After watching the clips of Brutus and Antony’s speeches in
class last week, it is not a bold notion to claim that the people of ancient
Rome were kind of gullible or just simply stupid. After their beloved leader, Caesar
was brutally slain by Brutus and his wolf pack of goons, the Roman citizens
were understandably angry and confused. Collecting in what appeared to be a
town square, they impatiently awaited an explanation for the death of their
valiant leader. First, Brutus addresses the crowd and attempts to justify the murder.
One would think Brutus would have his work cut out for him; however, the Romans
are easily persuaded that their “noble” leader had a justified death. Brutus
justifies the murder by expressing that Caesar was too ambitious and began
abusing his power. This endorses Shakespeare’s classic trope of the tyrant.
Further, Brutus exclaims that although he loved Caesar, he loves Rome more. In
my opinion, this appears to be the line that saves Brutus. This speech wins
over the Romans and surely saved Brutus from changing his underwear. The Roman’s
endorsement of Brutus fades quickly when Antony dramatically carries Caesar’s
dead body out to center stage for all the Romans to feast their eyes on. This
cues Antony’s speech delivered with 100% sass. Antony quickly sways the public
opinion of Brutus and Caesar’s death by restating sentiment that Brutus is
honorable and Caesar was ambitious.
I pose that the ancient Romans in
Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar were
baseless and borderline incompetent as evidenced by their tendency to be
persuaded easily by anyone with a platform. In all honesty, it seems like
Caesar, Brutus, Antony, Cassius, and anyone else with their prestige were all
moderately manipulative and power-hungry. Thus, the baseless, incompetent, and
subservient ancient Romans are the ideal group to be subordinate to Rome’s
oligarchy. It seems Shakespeare didn’t think very highly of the ancient Romans
given his recurrent portrayal of them in this manner. This is mainly just my
platform to vent and complain given my distaste for Shakespeare at this point in
the semester so please forgive me if you have a particular attachment to this
play.
The crowd definitely was easily swayed to one side or the other. Maybe this is the nature of a play format? The townspeople in plays and musicals always do seem gullible. Something about being in a crowd does seem to rally people up and become in agreement with each other and the speaker. Just look at crowds at campaign speeches today.
ReplyDeleteI agree, the crowd was swayed extremely easily and it's not a far cry to claim that they're stupid. It also shows that Brutus and Antony knew this, as they were so quick to use the crowd to their advantage. Your comment about Shakespeare's opinions on Romans is really interesting to me--I'd never thought about that before, but it does seem to bring up a good point.
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ReplyDeleteI agree with the fact that the Roman citizens seem borderline brainwashed. They live in a world of uncertainty, which would make it difficult to be decisive or have an individual opinion. It is much easier to go along with the masses. In Antony's case, he knows exactly what to say and how to say it in order to win over the crowd. The people of Rome just wanted a leader who was powerful, had money, and knew how to fight. I'd say their standards weren't that high.
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