Why Is Julius Caesar Still Relevant Today

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To this day William Shakespeare is still widely considered the world’s greatest dramatist. William Shakespeare wrote thirty-eight plays and one hundred and fifty-four sonnets. All of his plays are widely known, including Julius Caesar. Although many people only watch the plays for entertainment, failing to notice the hidden messages and their importance to today’s world. Three major themes that William Shakespeare stresses throughout Julius Caesar are the importance of interpreting signs and omens, how a person’s public and private self differentiate, and the side effects of questing for power. To begin, William Shakespeare emphasizes the importance of and varying outcomes based on how a sign or omen is interpreted. In the play, Calpurnia …show more content…

Shakespeare again demonstrates this to the extremes when Portia killed herself when she, “. . . swallow’d fire” (Shakespeare 4.3.155). Brutus was in the pursuit of his own ideals. He wanted to restore power to the senate, so he went through with killing Caesar. This resulted in a war among the Romans, and it caused undue distress to Portia who then committed suicide. Brutus lost his wife in the process of following his own ideals. This is relevant to dreams and ideals of those today. To succeed at something, a person generally has to give up or lose something in exchange, whether its time or other assets. Throughout the play it becomes evident that the quest for power has many negative aspects. Caesar was one of the main characters who quested for power but others thought he was ambitious and Brutus said, “. . . as he was ambitious, I slew him” (Shakespeare 3.2.25). Caesar followed his quest for power, and in the end it brought upon his early death. Cassius also took part in Caesar’s death, being the one behind the existence of the group of conspirators. Cassius believed that by killing Caesar, it could bring more power into his own hands. Although by the end, Cassius killed himself, proving again the extent of following one’s own ideals in hopes of acquiring power. In the end, Shakespeare demonstrated the sacrifices that can arise from following one’s