Julius Caesar Soothsayer

In Shakespeare’s The Tragedy of Julius Caesar, characters in the play misinterpret events for their own purposes, thus, leading to their death.
At the opening of the play, the valiant and prestigious Julius Caesar is returning to Rome after his ten years in battle. While the commoners are “mak[ing] holiday to see Caesar and to rejoice in his triumph (Shakespeare Act I, Scene I, Line 32),” the Senators are resentful towards his return. They fear Caesar will become a tyrant and keep the Romans under subservient dread. Therefore, in order to prevent Caesar from becoming too powerful, Flavius tells Marullus, “These growing feathers plucked from Caesar’s wing will make him fly an ordinary pitch, who else would soar above the view of men and keep

Despite being told by the soothsayer to “Beware the ides of March (Shakespeare Act I, Scene II, Line 18),” Caesar reacted by ignoring the soothsayer, which shows his superciliousness. Often, in the past, the soothsayer is “a person who professes to foretell events (Dictionary.com 1).” When the soothsayer told Caesar to beware of March 15th, he was trying to protect Caesar from the assassination. However, after Caesar is told of his fate, he believed the soothsayers “is a dreamer, [and asks to] …leave him. (Shakespeare Act I, Scene I, Line 24).” Due to Caesar’s arrogance, he misread and misinterpreted the omen. Caesar believed he is the only person who is right and listens to only himself. However, “the purpose of communication is to convey information from one person to another…. Unfortunately, miscommunication occurs when the listener or reader fails to understand [or, in this case, does not want to understand] what is being said (Lewis 1).” Since Caesar believed what the soothsayer told him was false and misread the warning, he further leads himself to his assassination and his

After Caesar told Brutus of Calpurnia’s dream, Brutus replies with “this dream is all amiss (Shakespeare Act II, Scene II, Line 83).” In attempt for Decius Brutus to convince Caesar to go to the Capitol, he interprets Calpurnia’s dream in a positive way. Brutus’ interpretation is to make Caesar attend the Senators meeting. Thus, Decius views the dream as “a vision fair and fortunate (Shakespeare Act II, Scene II, Line 84).” The information that underlies Brutus’ explanation is when he says Caesar’s statute is “spouting blood in many pipes, in which so many smiling Romans bathed (Shakespeare Act II, Scene II, Line 85.” Decius believes that it “signifies that from you great Rome shall suck reviving blood, and that great men shall press (Shakespeare Act II, Scene II, Line 88).” Brutus suggests the people will beg to show they are Caesar’s servants; they are bathing in Caesar’s blood to empower themselves and to make Rome stronger. In other words, Decius is trying to say that in Calpurnia’s dream, the Romans are not cheerful of Caesar’s death. Instead, they are thankful and look highly of Caesar as their leader. While Calpurnia hinted the dangerous threat towards Caesar’s life, Caesar continues to misinterpret Calpurnia’s dream. Hoping to hear how amazing of a tyrant he is, he would rather listen to his best friend, Brutus, instead of his wife, Calpurnia. In this situation, Caesar is misinterpreting the dream for