julius caesar (again)
Aug. 9th, 2003 01:19 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
pauraque_bkGIP! That's John Gielgud as Cassius in the 1953 film. Yes, I am a fanboy.
I recently had a chance to chat over dinner with the chronically AFK Malograntum about Julius Caesar. We'd coincidentally seen the same recent production, so we largely talked about the specifics of that, but we did also spend a lot of time on the play in general. The following covers most of what we discussed; I wanted to write it all out so that I could think a bit more carefully about it. Comments/disagreements are quite welcome.
EDIT: I've added a paragraph on Cassius' forged letters. I thought I'd mentioned them, but apparently I forgot.
Junia
In the production Mal and I saw, it gradually became clear that Cassius (played brilliantly by James Carpenter) was in love with Brutus. This could have been a mistake, but in this case, it worked beautifully. It played into the text in a way that seemed completely natural, adding layers to Cassius' intensity and Brutus' naivete, and to the ticklish tension between them.
Shakespeare only mentions indirectly that they are brothers-in-law, but Plutarch tells us that Cassius was married to Brutus' sister Junia.
For some reason, Mal had to hit me over the head with this one before the significance dawned on me: He *married* Brutus' *sister*. Bwah. :)
Portia & Cassius
They have no scenes together, but they surely would have known each other. And they share a goal: They each want Brutus to let his guard down and allow them into his private world. They both want this because they genuinely love Brutus, and are frustrated by his carefully muted demeanor, but Portia's motives are the more noble - Cassius, of course, also wants to spur Brutus to commit a murder. But, as is the case throughout the play, noble motives count for nothing in the end. It's Cassius who finally succeeds at getting Brutus' control to break down.
To this, Mal said, "Yeah, and Cassius didn't have to stab himself to do it. -- Well, on second thought, maybe he did."
I thought this was a great connection: Portia's "voluntary wound, here in the thigh" to Cassius' suicide by stabbing.
Brutus makes promises of intimacy to both Portia and Cassius. "[B]y and by thy bosom shall partake / The secrets of my heart," he says to Portia, but then immediately sends her away. There is no time allotted in the play for Brutus to actually tell her anything - Mal and I decided that whatever she knows, she figures out for herself. Portia never gets the intimacy with her husband that she wants and needs - "impatient of [his] absence", she kills herself.
Cassius also threatens suicide because he fears Brutus doesn't love him (and it's later in this very scene that we hear of Portia's death). But Brutus does love Cassius, and Portia too - what he fails to do is *connect* with them. Even at the point where Brutus reveals Portia's death to Cassius, and the reason for it (which is rather remarkable behavior for him), Brutus doesn't really understand Cassius' feelings.
Cassius: Give me your hand.
Brutus: And my heart, too.
Cassius: O Brutus!
Brutus: What's the matter?
"What's the matter". Unbelievable. In that line, there's a level of naivete that struck me dumb even the first time I read the play as a young teenager. This is an already intense moment, after they've fought, made peace, and Brutus has finally opened up a little (not to mention that it's an intimate shared pentameter). How can Brutus be surprised that this rare, tender admission of love affects Cassius to the point where words fail him? But Brutus *is* surprised. It's charming, and maddening, and on a deeper level really *creepy* that he's so blind to the feelings of people he knows and loves.
This is surely not the only reason Cassius actually does kill himself, but we're reminded of it in what Brutus says over Cassius' body: "Friends, I owe more tears / To this dead man than you shall see me pay. / I shall find time, Cassius: I shall find time." But again, there *is* no time - Brutus has a battle to fight, and afterwards will shortly commit suicide himself. Not to mention that any emotion he spares for Cassius now is, of course, too late to forge any actual connection.
Of course, this echoes Brutus' larger downfall -- he doesn't understand, as Cassius does, that the people will be enraged by Caesar's death, and that a simple explanation will not satisfy them. Like a small child, he thinks everyone around him will have the same feelings he does.
Seduction
Cassius: Shall I entreat a word?
