In performance, on the other hand, Shakespeare can present the interpretation that he wants to put across by instructing the actor what sort of facial expression to put on and what tone of voice to use. For example, if the actor used commanding voice with a confident expression will show the audience that Caesar is sacrificing to the gods through piety. Should the actor put on a worried expression accompanied by a stutter and incoherent speech, he would give the impression that Caesar is sacrificing through being anxious and superstitious.
Another way of finding out what sort of a man Caesar is, what he says, on top of what he does, must be examined. In the second scene of Act Two, Caesar tells his wife, Calphurnia, how great he is. First, he says how fearsome he is.
“Caesar shall go forth. The things that threatened me
Ne’er looked but on my back; when they shall see
The face of Caesar, they are vanished.” (Caesar. II.ii.10-12)
“…Danger knows full well
That Caesar is more dangerous than he.” (Caesar. II.ii.44-45)
In the first of the two references above, Caesar says that he is a fearsome man who intimidates his threats by his fearsome looks. The key to this point is, “…when they shall see the face of Caesar, they are vanished.” He says that things that threaten him only look at his back because when Caesar turns around, they are so fearful that they vanish. The second extract sees the use of personification; danger is personified. Caesar tells his wife that danger knows that Caesar is even more dangerous than danger.
As well as finding himself fearsome, Julius Caesar also finds himself fearless. The audience are told this through what Caesar says to Calphurnia in Act Two Scene II.
“Cowards due many times before their deaths,
The valiant never taste of death but once.” (Caesar II.ii.32-33)
“Of all the wonders that I yet have heard,
It seems to me most strange that men should fear,
Seeing that death, a necessary end,
Will come when it will come.” (Caesar II.ii.34-37)
In the two quotations above, Caesar tells his wife and the audience that he is “valiant” and fearless through implications. In the first of the two quotations, he says that cowards die more than once because of the fear of death but he, like the valiant, “never taste of death but once.” In second quotation, Caesar acknowledges the fact that he, like everyone else, will die and, like the valiant, he does not fear it. On the whole, what the audience hear from Caesar is that he is a great man who is fearsome and fearless.
Despite what Caesar has said about himself, Calphurnia provides the audience with her views on Caesar.
“Your wisdom is consumed in confidence.” (Calphurnia II.ii.49)
In this line, Calphurnia tells the audience that she feels that Caesar may not be as fearless and fearsome as he made out previously. It can be interpreted that Calphurnia insists that Caesar’s over-enlarged confidence has blinded him and that he has no wisdom left. This, in performance, could be put across to audience through, again, the change in tone and facial expression of the actress playing the role of Calphurnia.
Mark Antony is a key character in the plot after the conspiracy of Julius Caesar; he takes a key role in the plot because of his views of Julius Caesar.
Mark Antony, despite what the conspirators think, feels that Caesar is not at all ambitious because Caesar did not accept dictatorship of Rome, a republic, despite being offered three times.
“I thrice presented him a kingly crown,
Which he did thrice refuse. Was this ambition?” (Mark Antony III.ii.93-94)
In the quotation above, we see how disgusting Antony finds the idea of Caesar being ambitious. The technique that he uses to tell the Roman citizens, and the audience watching, this is very crafty. First, he uses a rhetorical question to make his audience think seriously about whether Caesar really is an ambitious man. In the rhetorical question, “Was this ambition?” there is a strong flavour of irony which adds the effect which the rhetorical question itself creates. Combined with a change of voice and a serious facial expression, the actor in the role of Mark Antony will be able to put his point across to his audience effectively.
In his last speech, in the fifth scene of Act Five, Mark Antony exposes and sums up to the audience what he thinks of Caesar in two lines.
“This [Caesar’s corpse] was the noblest Roman of them all.
All the conspirators save only he
Did that they did in envy of great Caesar.” (Mark Antony V.v.68-70)
In the short quotation above, there is no doubt that Mark Antony is singing Caesar’s praises. Firstly, he insists that Caesar is the noblest Roman who has ever lived, “This was the noblest Roman of them all.” In the second sentence of the quotation above, he also insists that the conspiracy against Caesar was started through the envy of the conspirators. However, there is an argument against this; the conspirators argue, not directly with Mark Antony, that Caesar was ambitious. Mark Antony, as said before, does not think so.
