Monday, May 13, 2013

Julius Caesar Conflicting Perspective Essay; How would I conflict the following?I want to do one paragraph on Mark Antony's Funeral Oration and one...

William Shakespeare's play Julius
Caesar
is replete with conflicting perspectives.  While this motif does not
always include the plebians, one salient example of this duality and contradiction
occurs in Act V, Scene 1 as Cassius goes against his words to Brutus in Act I, Scene 2
when he solicits him as a conspirator in the assassination of Caesar. For, when Brutus
seems reluctant to join in the conspiracy because the "eye sees not itself," Cassius
urges him to create his own destiny,


readability="10">

Men at some time are masters of their fates:

The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars,
But in ourselves,
that we are underlings.
(2.1.145-146)



Yet, later in
the play, it is Cassius who becomes superstitious, finding omens in certain occurrences
in Act V. Anxious about the forthcoming battle with the Philippi, Cassius tells Messala
that he has seen omens:


readability="19">

Two mighty eagles fell, and there they perch'd,

Gorging and feeding from our soldiers' hands,
Who to Philippi here
consorted us.
This morning are they fled away and
gone,


And in their steads do ravens, crows, and kites

Fly o'er our heads and downward look on us,
As we were sickly
prey. Their shadows seem
A canopy most fatal, under which
Our army
lies, ready to give up the
ghost.(5.1.87-95)



Another
example of duality of perspective occurs with Marc Antony, who is Act III portrays the
loving Roman who is loyal to the Caesars and mocks Brutus for his dishonor. Yet, after
he has been in the triumvirate with Octavius Caesar and M. Aemilius Lepidus after the
death of Caesar, Antony displays shamelessly a disloyalty to the Roman people and to
Lepidus in Act IV when he sends Lepidus on an errand to fetch the will of Caesar so that
Antony can lessen some of the legacies promised to the plebians.  After Lepidus departs,
Antony feels no guilt about his treacher as he tells
Octavius,



This
is a slight unmeritable man,
Meet to be sent on errands. Is it fit,

The three-fold world divided, he should stand
One of the three to
share it  (4.1.13-16)



Later,
then, Antony contradicts himself as he accuses Brutus and Cassius of the same expediency
of which he himself is guilty in ridding himself of
Lepidus:


readability="12">

Villains! You did not so when your vile daggers

Hack'd one another in the sides of Caesar.
You show'd your teeth
like apes, and fawn'd like hounds,
And bow'd like bondmen, kissing Caesar's
feet;
Whilst damned Casca, like a cur, behind
Struck Caesar on the
neck. O you flatterers!
(5.1.42-47)




No comments:

Post a Comment

What accomplishments did Bill Clinton have as president?

Of course, Bill Clinton's presidency will be most clearly remembered for the fact that he was only the second president ever...