Cassius takes Brutus aside and speaks to him in private for eleven lines while the other conspirators talk among themselves. When they return, Brutus has agreed to the assassination. We're left wondering what Cassius said that was so convincing, and why we didn't get to hear it. At the production we saw, Brutus and Cassius actually went completely offstage, so that there was no hint at all of what might have been said.
But the question may be larger than this: What does Cassius *ever* say to Brutus that is so convincing? Analyses I've read talk a lot about Cassius' "seduction" of Brutus, but I'm not convinced this is what's taking place.
Cassius tells Brutus two unflattering stories about Caesar. One describes his weakness when he was ill, which, if it's meant to impugn Caesar's good character, is a pretty lame attempt. The other describes Caesar nearly drowning, and needing Cassius to save him. This is obviously a lie - Caesar was well-known for being a strong swimmer, and in any case, why would Caesar ever invite Cassius, a man he distrusts, to go swimming with him?
Brutus is a great friend of Caesar's; he already knows Caesar is prone to illness, and he must know that Cassius is making up the story about the near-drowning. But he never interrupts, never argues, never insists Cassius be fair in his judgments, as he does with Caska ("'Tis very like. He hath the falling sickness.") - as, indeed, it would seem more characteristic of Brutus to do. But all he says is that what Cassius would lead him to, he "has some aim". In Brutus' later soliloquy, he begins with a conclusion - "It must be by his death" - and reasons backwards to arrive at it.
Also, while Shakespeare is quite true to Plutarch in much of the play, there's one point where he differs for no obvious reason. Plutarch explains that many citizens had written letters to Brutus warning him of Caesar's ambition. Shakespeare has Cassius forging those letters himself and throwing them in at Brutus' window. These letters are very vague, and indeed leave a sentence unfinished: Cassius writes "Shall Rome etc.". Brutus finishes the sentence himself: "Shall Rome stand under one man's awe?" The emphasis is on Brutus drawing his own conclusions with as little outside help as possible.
Now we see a reason Shakespeare might not have let us hear Cassius' clinching words. What we hear at that point is the same thing we've heard Cassius tell Brutus so far: *Nothing*. When we first meet Brutus, he's already mired in inner turmoil. When Cassius suggests that Caesar is too powerful, he's only echoing Brutus' own thoughts.
Yet Brutus blames Cassius for it: "Since Cassius first did whet me against Caesar..." He makes himself out to be nothing more than Cassius' tool. But Cassius could never have convinced Brutus to do something he truly didn't want to do. Does he ever? Does he convince Brutus to include Cicero in the conspiracy? To kill Antony? To pardon Lucius Pella? To lie in wait for Antony's army? No.
But perhaps Cassius does convince Brutus to do one thing. In their last conversation together, Brutus says he will never kill himself, as Cato did. Cassius suggests, then, that perhaps Brutus would prefer to be taken prisoner. There's some of Cassius' old slyness from the first half here. Cassius himself threatens suicide on a regular basis - it could be that Brutus emends his statement because he sees that he may have hurt Cassius' feelings (which, at this point, he is anxious not to do). Brutus backpedals - no, he would never allow himself to be taken prisoner, implying that if that were the alternative, suicide would be acceptable. Suicide to avoid dishonor is all right, but suicide due to fear is not. He's drawing a distinction that is so fine as to be practically nonexistent, but that ultimately grants Cassius permission to kill himself without dishonor.
It's not a dramatic statement in the moment, but it's the only point on which Brutus ever yields to Cassius - and so completely that he actually yields his own life. Brutus doesn't mention Cassius during his own death scene - it would almost seem he's put Cassius out of his mind, as at "his funerals will not be in our camp, lest it discomfort us". But it's certain that Cassius was in his thoughts; he takes his life the same way Cassius did, by having a friend stab him (!). And their dying words are similar: "Caesar, thou art revenged," says Cassius. "Caesar, now be still," echoes Brutus.
I have to say, Mal and I have the best conversations ever. I don't even *know* what's bouncing around in my brain until we start hashing it out. For those of you to whom this means something, it was directly because of conversations like this that "Void Sale" got written.
