William Shakespeare loved to include elements of the
supernatural in his plays. First of all, the audience sincerely believed in witches,
ghosts, demons, etc. Interestingly, it was Shakespeare that introduced fairies as
playful mischievous creatures; before, they had been presented as malevolent beings,
much like witches and demons. Elizabethan audiences believed that demons and witches
worked for the devil in order to trick souls to their everlasting damnation. They also
believed that ghosts could not make a human being do something, but
since ghosts could not do anything themselves, they would try to
get a human to do their work. This might even mean uncovering hidden
treasure.
When Elizabeth I died, Shakespeare continued to
include the supernatural, this time because Elizabeth I's heir to the throne, her
cousin's son James, was fanatical about the supernatural, even writing a book called
Demonology. (James I also persecuted alleged
witches.)
It is, therefore, not a surprise that
Shakespeare's Julius Caesar has elements of the supernatural, as
did Hamlet and Macbeth, to name a
few.
Brutus, one of the conspirators who murders Caesar,
sees a ghost. (It is from here that the old saying, "Great Caesar's ghost" probably
comes.) Brutus sees the ghost twice, once at his tent and once on the battlefield. The
appearance of the ghost is very disturbing to Brutus.
readability="8">Late that night, Brutus is visited by Caesar's
ghost, who states that he will see Brutus at
Philippi.A soothsayer
(fortune teller, prophet, oracle) warns Caesar twice to beware of
"the ides of March" (March 15, probably the day of the full moon, another omen). Caesar
doesn't listen to the soothsayer, ignores the advice, and is ultimately
assassinated.A third example comes in the form of
Calpurnia's dream in which a statue of Caesar is spouting gouts of blood (foreshadowing
of Caesar's assassination).readability="10">When Decius Brutus, one of the conspirators,
comes to escort Caesar to the senate house, Caesar says he will not go, confiding that
Calphurnia dreamed she saw Caesar's statue spouting
blood.Decius Brutus allays
Caesar's concerns, insisting the dream is a sign of good luck. At first Caesar is
concerned about the dream, but then he is ashamed that he almost gave in to Calphurnia's
fears, and he decides to go out, against his wife's
advice.The presence of the supernatural in Shakespeare's
plays is not at all unusual. An article I once read stated that it may be because of
Shakespeare that Tinkerbell is such a sweet fairy; before Shakespeare's time, only dark
things came from the world of the
supernatural.Additional
Sources:http://www.writing.com/main/view_item/item_id/897221-Supernatural-Shakespeare
http://www.doctormacro.com/Movie%20Summaries/J/
Julius%20Caesar%20(1953).htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ides_of_March
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