Argumentative/Research Essay on Julius Caesar
Prompt:
Who has the greatest power/influence in the play overall (just because a character is dead or has a specific status does not mean they have lost all power or influence)? Who has the most clout in the game? How may this influence be demonstrated? Explain, using facts, who has the most influence on other characters and their behavior.
Overview
According to the number of books written on the subject, rhetoric – the skillful use of language to convince or persuade – was major business in Elizabethan England. And, while we know very little about Shakespeare’s life, it’s likely that he attended the King Edward VI School in Stratford-upon-Avon until his early teens, where he studied rhetoric as part of the normal curriculum.
Shakespeare was entrenched in rhetoric throughout his plays, not merely through the linguistic ‘tricks’ and procedures he utilizes to write his characters’ monologues, but also through the comments the characters make about the art of communication. In Julius Caesar, however, language takes center stage: a political intrigue set in ancient Rome, Julius Caesar is – on one level – a play about rhetoric itself.
Power via rhetoric
Skills in public discourse conferred rank and authority on people who held public office in Julius Caesar’s Rome. This is obvious in the opening scene, when the tribune Murellus chastises the commoners for celebrating Caesar’s victory against Pompey’s sons, a former leader of Rome. He bombards them with accusing questions, disgusted by their erratic behavior:
O you hard-hearted, wicked Romans,
Didn’t you know Pompey
Do you now put on your nicest clothes?
And do you currently plan a vacation?
Do you now strew flowers on his path?
That triumphs over Pompey’s blood?
(1.1.36-37; 48-51)