I recently had a chance to chat over dinner with the chronically AFK Malograntum about Julius Caesar. We'd coincidentally seen the same recent production, so we largely talked about the specifics of that, but we did also spend a lot of time on the play in general. The following covers most of what we discussed; I wanted to write it all out so that I could think a bit more carefully about it. Comments/disagreements are quite welcome.
EDIT: I've added a paragraph on Cassius' forged letters. I thought I'd mentioned them, but apparently I forgot.
Junia
In the production Mal and I saw, it gradually became clear that Cassius (played brilliantly by James Carpenter) was in love with Brutus. This could have been a mistake, but in this case, it worked beautifully. It played into the text in a way that seemed completely natural, adding layers to Cassius' intensity and Brutus' naivete, and to the ticklish tension between them.
Shakespeare only mentions indirectly that they are brothers-in-law, but Plutarch tells us that Cassius was married to Brutus' sister Junia.
For some reason, Mal had to hit me over the head with this one before the significance dawned on me: He *married* Brutus' *sister*. Bwah. :)
Portia & Cassius
They have no scenes together, but they surely would have known each other. And they share a goal: They each want Brutus to let his guard down and allow them into his private world. They both want this because they genuinely love Brutus, and are frustrated by his carefully muted demeanor, but Portia's motives are the more noble - Cassius, of course, also wants to spur Brutus to commit a murder. But, as is the case throughout the play, noble motives count for nothing in the end. It's Cassius who finally succeeds at getting Brutus' control to break down.
To this, Mal said, "Yeah, and Cassius didn't have to stab himself to do it. -- Well, on second thought, maybe he did."
I thought this was a great connection: Portia's "voluntary wound, here in the thigh" to Cassius' suicide by stabbing.
Brutus makes promises of intimacy to both Portia and Cassius. "[B]y and by thy bosom shall partake / The secrets of my heart," he says to Portia, but then immediately sends her away. There is no time allotted in the play for Brutus to actually tell her anything - Mal and I decided that whatever she knows, she figures out for herself. Portia never gets the intimacy with her husband that she wants and needs - "impatient of [his] absence", she kills herself.
Cassius also threatens suicide because he fears Brutus doesn't love him (and it's later in this very scene that we hear of Portia's death). But Brutus does love Cassius, and Portia too - what he fails to do is *connect* with them. Even at the point where Brutus reveals Portia's death to Cassius, and the reason for it (which is rather remarkable behavior for him), Brutus doesn't really understand Cassius' feelings.
Cassius: Give me your hand.
Brutus: And my heart, too.
Cassius: O Brutus!
Brutus: What's the matter?
"What's the matter". Unbelievable. In that line, there's a level of naivete that struck me dumb even the first time I read the play as a young teenager. This is an already intense moment, after they've fought, made peace, and Brutus has finally opened up a little (not to mention that it's an intimate shared pentameter). How can Brutus be surprised that this rare, tender admission of love affects Cassius to the point where words fail him? But Brutus *is* surprised. It's charming, and maddening, and on a deeper level really *creepy* that he's so blind to the feelings of people he knows and loves.
This is surely not the only reason Cassius actually does kill himself, but we're reminded of it in what Brutus says over Cassius' body: "Friends, I owe more tears / To this dead man than you shall see me pay. / I shall find time, Cassius: I shall find time." But again, there *is* no time - Brutus has a battle to fight, and afterwards will shortly commit suicide himself. Not to mention that any emotion he spares for Cassius now is, of course, too late to forge any actual connection.
Of course, this echoes Brutus' larger downfall -- he doesn't understand, as Cassius does, that the people will be enraged by Caesar's death, and that a simple explanation will not satisfy them. Like a small child, he thinks everyone around him will have the same feelings he does.
Seduction
Cassius: Shall I entreat a word?
