and suffering there will be in Rome, “With carrion men, groaning for burial.”
In the scene where Brutus and Mark Antony talk to the citizens of Rome. Brutus reassures them, that they had the best intentions for the citizens of Rome and Rome itself. Once he has finished talking to them, they agree with him and see his point of view. The next person to talk is Mark Antony. He is very careful of the way he speaks to the people, because he wants to convince the people that the conspirators were traitors not purgers. He can not say this out loud at first because the people still have Brutus’ speech in their heads and will think Mark Antony a traitor to the Roman Empire. So, he has to convince them that Brutus is wrong, without actually saying it. He first has to show that the conspirators weren’t as honourable as they seem. Next, he shows how Caesar was not a tyrant. Once this is accomplished he finally has the citizens on his side and can finally proclaim the civil war.
“Most noble Caesar! We’ll revenge his death.”
Antony’s second soliloquy it is only two lines but the audience reacts strongly to his words. We see raw and pure hatred inside of him, and that he will endanger the lives of the Roman civilians, cause a major war, just to have his revenge.
We see the chaos caused by Mark Antony in the next scene because even a person who has the same name as a member of the conspiracy will have to suffer and die. It is ironic that by killing Caesar, a potential tyrant, it has resulted in bringing out another, even worse tyrant, Mark Antony.
We have found that Cassius is sly, ruthless and has blind ambition and will do anything to get what he wants, which is to kill Caesar and get his revenge. Brutus is an honest and honourable man, who is deeply concerned for the people of Rome. He is true to himself and others, but has a few major weaknesses within his character. Mark Antony was “a limb of Caesar”, but once Caesar was murdered Antony had a transformation and became like Cassius. He was a calm person, listened to music and was generally a happy person.
“he loves no plays,
As thou dost, Antony; he hears no music;”
After the murder he turned into a sly, ruthless, conniving person whose only passion was to seek power in Rome and take revenge on the conspirators who killed Caesar, at any cost.
