Motifs
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Blood
1. In the first act, Marullus scolds the common people for their celebration of Caesar's triumph over Pompey's sons "and do you now strew flowers in his road that comes in triumph over Pompey's blood."
2. Blood represents Brutus' dignity, nobility, and loyalty "every drop of blood that every Roman bears, and nobly bears.'' To clarify, Brutus is expressing how the conspirators do not need to swear an oath to be joined together; they are joined by Roman
blood already.
blood already.
3. He wishes he could kill Caesar’s spirit, without literally killing his body “We all stand up against the spirit of Caesar, and in the spirit of men there is no blood."
4. Blood is mentioned again in the conversation between Cassius and Brutus when Cassius was arguing with him about the decision of killing Antony after Caesar. Brutus responds on Cassius's arguments by saying "our course will seem too bloody Cassius." It is obvious that Brutus does not kill Caesar for a personal benefit, but he does that for the sake of Rome.
5. Furthermore, the blood in Calpurnia's dream is a foreshadowing of Caesar's murder. Caesar tells Decius about Calpurnia's dream when Decius asks him to go to the Senate. Caesar tells him that Calpurnia has seen his statues spouting blood from different gashes and the romans are washing their hands in the blood. The blood foreshadows the death of Caesar.
6. Antony also shakes the hands of Caesar's murderers which are blood-stained ''Shaking the bloody fingers of thy foes.'' The image of the blood soaked hands is stressed more than one time ''Let each man render me his bloody hand''. It is worthy to mention that
Antony refers to Caesar's blood as "crimson."
Antony refers to Caesar's blood as "crimson."
7. Antony predicts that will be a civil war in Italy which will result in blood-shed "Blood and destruction shall be so in use."
Sleep and Dream
1. Brutus states in his soliloquy that his sleep is disturbed since the time, when Cassius began to urge me to oppose Caesar. ''Since Cassius first did
whet me against Caesar I have not slept."
whet me against Caesar I have not slept."
2. He, also, compares the period between the doing of an evil act and the first discussion of it to a nightmare ''Between the acting of a dreadful thing, and the first motion, all the interim is like a phantasma, or a hideous dream."
3. One of the most powerful prophetic dreams in Julius Caesar is the dream of Calpurnia, Caesar’s wife. She cries in her sleep three times ''Help, ho! they murder Caesar!" She tells Caesar about her dream of his statue with blood pouring out from all sides ''She dreamt to-night she saw my statue, Which, like a fountain with an hundred spouts."
At first, he accepts the dream’s warning and plans on protecting himself at home rather than going out. Later on, Decius has been sent by the conspirators for the exact reason of luring Caesar out of his palace and escorting him to the Senate. Calpurnia dream poses a direct obstacle to their plan, so Decius must quickly devise an alternative reading (interpretation) of the dream. He interpreted the dream as Rome will gain new strength from Caesar.
4. The idea of Sleep is raised again when Brutus talks to Lucius.
I will not hold thee long: if I do live,
I will be good to thee."
Nature
The employment of Nature is significant in literary works generally, and in Shakespearean's plays particularly. To clarify, Shakespeare utilizes Nature in most of his tragedies to foreshadow something usually evil and bad will happen, and to create some sort of suspense and this is applied on Julius
Caesar.
In Act 3, Scene 3
Cassius: "Have bared my bosom to the thunder-stone;
And when the cross blue lightning seemed to open"
Casca: "But wherefore did you so much tempt the heavens?
It is the part of men to fear and tremble
When the most mighty gods by tokens send
Such dreadful heralds to astonish us."
It is the part of men to fear and tremble
When the most mighty gods by tokens send
Such dreadful heralds to astonish us."
Cassius: "Their natures, and preformèd faculties,
To monstrous quality—why, you shall find
To monstrous quality—why, you shall find
That heaven hath infused them with these spirits
To make them instruments of fear and warning
Unto some monstrous state.
Now could I, Casca, name to thee a man
Most like this dreadful night,
That thunders, lightens, opens graves, and roars"
To make them instruments of fear and warning
Unto some monstrous state.
Now could I, Casca, name to thee a man
Most like this dreadful night,
That thunders, lightens, opens graves, and roars"
Comment:
Thunder and lightning (the awful weather) foreshadow something bad will happen. Casca believes that there are two main reasons for such terrible weather; one is that there is a civil war in heaven; the other is that gods are angry with people for neglecting them. Moreover, he supposes that these strange happening are omens; warning people that some great evil acts are going to fall upon this land.
Foreshadowing Technique:
The idea of war is raised since the beginning of the play, and it will be a civil war in Rome, later on.
Moreover, Cassius interprets the terrible storm in a different way. He states that gods may send such ominous events to warn men that something is wrong with their lives. Cassius also implicitly compares Caesar to such a dreadful night. To illustrate, he tells Casca that he is stupid, for he does not infer that these strange signs indicate the growth of Caesar's power. In other words, Caesar is similar to a nature which is angry and monstrous.
Another example of storm, thunder is the scene of Calpurnia dream (already explained in the part of dreams)
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