Cassius takes Brutus aside and speaks to him in private for eleven lines while the other conspirators talk among themselves. When they return, Brutus has agreed to the assassination. We're left wondering what Cassius said that was so convincing, and why we didn't get to hear it. At the production we saw, Brutus and Cassius actually went completely offstage, so that there was no hint at all of what might have been said.
But the question may be larger than this: What does Cassius *ever* say to Brutus that is so convincing? Analyses I've read talk a lot about Cassius' "seduction" of Brutus, but I'm not convinced this is what's taking place.
Cassius tells Brutus two unflattering stories about Caesar. One describes his weakness when he was ill, which, if it's meant to impugn Caesar's good character, is a pretty lame attempt. The other describes Caesar nearly drowning, and needing Cassius to save him. This is obviously a lie - Caesar was well-known for being a strong swimmer, and in any case, why would Caesar ever invite Cassius, a man he distrusts, to go swimming with him?
Brutus is a great friend of Caesar's; he already knows Caesar is prone to illness, and he must know that Cassius is making up the story about the near-drowning. But he never interrupts, never argues, never insists Cassius be fair in his judgments, as he does with Caska ("'Tis very like. He hath the falling sickness.") - as, indeed, it would seem more characteristic of Brutus to do. But all he says is that what Cassius would lead him to, he "has some aim". In Brutus' later soliloquy, he begins with a conclusion - "It must be by his death" - and reasons backwards to arrive at it.
Also, while Shakespeare is quite true to Plutarch in much of the play, there's one point where he differs for no obvious reason. Plutarch explains that many citizens had written letters to Brutus warning him of Caesar's ambition. Shakespeare has Cassius forging those letters himself and throwing them in at Brutus' window. These letters are very vague, and indeed leave a sentence unfinished: Cassius writes "Shall Rome etc.". Brutus finishes the sentence himself: "Shall Rome stand under one man's awe?" The emphasis is on Brutus drawing his own conclusions with as little outside help as possible.
Now we see a reason Shakespeare might not have let us hear Cassius' clinching words. What we hear at that point is the same thing we've heard Cassius tell Brutus so far: *Nothing*. When we first meet Brutus, he's already mired in inner turmoil. When Cassius suggests that Caesar is too powerful, he's only echoing Brutus' own thoughts.
Yet Brutus blames Cassius for it: "Since Cassius first did whet me against Caesar..." He makes himself out to be nothing more than Cassius' tool. But Cassius could never have convinced Brutus to do something he truly didn't want to do. Does he ever? Does he convince Brutus to include Cicero in the conspiracy? To kill Antony? To pardon Lucius Pella? To lie in wait for Antony's army? No.
But perhaps Cassius does convince Brutus to do one thing. In their last conversation together, Brutus says he will never kill himself, as Cato did. Cassius suggests, then, that perhaps Brutus would prefer to be taken prisoner. There's some of Cassius' old slyness from the first half here. Cassius himself threatens suicide on a regular basis - it could be that Brutus emends his statement because he sees that he may have hurt Cassius' feelings (which, at this point, he is anxious not to do). Brutus backpedals - no, he would never allow himself to be taken prisoner, implying that if that were the alternative, suicide would be acceptable. Suicide to avoid dishonor is all right, but suicide due to fear is not. He's drawing a distinction that is so fine as to be practically nonexistent, but that ultimately grants Cassius permission to kill himself without dishonor.
It's not a dramatic statement in the moment, but it's the only point on which Brutus ever yields to Cassius - and so completely that he actually yields his own life. Brutus doesn't mention Cassius during his own death scene - it would almost seem he's put Cassius out of his mind, as at "his funerals will not be in our camp, lest it discomfort us". But it's certain that Cassius was in his thoughts; he takes his life the same way Cassius did, by having a friend stab him (!). And their dying words are similar: "Caesar, thou art revenged," says Cassius. "Caesar, now be still," echoes Brutus.
I have to say, Mal and I have the best conversations ever. I don't even *know* what's bouncing around in my brain until we start hashing it out. For those of you to whom this means something, it was directly because of conversations like this that "Void Sale" got written.
