Journal 5.1
I think other than loyalty and betrayal in Julius Caesar you can also see examples of power, a hunger for it. You can see themes of gender because back then it definitely was more so about men, they had more freedoms and rights where women had many, many restrictions. I think manipulation could be an important theme because it ties into betrayal in that others can manipulate you into doing the opposite of what you wish to do. Power is portrayed in this because Julius was going to have much power. The whole play is at least one character fighting for power in different ways. Caesar has an authoritatrian way of ruling which makes him come off as power hungry and prideful, arrogant. It starts to show as soon as they begin talking
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It was a masculine time and woman were looked weaker and more irrelevant than men. Portia supports this idea. She says many things in the play that prove this idea. In Act II, portia says that “I am no stronger than my sex” Because she knows what Brutus and the other men think of woman, she praises her husband like he is in complete control of her, which is unfornately true in this era. Caesar is dismissive toward the woman in the play and you can tell he speaks down onto them, or about them. For example, caesar describes being a man is being fearless and not afraid of anything, unlike woman. I found this in Act 2, Scene 2. “Cowards die many times before their deaths, the valiant never taste of death but once… It seems to me most strange that men should fear.” He describes his thoughts that all men are expected to be fearless, if they are, they are cowards and strange. Manipulation plays a key role in Julius Caesar. Characters are working hard to persuade and suggest other world views, like above. Caesar is almost manipulating men to see themselves as weak, strange and cowardly if they feel fear. In act 2, scene 2, Cassius wants Brutus to change his point of view and join the other side. Cassius keeps revisiting the topics of gaining power for himself. Brutus not so much. I guess Cassius has more of a motive because he plans to take Caesar