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JULIUS CAESAR
(WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE)
,.
“Totem, Taboo, and Julius Caesar”
by Cynthia Marshall, in
Literature and Psychology (1991)
Introduction
Although Freud’s Totem and Taboo contains no explicit
reference to Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar, Cynthia Marshall
describes the way “Freud’s concept of taboo culture, the
primitive banding together of brothers for the purpose of
overcoming the father, recreates Shakespeare’s picture of
Roman society.” By focusing on Freud’s obsession with the
character of Brutus, a role Freud played as a child, and by
exploring the two texts for the way they resonate off one
another, Marshall connects the taboo in Freud’s text, in
Freud’s life, and in Shakespeare’s play. For Marshall, “The
story of Julius Caesar—part myth, part history—exists on the
cusp of civilization; the father–son confl ict is partly actual and
partly symbolic. Yet because Brutus is identifi ed in action, he
must fail where Freud, heir to his ambivalence, succeeds:
repression of the parricidal wish enables Freud to internalize
the father, in the form of taboo law or superego.”
f
Marshall, Cynthia. “Totem, Taboo, and Julius Caesar.” Literature and Psychology.
37.1–2 (1991): 11–33.
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