Julius Caesar • 2013 - Chicago Shakespeare Theater

POLITICS AS USUAL?
JOSEPH ALULIS, PH D is Professor of Political Science
at North Park College in Chicago. His publications include
Shakespeare’s Political Pageant.
Is murder for political reasons
ever justified? In Julius Caesar
Shakespeare asks us to
think about this, and a lot of other
questions about politics, violence,
friendship, loyalty, and revenge.
The first thing Shakespeare does is
set the scene. When the play opens,
the people of Rome are celebrating
because Caesar has just had a big
victory over his opponent, Pompey. The two tribunes recall that
Pompey had done good things for the people in the past. Caesar
orders the tribunes killed when he learns they criticized him
(Act 1, Scene 2). What should one do in such a case? Is this
just politics as usual or is this something worse: an attempt to
deprive us of our right to elect our own representatives? And if
the latter, would violence be justified?
Against this background how does Shakespeare depict Caesar?
With only one exception, we see Caesar always surrounded
by other public figures, chiefly members of the Senate.
What can we say about him and his political intentions
based on the way he relates to these men? How does what he
says and does relate to his
treatment of the tribunes?
Do we see anything in his
behavior that could possibly
justify such extreme action
as his assassination?
Now consider the man
who seems to instigate the
plot— Cassius. What are we to think of his motives in view of
what he says about Caesar? He doesn’t seem to care about
Caesar depriving the people of their freedom, if that’s what
Caesar is doing. Rather, Cassius seems to be concerned
with Caesar’s reputation—and his own. Is his concern for
reputation and office?
Brutus seems different from Cassius. All, even his enemies,
think him a noble man. It is for this reason, in fact, that Cassius
needs him. Brutus’ participation gives his plot legitimacy.
To draw a contemporary parallel, there was a lot of talk in the
1996 election about Colin Powell running for President. Powell
decided against it on personal grounds, but one can see
that those people who were urging him to run were like Cas-
Questions of friendship,
of the place of trust and loyalty
in our relations, occur again
and again
SCHOLARS’ PERSPECTIVES
sius: they needed Powell to give their platform greater popular
credit. In attempting to convince Powell to run, they spoke of
duty, but weren’t they also perhaps appealing to Powell’s ego?
And doesn’t Cassius do the same thing with Brutus? Is Brutus,
like Cassius, concerned about reputation? And if so, does this
make him less critical of Cassius’s efforts to turn him against
Caesar? Brutus does, finally, join the plot. But does he do it
for egoistic reasons or for a genuine concern for the common
good? These are all questions that history and Shakespeare’s
retelling of this story raise. It is up to us as readers and audience
to wrestle with a range of possible answers.
Cassius’s attempt to enlist Brutus in his plot raises a question
about friendship. Cassius claims to be Brutus’ friend. But even
if Cassius had the best motives in the world, is this the way
to treat a friend, to attempt to sway him by playing upon less
than honorable motives? Do true friends ever act out of selfserving
motives? Yet the quarrel between Brutus and Cassius
in Brutus’ tent on the battlefield suggests that Cassius’s affection
for Brutus is genuine. Cassius seems truly hurt that Brutus
appears so cold to him and is very desirous for personal rather
than military reasons to make peace between them. What
does the relation of Cassius and Brutus say about the nature
of friendship and, still more thorny, about the relation between
friendship and politics?
Questions of friendship, of the place of trust and loyalty in
our relations, occur again and again in Shakespeare’s Julius
Caesar. Naturally once he joins the conspiracy, Brutus has
to keep the plot secret: the fewest number of people should
know about it. But Brutus tells his wife Portia. Was this wise?
Does a man owe this kind
of trust to his wife? Would
it have been better to shield
her from all knowledge of
the conspiracy? On the day
of the assassination, we see
Portia under terrible stress
because of her knowledge
of the plot. Later, we hear
that she took her own life. Might this possibly be due to her
involvement, even though it was not immediate?
Caesar and Brutus are friends. Antony comments on how
close Brutus and Caesar were. One of the most famous lines
in the play is when Brutus stabs Caesar and Caesar, seeing
this, asks, “Et tu, Brute?” that is, “And you, Brutus?” Even if
Caesar were doing wrong, should Brutus, his friend, be the
one to kill him? Does patriotism justify personal treachery as
well as murder? Or does Brutus’s willingness to put his friendship
aside, to expose himself to the charge of being a false
friend, show real courage?
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