Julius Caesar Fate Vs Free Will Essay

Caesar is a very ambitious, which means he is eagerly desirous of gaining power and that he believes he can control his own fate. This quote from Caesar gives an example of Caesar being ambitious “Caesar shall forth, the things that threatened me ne’er looked but on my back when they shall see the face of Caesar, they are vanished.” Basically what Caesar is saying is that when danger sees his face it will run away and hide. This shows how Caesar thinks that he can control his own fate, but this is not the case.

Fate as defined by the Merriam Webster dictionary is ‘an inevitable and often adverse outcome, condition, or end’. Sophocles discusses fate vs free will in his plays. In the play Oedipus Rex there was a prophecy that Oedipus was destined to kill his father and marry his mother, he attempts to escape his destiny by running away to Thebes where he meets his fate. In the play Antigone, that main character Antigone decides to go against Creon’s (her uncle who has inherited the throne) decree and bury the brother, Polynices, knowing the consequences would lead to her death. In Sophocles’ plays Oedipus Rex and Antigone, the theme is mankind not being able to escape their fate.

In Shakespeare's Julius Caesar, one must read the text closely to track the shifting motivations and loyalties of each character as the play progresses. An important factor that must be kept in mind while reading is the degree of loyalty, in other words, the degree to which characters act out of a motivation to help others. Throughout the play, each character's current degree of loyalty to others is clearly exhibited by words or behavior – this holds true for the characters of Brutus, Cassius, Antony, Portia, and Calpurnia. The focus on loyalty is critical because before the play ends an even-handed justice is meted out to a number of people who fail to live up to an expected standard of

The Theme of Julius Caesar How suitably is the theme of the supernatural depicted in the play ‘Julius Caesar’? William Shakespeare was one of the most influential playwrights, is known today for his plays such as Romeo and Juliet, Hamlet, A Midsummer Nights Dream and many other interesting and different plays.

Making the right decisions is an ongoing struggle for man, because making decisions is never easy, and the wrong decision can lead to endless perils. Decisions must be made when dealing with power, loyalty, and trust. Yet, unlike other decisions, ones that are about these three fields are the most important, due to the risk involved, and because of the consequences that might follow.

Yet after his encounter with the witches, his mind was going back and forth trying to figure out how he should act upon the prophecy of becoming king! It was by then that the idea of fate had been planted into his head, and with such good title to come with it, why wouldn’t he want to believe his ‘fate’? Something that I found very interesting about the witches was that looking closely at line 24-25 when one of the witches says, "Though his bark cannot be lost, yet it shall be tempest-tossed." From what I seemed to understand, these lines seemed to really show the limitations to the witches’ powers, because they were basically saying that they could only make life rough for the clueless captain, but they could not kill him. I think that this is really important to all the people who thought that the witches had ‘written out’ Macbeth’s fate because in the same way as the previous stated scene they can tempt Macbeth with predictions about his future, but they cannot make him choose evil. Meaning that in this scene, one of the conflicts is obviously fate vs. free will! All the witches really did was find a way of stirring up evil, by tempting Macbeth into choosing to opt for evil instead of good. “If chance will have me king, why, chance may crown me, without my stir.” (Act 1. Scene iii. Line 10). Here, Macbeth seems content to leave his future to "chance." If "chance" will have

Shakespeare the former famous playwright, poet, and actor is well-known for many famous plays even in modern times. As many of his works are timeless they contain ideas that are still relevant today. One being the idea of being self-determining, which is discussed as one of the main points in Julius Caesar. As we continue to analyse Shakespeare’s work we can see the effect of self determination caused by the influences in his age.

He says that he is not afraid because he is not a coward,- he feels

Caesar says that cowards die many times before their death and death will come when it will come. Then Caesar asked a servant what the augurers say about the subject and they say they found no heart within the beast. This is a simple act of showing how superstitious Caesar is sends him in to a rage and he decides he will go to the capitol. Then Calpurnia (the voice of reason) says “your wisdom is consumed in confidence” and tells him to tell them it is her fear and not his own that keeps him from the capitol. And Caesar grudgingly agrees. Then Decius Brutus comes in and ruins the whole thing by telling Caesar that her dream was telling how great he is and Decius manages to flatter Caesar enough that he decides to go to the capitol and he tells Calpurnia how foolish her dreams seem now and he leaves. Calpurnia, as we know was right the whole time and Caesar gets assassinated at the capitol. This scene was important in foreshadowing Caesar’s death and showing how overconfident Caesar is, and although Calpurnia’s warning was only one of many she seems to be the only warning with real impact, that is until Decius Brutus comes in to play.

That is until Decius tells Caesar that he shouldn’t be coerced by his wife’s dreams and Caesar decides to go with him to the Senate House. In the streets on the way to the Senate House is Caesar’s last warning. Artemidorus has written him a letter telling him the names of all the conspirators. On the way to the Senate house Artemidorus tells Caesar to read this scroll immediately and Caesar replies “What, urge you your petitions in the street? Come to the Capitol” (935). Then Caesar walks off with the rest of them just following behind.

Conflicting perspectives, What are they? Conflicting perspectives are a clash of ideologies and belief systems. When studying conflicting perspectives we are able to generate diverse and provocative insights, like the idea that is appealing to an audiences logic and reason is less effective in persuading them as opposed to appealing to their emotions which is more effective. This can be seen through the texts Julius Caesar by William Shakespeare, the article 'Arguments Against Abortion' by Kerby Anderson and the essay ‘Abortion and the Alternatives' by Voula Papas.

     Of the three men, Caesar’s fate seemed most obvious to him and to the reader. However, Caesar used his free will in many instances to in large

There have been many famous leaders in Roman history but none could match Julius Caesar[See Figure 1]. Julius Caesar was born on July 13, 100 BC in Rome and died March 15, 44 BC in Rome. Julius Caesar is best known for his military mind and how he laid the framework for the Roman Republic. One of the quotes he is famous for is "I came, I saw, I conquered." Caesar has not just influenced Rome, he also influenced the world too. The Roman Calendar was rigged to help political purposes. Caesar devised a new Calendar called the Julian Calendar to combat that manipulation[See Figure 2]. The Calendar still has an influence in Eastern Orthodox Christian countries such as Russia, Ukraine, Greece and much more. That is only one out of many

     In the play, The Tragedy of Julius Caesar, William Shakespeare shows how friends often betray each other. Julius Caesar is about to be crowned king of Rome, when some well-known Romans decide that it is not a good idea for this to happen. They form a conspiracy and kill Caesar. Brutus, an honorable Roman and a very good friend of Caesar’s, betrays Caesar by killing him for the good of Rome. Antony, Caesar’s best friend and another honorable Roman, betrays Brutus by turning against the conspirators. Cassius, a respected Roman, and Brutus betray each other by arguing and destroying their friendship. All this betraying lead to many deaths in the play.

Imagine being your countries hero, imagine all the people loving you and adoring you, imagine being the best at everything – now imagine Julius Caesar. It seems as though the last one doesn’t fit, does it? However, wasn’t Caesar one of the most influential people during the time of the Roman Empire AND didn’t he influence our world today? As well as in reality, in the play Julius Caesar by William Shakespeare, this man has a very interesting role. Despite the fact that he is immensely influential during his life, after his assassination it seems as though Caesar is still influential – or, more specifically, his spirit is.