Julius Caesar entry 1)
The play Julius Caesar,
written by William Shakespeare, begins with two tribunes named Flavius and
Murellus are walking through the city and happen to see many citizens wandering
around and not working. They soon discover that the reason the people are
wandering around rather than working is because they all wish to see Julius
Caesar’s parade through the streets after his latest victory over the sons of
the deceased Roman general Pompey, who is a rival of Caesar’s. Upon hearing
this from one citizen Murellus becomes angered by the citizens not wanting to
return to work. Next the two men begin to down-play Caesar’s victory by making
it sound like it really isn’t anything that special. “What conquest brings he
home? What tributaries follow him to Rome? To grace in captive bonds his
chariot wheels?” (scene 1 act 1 lines 31-33). My first question is why do you
think that Flavius and Murellus are trying to make it sound like Caesar’s
victory really isn’t that great? Why would they not agree with the cobbler and
want to join in the celebration? Also why do you think that Flavius and
Murellus are so angry with everyone wanting to see Julius Caesar? Next Flavius
instructs Murellus to go to a temple and remove any crowns that people have
placed on statues of Ceasar saying, “these growing feathers plucked from Caesar’s
wing will make him fly an ordinary pitch” (1.1.71-72). So are they basically saying
that they should show the people that Caesar is not someone special or someone
that should be looked up to? Why are they so against Caesar and his
accomplishments? They may not like the guy, but it sounds like the people do
and it sounds like he has done pretty well for Rome. Do you think that the
people like Caesar so much because they only see the great things he has done
and do not really know the kind of person that he is and it is only the people
close to Caesar or higher up in status that know who he is? Or do you think
that Flavius and Murellus are just very jealous of the attention that Caesar is
getting from these people?
