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{{work|wppage=Julius Caesar (play)}}
[[File:Death_of_Caesar_9167.jpg|
▲{{quote| ''"[[Famous Last Words|Et tu, Brute? Then fall, Caesar.]]"''}}
One of [[William Shakespeare]]'s tragedies, the play is his take on the assassination of Julius Caesar in [[Ancient Rome]] and its bloody aftermath.
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[[Alternate Character Interpretation|Alternately]], the protagonist is Marcus Brutus, a self-centered patrician whom Cassius flatters into betraying his former patron Caesar. Take your pick.
In either case, Brutus is intended to be the most sympathetic character in a cast of villains. The title character? An [[Ambition Is Evil|Ambitious]] [[Decoy Protagonist]]. His other closest friend, Mark Antony? Uses his oratory skills to help woo the crowds to handing Caesar power, and when it comes to [[Avenging the Villain]] he really gets nasty, all while acting the part of the [[Faux Affably Evil]] [[Villain
Following the assassination, Rome is plunged into civil war, and a number of characters from the first several acts of the play die during the conflict, mostly through suicide.
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For the man himself, see [[Gaius Julius Caesar]].
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{{tropenamer|page=Julius Caesar}}
* [[Et Tu, Brute?]]
{{tropelist|page=Julius Caesar}}
* [[Adaptation Distillation]]: The plot was taken wholesale from Plutarch's biography of Caesar. Shakespeare wrote some extremely good dialogue for it.
* [[Ambition Is Evil]]
{{quote|
* [[Anachronism Stew]]: The characters refer to many things that didn't exist in Ancient Rome, but did exist in Elizabethan England.
* [[Anti-Villain]]: Brutus -- consider how honorable and idealistic Brutus is in the play; then remember, the widespread idea used in Dante's ''Inferno'' which considered him the worst traitor in history along with Cassius and Judas.
* [[Antagonist in Mourning]]: After Brutus dies, Antony calls him "the noblest Roman of them all" and says that the others conspired against Caesar out of jealousy, but Brutus did it because he thought it was the right thing. He and Octavian agree to give him [[Due to
* [[Arbitrary Skepticism]]: Caesar accepts superstition regarding the Lupercalia festival as fact, and then refuses to believe a soothsayer warning him to beware the Ides of March.
* [[Arc Words]]: "Beware the Ides of March..."
* [[Astroturf]]: Cassius pulls this on Brutus:
{{quote|
In several hands, in at his windows throw,
As if they came from several citizens,
Writings all tending to the great opinion
That Rome holds of his name; wherein obscurely
Caesar's ambition shall be glanced at }}
* [[Based on a True Story]]: Shakespeare got all his information from Plutarch and didn't deviate much from the facts, making this possibly the most accurate of his histories.
* [[Better to Die Than Be Killed]]: Hence the suicides.
** [[Truth in Television]]: This was fairly common among patrician Romans.
* [[A Birthday, Not a Break]]: Cassius before the battle of Phillipi.
* [[Blood
* [[Cassandra Truth]]: The soothsayer's warning.
** Lampshaded by Caesar as he meets the soothsayer on the Ides of March. The soothsayer [[Foreshadowing|reminds him the day isn't over yet]].
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* [[Democracy Is Bad]]: The citizens are continually shown as highly fickle.
* [[Disproportionate Retribution]]: When the angry mob surrounds Cinna the poet, this exchange occurs:
{{quote|
'''First citizen:''' Tear him to pieces, he's a conspirator!
'''Cinna:''' I am Cinna the poet, I am Cinna the poet!
'''First citizen:''' Tear him for his bad verses, tear him for his bad verses! }}
* [[Downer Ending]]: It's [[Shakespeare]]. [[Captain Obvious|It's a tragedy.]] ''Duh''.
* [[Dramatic Irony]]: It's very ironic to see Antony as a [[Magnificent Bastard]] in the play as well as the seeds of his disagreement with Octavian, as both in history and in Shakespeare's own ''Antony and Cleopatra'', Octavian proved to be the greater [[Magnificent Bastard]] of the two.
* [[Driven to Suicide]]: Several characters after everything [[It Got Worse|gets worse]] following the assassination.
* [[Due to
* [[Dumb Is Good]]: Brutus is portrayed as far-and-away the best-intentioned of the conspirators, but every time he overrules Cassius it's for something [[Honor Before Reason|mind-bogglingly stupid]].
* [[Empathic Environment]]: Crazy things happen in Rome during this time of turmoil.
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* [[Famous Last Words]]: ''See'' [[Et Tu, Brute?]]'', above.''
* [[Green-Eyed Monster]]: Though the trope name comes from elsewhere in Shakespeare, it's in full force in this play. Every conspirator except (maybe) Brutus is motivated by this.
