Julius Caesar Girl Power Essay

411 Words2 Pages

Girl Power “You throw like a girl”, has now become more of an empowering statement than a demeaning insult. The women of old were often treated as less than equal to men, and were even used as slaves in extreme cases. In Julius Caesar, William Shakespeare doesn’t quite follow this way of thinking. As the women’s roles in the play are traditional ones, the way they are viewed by Shakespeare seems to be a more equal standard. When Caesar and Brutus are confronted by both of their wives they have different reactions. Brutus is confronted by his wife in a intimate manner, because Brutus is being distant from her and keeping secrets about his life. When confronted, Brutus does not open up(2.1.11). Now in Caesars case things are different. His wife confronts him about a dream she had had the night before(2.2.8). Her foreshadowing nightmare could’ve saved his life, but because he was in the presence of another man he went with the opinion of a backstabber instead of his wife’s opinion (whom quite …show more content…

Women were often viewed as nothing more than a wife/mother. And being a wife did not have the same connotation as it does now in our free country. However even if you aren’t a wife or mother, you should know that both of those rolls are very taxing. Women are very emotionally mentally and physically invested in these roles. So it was just proof that Portia cared so much when she died “of fire”(4.3.8). Most men will see this as emotional instability. However, if you compare to the other characters of the play, the wives were as stable as the rest. This is shown as Caesar's “friend” killed him and almost all of the other conspirators kill themselves. To summarize, because of social status, and just views in general most women are put into boxes. However in light of the old social standards, I feel this play in particular does a vague, yet adequate job, of portraying strong