Shakespeare's Julius Caesar - Leadership and Change
Julius Caesar
Key characters
Julius Caesar, Roman general and leader.
Calpurnia, Julius Caesar’s wife.
Brutus and Cassius, leading conspirators against Julius Caesar.
Portia, Brutus’s wife.
Mark Antony, Octavius and Lepidus, leaders of the Roman
Empire after Julius Caesar’s death.
Fun facts
The play has inspired many films including the 1953 Oscar winner, Julius Caesar, starring Marlon
Brando as Mark Antony (pictured right).
The story
Julius Caesar (or Caesar), military hero and victor over
Pompey in the civil war, wants to be a dictatorial Roman king, only refusing a crown because he
felt the time wasn’t right.
So Cassius, a leading politician, persuades another powerful
figure, Brutus, to lead an assassination plot against Caesar.
Brutus is troubled by his involvement (vetoing the murder of Mark Antony), and his wife,
Portia, notices his unease.
Meanwhile Caesar becomes nervous when the soothsayer tells him to “beware the Ides of
March” (the middle of the month and also the next day).
His anxiety increases on that fateful day when his wife, Calpurnia, begs him not to leave
home after she dreams about his murder.
But he is persuaded to go to the Senate (the Roman Parliament) by Decius, where he and the
other conspirators (led by Cassius and Brutus) stab him to death.
At his funeral, the popular Brutus speaks well in justifying the murder. But Mark Antony’s great
speech convinces the people of treason by the conspirators who then flee.
Mark Antony, Octavius and Lepidus take over power.
Brutus and Cassius gather an army, but they quarrel, when Brutus accuses Cassius of accepting bribes.
They also disagree about what they should do, just after Brutus hears that his wife, Portia, has killed
herself. He is then disturbed by Caesar’s ghost who tells him they will meet at
Philippi, where Brutus and Cassius are planning to fight Mark Antony and Octavius.
Brutus attacks Octavius’s troops, but Cassius commits suicide, thinking his troops are
surrounded.
After his defeat, Brutus kills himself, too, but the victorious Mark Antony and Octavius agree
to bury him with honour.
Lessons of leadership
1. Make change happen
If you want something to happen, don’t passively accept your fate but positively do something about it.
“The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars, but in ourselves, that we are underlings”, says
Cassius, begging Brutus to help him end Caesar’s tyranny.
2. The power of deception
Caesar fakes a collapse in front of the crowd to win their support and succeeds
brilliantly.
3. Work on your weaknesses and adapt to your situation
In peacetime Caesar’s biggest weaknesses are:
- insensitivity to people’s needs.
Brutus says about him: “The abuse of greatness is when it disjoins remorse from power”.
But Caesar's ruthless decisiveness is a huge asset in battle.
4. Don’t rush into a decision
Brutus would have been wiser to give further thought to the murder, carefully considering
its advantages, disadvantages and likely consequences.
He should have listened to his wife, Portia.
5. Morality and idealism must be practical
Brutus was a man of great honour and integrity, described by Mark Antony as “the noblest Roman of them
all”.
Brutus believed that the murder was a virtuous act that freed Rome of Caesar’s tyranny. But he failed to
appreciate the practical results of his ideals (“peace, freedom and
liberty”).
When vetoing Mark Antony’s murder, he says the conspirators didn’t want to be “butchers”. But
after the murder this is how Mark Antony quite rightly describes them.
It is Mark Antony, practical but unprincipled, whose great speech wins over the people (see
point 6), not Brutus’s misguided idealism.
6. Communication
Mark Antony wins the crowd over with a great speech that famously begins:
“Friends, Romans, countrymen, lend me your ears”.
He dooms the conspirators by:
- sarcastically calling them “honourable”.
- cleverly understating his support for Julius Caesar (“I come to bury Caesar, not to praise
him”).
He speaks effectively with
- great emotion (saying “My heart is in the coffin there with Caesar”).
- a moderate tone (calling the murder “the unkindest cut of all”).
7. Beware of self-delusion
Cassius (like Brutus) kids himself that:
- Caesar’s murder will always be “lofty”
- his murderers will be “the men that gave their country liberty”.
Brutus's constant self-examination of his ideals and morals (particularly honour and
freedom) mistakenly leads him to murder instead of helping others.
“Poor Brutus with himself at war, forgets the show of love to other men”, he says about
himself.
8. Seize your opportunities
Brutus tells Cassius that they must seize their opportunity to attack Antony and Octavius at Philippi, because
their army is increasing daily.
“There is a tide in the affairs of men which, taken at the flood, leads on to fortune”, Brutus
says.
9. Watch your back
Caesar is right to fear the instigator of his murder, Cassius.
He thinks Cassius is dangerous (despite Antony disagreeing), because he:
- has “a lean and hungry look”.
- totally focuses on his ambition without any desire for leisure.
But Caesar couldn’t foresee the treachery of his dear friend, Brutus, prompting his dying words:
“Et tu, Brute? [And you, Brutus?]”
Pictured right above is Camuccini's 1798 painting of Caesar's death.
10. The importance of courage
Caesar defiantly tells Calpurnia (who is begging him not to leave the house on the day of the murder):
“Cowards die many times before their deaths; the valiant never taste of death but once”.
He doesn’t fear death which
“will come when it will come”.
Key quotes on ethics
Cowards die many times before their deaths; the valiant never taste of death but
once, Caesar.
Not that I loved Caesar less, but that I loved Rome more, Brutus (justifying the
murder).
Key quote on decision making
Good reasons must of force give place to better, Brutus.
Key quotes on death
It seems to me most strange that men should fear; seeing that death, a necessary end, will come when it will
come, Caesar.
Et tu, Brute?, Caesar’s dying words.
Key quote on success and happiness
The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars, but in ourselves, that we are underlings,
Cassius.
There is a tide in the affairs of men which, taken at the flood, leads on to fortune,
Brutus
Key quote on love
Poor Brutus with himself at war, forgets the show of
love to other men, Brutus talking about himself.
Key quote on public speaking
Friends, Romans, countrymen, lend me your ears; I come to bury Caesar, not to praise him, Mark
Antony.
Key quotes on leadership and management
The abuse of greatness is when it disjoins remorse from power, Brutus (talking about
Caesar).
He thinks too much: such men are dangerous, Caesar (about Cassius).
Key quote on education
But, for my own part, it was Greek to me, Casca (one of the conspirators against
Caesar).
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