* [[Guilt
* [[Honor Before Reason]]: Brutus' downfall comes from this, especially in regards to Antony
* [[I Cannot Self-Terminate]]: Brutus' philosophy will not let him directly kill himself, so he gets someone to help. Cassius likewise.
** Although, Brutus's suicide is more honorable (in their society's norms) than Cassius's because Brutus has his servant hold his sword while he runs himself on it, while Cassius makes his servant kill him while he looks away.
* [[Large Ham]]: Even from just reading the play, it seems like Caesar is intended to be played as one:
{{quote|
That Caesar is more dangerous than he:
We are two lions littered in one day,
And I the elder and more terrible. }}
* [[Leaning
{{quote|
* [[Manipulative Bastard]]: Depending on portrayal, Cassius can easily be this. It is left ambiguous whether Cassius is merely jealous of Caesar's new found power even though both Brutus and himself are just as honourable, and has contracted the world's most traitorous form of tall poppy syndrome:
{{quote|
Like a Colossus, and we petty men
Walk under his huge legs and peep about
To find ourselves dishonorable graves.
Men at some time are masters of their fates.
The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars
But in ourselves, that we are underlings.
Brutus and Caesar—what should be in that “Caesar”?
Why should that name be sounded more than yours?
Write them together, yours is as fair a name.
Sound them, it doth become the mouth as well.
Weigh them, it is as heavy. }}
** Or whether he genuinely fears that Caesar will be crowned king and therefore be a threat to the very anti-monarchy Roman ideology:
{{quote|
Rome, thou hast lost the breed of noble bloods!
When went there by an age, since the great flood,
But it was famed with more than with one man?
When could they say till now, that talked of Rome,
That her wide walks encompassed but one man?
Now is it Rome indeed, and room enough,
When there is in it but one only man.
Oh, you and I have heard our fathers say,
There was a Brutus once that would have brooked
Th' eternal devil to keep his state in Rome
As easily as a king. }}
* [[Murder
* [[Nice Job Breaking It, Hero]]/ [[Nice Job Fixing It, Villain]]: Brutus decides to let Mark Antony speak on condition he doesn't say anything bad about the conspirators. Antony goes on to prove what a [[Manipulative Bastard]] he truly is and gets the people of Rome to riot against them. Good going.
* [[Not So Harmless]]: Brutus dismisses Antony as Caesar's harmless little yes-man, which turns out to be one of the biggest mistakes of the play.
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* [[One Steve Limit|One Cinna Limit]]: Averted, unfortunately for Cinna the poet, who is mistaken for Cinna the conspirator and killed by an angry mob.
* [[Out, Damned Spot!]]: Inverted, interestingly, when Brutus suggests:
{{quote|
''And let us bathe our hands in ''Caesar's'' blood''
''Up to the elbows, and besmear our swords:''
''Then walk we forth, even to the market-place,''
''And waving our red weapons o'er our heads,''
''Let's all cry Peace, Freedom, and Liberty.'' }}
* [[Poor Communication Kills]]: Lots of people.
** Dammit, Titinius!
* [[Portent of Doom]]: Calpurnia urges Caesar not to go to the Senate because of the various omens she's either witnessed or heard about from reliable sources. Caesar poo-poos it and goes anyway.
* [[Powder Keg Crowd]]: They start out angry at the assassination. Within 5 minutes they're cheering Brutus. [[Unaccustomed
* [[Pride]]: Caesar is so assured of his invincibility that he ignores numerous unambiguous warnings of death and destruction and walks straight into the conspirators' trap.
* [[Prophecies Are Always Right]]
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* [[Sock Puppet]]: Cassius gets Brutus to join him by forging a bunch of petitions in various writing styles, all criticizing Caesar and praising Brutus.
* [[Stealth Insult]]: Marc Antony's funeral speech is full of these.
* [[Tag
* [[Tears of Blood]]: From a statue of Caesar in his wife's dream.
* [[Third Person Person]]: Caesar often refers to himself in third person.
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* [[Tragic Hero]]: Brutus
* [[Trouble Entendre]]: Caesar orders that the two tribunes who criticize him at the beginning of the play be "put to silence". While the actual people were banished, Shakespeare's phrase definitely suggests murder.
* [[Unaccustomed
** Cassius does this more subtly to Brutus in Act I, Scene II, when he expresses pleasure that his "weak words have struck but thus much show of fire from Brutus".
* [[Vigilante Execution]]
* [[With Friends Like These...]]: Brutus and Cassius are supposedly best friends, but in a lot of scenes, it's hard to see this.
** Almost, but not quite, [[Vitriolic Best Buds]]. Cassius sure does get ''snippy'' once in awhile. And he used less than honest means of winning Brutus to the conspiracy (see [[Astroturf]], above).
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[[Category:Ancient Rome]]
[[Category:Theatrical Productions]]
[[Category:School Study Media]]
[[Category:Julius Caesar]]
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[[Category:Theatre of the 16th century]]
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