Brutus is the main conspirator in the play, he is the one which each and every conspirator, Cassius, Casca, etc., looks up to and sees as the leader. He, despite the conspiracy not being his brainchild, is the one who overrules the other conspirators. From the beginning to the end of the play, Brutus believes Caesar to be an ambitious man and that Caesar’s death can only be beneficial to Rome. Brutus believes the latter because he feels that, under Caesar, Romans will work from their cradles to their graves.
“Had you rather Caesar were living, and die all slaves, than that Caesar were dead, to live all free men?” (Brutus III.ii.21-23)
The first part of this quotation is undoubtedly a reference to Caesar’s ambition by Brutus. He believes that, with Caesar ruling, the “you” who refers to, the Roman citizens, will die as slaves. The second part of the quotation, “than that Caesar were dead, to live all free men?” shows, as well his views on Caesar’s ambition, one of the reasons why he believes Caesar’s death will be beneficial to Rome. In performance on stage, the actor playing the role of Brutus should be using a massive change in voice to emphasise Brutus’ views.
In the conversation with Cassius in Act One Scene Two, Brutus explicitly says that he fears Caesar becoming king of Rome.
“What means this shouting? I do fear the people
Choose Caesar for their king.” (Brutus I.ii.78-79)
The obvious giveaway, in the interpretation above, to Brutus’ fear is the word “fear”. The latter part of the quotation, the main part of the quotation, “I do fear the people choose Caesar for their king.” clearly shows that Brutus fears Caesar becoming king. However, how the audience interpret this crucially relies on how the actor, playing the role of Brutus, uses his voice to say the lines. The actor could put on a very alarmed expression and stress the word “do” to express concern and fear.
Whilst talking to the conspirators, Brutus also puts across his concerns of Caesar
having increased power. He feels that Caesar should not have any more power.
“…Crown him that,
And then I grant we put a sting in him,
That at his will he may do danger with.” (Brutus II.i. 15-17)
In the first part of this quotation, Brutus states to his fellow conspirators and the audience that he feels that giving Caesar power is giving him the power to cause damage. Brutus likens crowning Caesar is like giving him a “sting”, in this context, a “sting” is a weapon, rather than a part of an insect’s anatomy. Another important point in the quotation is “that at his will he may do danger with.” “That at his will” is very important because it shows that once Caesar has been crowned, not only will he be able to cause damage, he will be able to cause damage at his will.
Brutus’ fellow conspirator, Cassius, has very negative views on Julius Caesar. He tells Brutus of how he challenged Rome’s leading politician and won. Cassius is sickened by the fact that a man who as good as himself, at the most, is nearly “god.”
“…so from the waves of Tiber
Did I the tired Caesar [carried him]. And this man
Is now become a god, and Cassius is
A wretched creature, and must bend his bend his body
If Caesar carelessly buy nod on him.” (Cassius I.ii. 114-118)
Cassius, in the extract above, tells the audience and Brutus of how he saved Caesar – the man who is worshipped in Rome. He also continues to say how he, who saved the man who is being worshipped in Rome, is nothing but a “wretched creature”. The use of this phrase emphasises to the audience how lowly he is compared to the current Caesar. He also points out that Caesar has so much authority that he must bow to Caesar should Caesar, in the slightest, gesture him. Combined with appropriate tone, in other an angry voice, in performance, the actor playing the role of Cassius can put this point across to both Brutus and his audience strongly.
Overall, in the play, Julius Caesar, the characters of Brutus, Cassius, Mark Antony, Calphurnia, Caesar and Shakespeare, through Caesar’s actions, have given the audience mixed views of Julius Caesar’s character. Brutus shows Caesar as a dangerously power-hungry man; Cassius gives the impression that Caesar is a cowardly, weak leader, unfit to rule Rome. Mark Antony insists that Caesar is the greatest man ever and was certainly not ambitious whilst Caesar himself firmly believes himself to be a brave and fearsome. Shakespeare, through Caesar’s actions portrays a character widely exposed to interpretation. Take the crown incident for example, did Caesar refuse the crown sincerely because he is not ambitious, or did he refuse the crown to make a hide his ambition away from the Roman public? Through the play, it is not Caesar’s character that changes, it is the perceptions of him that change. The perceptions of Caesar change because of what the characters in the play say about him. Should the views of all the characters be combined, we get a Julius Caesar who is great, brave, fearless, fearsome but weak and arguably ambitious. By the end of the play, Shakespeare has led the audience to perceive Caesar, as history does, as a great man. I, like history and many after Caesar, see the lasting impression he has, a great leader of Rome who was wrongly killed.