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Julius Caesar Act 1 Scene 3 Analysis

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In Act 1 Scene 3 of William Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar, we experience the unfolding of the murder plot through the eyes of 4 important characters: Cassius, Casca, Cicero, and Cinna. Cassius is a power-hungry Roman senator, who has been plotting against Caesar for quite some time now. He becomes the main conspirator against Caesar and begins gathering people to help him. In this scene, he is convincing Casca that what they are doing is right and continues to unfold his plan to get Brutus to join the cause. Casca on the other hand, is a new recruit to the conspiracy. He is also very angry at Caesar. However, he is worried about the success of the plan, as he continues to see omens that foretell misfortune. In this scene, Casca is being comforted by other conspirators that these “omens” do not mean …show more content…

However, in this scene, he adds the fact that he himself would be a better ruler. This reveals the real intention of Cassius’s plan. This continues to be the subject from the previous scene. Before this, Cassius was convincing Brutus to join the conspiracy to murder Caesar, while in this scene, Cassius is reassuring Casca that this plan is safe. Although this is literally about of the murder of Caesar and Cassius’s power hunger, it hides the message of the plan to murder Queen Elizabeth (which was what was happening while Shakespeare was writing this play). This adds to the tone of the scene, along with the setting of a thunderstorm. The dual monologues show how passionate Cassius is about killing Caesar and gaining power that a sense of anger and slight desperation takes hold. Casca’s anxiety also adds to the uneasiness of the entire situation. Therefore, in entirety, the tone of the scene is stressed anger with hints of irony (as Cassius is trying to get Casca and Brutus on his side through angry monologues. The irony is in the fact that Casca is right to be worried, while Cassius dismisses

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