{"id":9406,"date":"2017-06-19T02:22:48","date_gmt":"2017-06-19T02:22:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/?p=9406"},"modified":"2017-06-22T02:28:48","modified_gmt":"2017-06-22T02:28:48","slug":"julius-caesar-in-our-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/julius-caesar-in-our-times\/","title":{"rendered":"Julius Caesar in our times"},"content":{"rendered":"

Jyotsna G. Singh<\/a>, Michigan State University<\/a><\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cAll the world\u2019s a stage,\u201d Shakespeare once wrote<\/a>.<\/p>\n

In recent weeks, that Shakespearean adage has been particularly resonant, with the New York Public Theater\u2019s production of \u201cJulius Caesar\u201d attracting worldwide scrutiny because of the staged likeness between Caesar and President Trump. <\/p>\n

Extolling the play as a masterpiece about power and political violence, director Oskar Eustis persuasively defended his interpretation<\/a> as a warning about \u201cwhat happens when you try to preserve democracy by nondemocratic means.\u201d <\/p>\n

Others, however, questioned whether this production was in good taste \u2013 and denounced it for encouraging violence<\/a> against President Trump, particularly the scene in which Caesar is stabbed to death. Due to the backlash, Delta Airlines and Bank of America withdrew their corporate sponsorship<\/a>. <\/p>\n

In some ways, the contention \u2013 even rancor \u2013 of these debates about the Public Theater production would have delighted, and perhaps bemused, Shakespeare. They articulate the richness and urgency of our own democratic struggles \u2013 similar to the rich political complexity reflected in Shakespeare\u2019s text itself.<\/p>\n

Caesar in Shakespeare\u2019s times<\/h2>\n

As Shakespeare wrote the play, he drew on Roman history, a popular topic in 16th-century England. But he was also commenting on the political conflicts of the era. The power struggles depicted in \u201cJulius Caesar\u201d mirrored ongoing concerns in England with legitimacy, tyranny and potential threats of rebellion and deposition against Queen Elizabeth I, who did not have an heir<\/a>. These anxieties were also exacerbated by historical memories of the English Civil War, also called the War of the Roses<\/a>, going far back as the deposition and death of Richard II. <\/p>\n

Shakespeare\u2019s Rome is a place of brutal struggles between democratic ideals and human ambition. The assassination of Caesar is one of the most important events in Roman history, and Shakespeare had inherited over 1,600 years of ambiguity, with little consensus over whether Caesar\u2019s killing was justified. He incorporated these debates into his play, offering his viewers multiple perspectives on the characters. Caesar is either a heroic, benevolent ruler or tyrant; Brutus is either a patriot or assassin. <\/p>\n

Shakespeare\u2019s Caesar is clearly a leader and politician with power \u2013 including some vanity and propensity to flattery \u2013 but also with wide popular appeal. When he returns triumphant from wars, the conspirators fear he will become a tyrant, a \u201cColossus\u201d whereby the \u201cwide walls\u201d of Republican Rome \u201cencompass\u2019d but one man.\u201d<\/p>\n

Yet he seems to love and trust his fellow Romans, warmly inviting Brutus and other conspirators to share wine. And we also learn he bequeaths to his people, on his death, his personal possessions: To every Roman citizen he gives \u201cseventy-five drachmas\u201d and \u201call his walks, His private arbours and new-planted orchards\u201d for public use.<\/p>\n

Shakespeare also gives Brutus, the leader of the assassination plot, a refined conscience throughout the play. It\u2019s evident in the many discussions Brutus has with his fellow conspirators, and it\u2019s summed up when he describes his motivation for killing Caesar: \u201cIf then [any] friend demand why Brutus rose against Caesar, then my answer: Not that I loved Caesar less but that I loved Rome more.\u201d <\/p>\n

\u201cJulius Caesar\u201d offers a complicated, even poignant vision at the end. It ends in civil war and the defeat of the conspirators, following their internal dissensions and accusations of betrayal. Brutus commits suicide, but Mark Antony and Octavius, Julius Caesar\u2019s grandnephew, victorious at the end, acknowledge Brutus\u2019s nobility and wish to bury him with honor. Toward the close of Shakespeare\u2019s next Roman play, \u201cAntony and Cleopatra,\u201d we see Octavius Caesar emerge as the singular ruler of Rome. Importantly, then, the Republican, democratic ideal is defeated, both in the play and in the Western world (until the American Revolution).<\/p>\n

A deeply democratic offering<\/h2>\n

Overall, this picture of a divided Rome \u2013 a mix of power politics, of stoic ideals giving way to ego \u2013 should give pause to modern audiences. From the shifting perspectives on competing ambitions we learn that all rigid value judgments of \u201cgood\u201d and \u201cevil\u201d politicians can be relative \u2013 and problematic \u2013 in our contingent world. <\/p>\n

Yet, the ideals of democracy \u2013 in Rome and in our own times \u2013 have to be constantly guarded against demagogues, who also may be idealists, of all political stripes. Productions of \u201cJulius Caesar\u201d have typically evoked topical political analogies. Even seemingly traditional, period productions, such as the current Royal Shakespeare Company\u2019s version<\/a> in Britain, resonate with topical relevance, enabling the audience to deduce connections to today\u2019s political climate.<\/p>\n

It may be true \u2013 as some have suggested<\/a> \u2013 that the analogy between Julius Caesar and Donald Trump is a bit forced. Regardless, the production is, as one reviewer put it<\/a>, \u201ca deeply democratic offering, befitting both the Public and the public \u2013 and the times.\u201d <\/p>\n

As a researcher and teacher of Renaissance drama, I\u2019ve studied Shakespeare\u2019s role as a cultural icon across different societies, cultures and eras. It seems that no matter where (and when) his works are being performed, they provide us with a complex, poetic language for imagining and interpreting the intractable world in which we live. <\/p>\n

\"TheDuring politically contentious times, it\u2019s befitting that we turn more \u2013 rather then less \u2013 to Shakespeare.<\/p>\n

Jyotsna G. Singh<\/a>, Professor, Department of English, Michigan State University<\/a><\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

This article was originally published on The Conversation<\/a>. Read the original article<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Jyotsna G. Singh, Michigan State University \u201cAll the world\u2019s a stage,\u201d Shakespeare once wrote. In recent weeks, that Shakespearean adage has been particularly resonant, with the New York Public Theater\u2019s production of \u201cJulius Caesar\u201d attracting worldwide scrutiny because of the staged likeness between Caesar and President Trump. Extolling the play as a masterpiece about power […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":44,"featured_media":9407,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[293],"tags":[479,2597,191,2596,1313,2595],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9406"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/44"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9406"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9406\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9408,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9406\/revisions\/9408"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9407"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9406"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9406"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9406"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}