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Facts about Shakespeares England relevant to Julius Caesar

1. Drama at the time of the English Renaissance flourished and plays got

increasingly complex, especially those of Shakespeare. Although elements of

the medieval morality plays still can be seen, in the temptation of

characters, and their internal conflict between such forces as ambition and

conscience, Shakespeares plays demonstrate the invention of the human, to

borrow Blooms phrase, as a modern, complex personality often torn by many

conflicting forces, both internal and external.

2. At the time of Shakespeare people believed there was good and evil in

everyone that all humans consisted of opposing forces such as these, and it

was important to guard against evil in case you give in to temptation. This

idea was reinforced by sermons in the church. In Shakespeares time it was

against the law to miss church, and the church often taught people how to

resist temptation. Interestingly, Shakespeares great tragedies often show

the disastrous consequences of giving in to temptation as Brutus does in

Julius Caesar, complete with an allusion to the Fall in the Garden of Eden as

Brutus falls in his orchard. Also, Shakespeare has characters that act as

tempters Iago in Othellois one, and Cassius is another.

3. The Renaissance was obsessed by the ideal of order, seen symbolically in

such diagrams as the music of the spheres or the ideal person being a

balance of all four humors. There was a lot of instability in society at the

time conflict with Spain abroad, outbreaks of plague in London, plots

against the queens life, riots and conspiracies supposedly involving

witchcraft.

4. In Julius Caesarwe see the result of killing a popular leader chaos. In this

way the play might be read as a warning against creating instability in the

state. The fact that Caesar is a king in all but name, and is murdered, is

more significant to an Elizabethan audience, as a monarch was believed to be

the representative of God on Earth. Assassination was thus not merely

murder, but also sacrilege.

5. Most people believed in fate, and ideas such as predestination were

prevalent. Thus people only had limited control over their own destinies, and

had to accept the hardships of life as forces beyond their control. Fate or

fortune was often represented as a wheel, the turning of which determined

the course of life. Superstition was everywhere, and the devil and black

magic were real, and strange happenings could always be signs of bad things

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to come. A popular notion was that when the heavens raged in storms,

something must be wrong on Earth see Act I Scenes 2 and 3 in the play.

6. It was a time of great political change across England, which transformed

from a semi-medieval society to a more cosmopolitan one in the 16th century.

The old order, bound by ancestry and tradition, came under threat from anew and growing middle class and a new kind of politician, the subject of

Machiavellis book The Prince. The new politician is not bound by blood-ties

or obligation to tradition, although he might appear to be anything if it

proves useful for achieving or holding on to power. The Machiavellian

personality is willing to use deceit, manipulation, even cruelty and murder

provided the outcome is beneficial. A good example is Claudius in Hamlet,

who kills his older brother to become king of Denmark, and uses all sorts of

deviousness he ignores tradition, kinship and obedience to Gods laws in

order to hold on to power. In Julius Caesar, Caesar himself, Cassius and

Antony all have some Machiavellian characteristics.

7. Revenge tragedies were the most popular of the time for example, Thomas

Kyds A Spanish Tragedy. Many of Shakespeares plays involve some kind of

revenge plot, including Julius Caesar. Just like in Hamlet the ghost of the

murdered king returns to haunt the living world, an embodiment of

wrongness that must be balanced. And Mark Antony in Julius Caesar is the

willing hero of revenge tragedy, complete with a bloody and horrifying

vocabulary see his soliloquy at the end of Act 3 Scene 1.

8. Shakespeare combined all these elements fear of disorder, the appeal of

the supernatural, revenge plots, the changing world order and types of

political leadership, temptation, characters torn apart by conflicting forces,

belief in fate into a drama that therefore seems just as relevant to

audiences today. After all , many of us fear chaos, believe in destiny or a

higher power governing our lives, are torn inside, have moral choices, live in a

changing world ruled by two-faced politicians, are thrilled by ghost stories

and the supernatural.

M.Turver 2006