Shakespeare explores the theme of greed in the play Julius Caesar by depicting the motives of certain senators, military leaders, and politicians as they struggle to retain or gain power in Rome. It is also important to view the theme of greed as the selfish desire for power, which is closely associated with ambition, instead of the traditional perception regarding the desire to attain wealth or money.
Cassius and the majority of the conspirators, except Brutus, are portrayed as greedy individuals, whose purpose for assassinating Caesar is to retain their authority while simultaneously advancing their status in Rome's political arena. Cassius understands that Brutus's participation is necessary to gain the favor of the masses. He successfully manipulates Brutus into joining the conspirators by presenting moving arguments regarding Caesar's ambition and placing fake letters from presumably concerned citizens in Brutus's home. Following Caesar's assassination, Cassius's greed is revealed as he begins selling political offices and advancing his rank among senators. Once Brutus discovers that Cassius is bribing Roman politicians, he gets into a heated argument with Cassius that almost leads to a physical confrontation.
Julius Caesar is the most influential, popular politician in the play, whom the senators believe is ambitious and greedy enough to become emperor of Rome. Despite the fact that Julius Caesar never explicitly comments on his goal to become emperor and senators like Brutus struggle to find evidence that he is ambitious, Caesar is assassinated because the senators believe that he is greedy enough to disband the Senate, which would put an end to the Roman Republic. Octavius is also portrayed as a greedy, ambitious man, who wishes to rule Rome as an emperor. Following Caesar's death, Octavius joins forces with Mark Antony and Lepidus and takes over Rome by force. Octavius's goal of becoming Rome's emperor reveals his greed for authority and hunger for power. Overall, the theme of greed is explored through the motives of politicians and military leaders vying for power and authority in Rome's political arena.
Tuesday, April 15, 2014
Why is the Major Theme of Julius Caesar Greed?
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Why is the fact that the Americans are helping the Russians important?
In the late author Tom Clancy’s first novel, The Hunt for Red October, the assistance rendered to the Russians by the United States is impor...
-
There are a plethora of rules that Jonas and the other citizens must follow. Again, page numbers will vary given the edition of the book tha...
-
The poem contrasts the nighttime, imaginative world of a child with his daytime, prosaic world. In the first stanza, the child, on going to ...
-
The given two points of the exponential function are (2,24) and (3,144). To determine the exponential function y=ab^x plug-in the given x an...
-
The only example of simile in "The Lottery"—and a particularly weak one at that—is when Mrs. Hutchinson taps Mrs. Delacroix on the...
-
Hello! This expression is already a sum of two numbers, sin(32) and sin(54). Probably you want or express it as a product, or as an expressi...
-
Macbeth is reflecting on the Weird Sisters' prophecy and its astonishing accuracy. The witches were totally correct in predicting that M...
-
The play Duchess of Malfi is named after the character and real life historical tragic figure of Duchess of Malfi who was the regent of the ...
No comments:
Post a Comment