Julius Caesar Essay: Gender Transformation of Caesar -- Julius Caesar

Julius Caesar Gender Transformation of Caesar Shakespeares Julius Caesar opens with the concurrent celebrations of Caesars defeat of Pompey and the yearly fertility festival of Lupercal. The coupling of the two historically separate events apiece celebrating distinct gender roles dramatically highlights the importance of gender characterization. Romes patriarchal troupe demands a leader who embodies the virile spirit of the state with leadership label by strength, courage, and constancy. Caesar quite fittingly assumes this role as he returns undismayed and victorious from the battlefields thus, in order to remove him the strong ruler of Rome, Caesars enemies mustiness retrench his masculinity. roman letters society considers women as the embodiment of weaknesses, thinking that their physical, mental, and political inferiority make them of little aim beyond reproductive purposes, explaining wherefore aspirants to the throne feminize the identity of the masculine warrior figu re to position him as unfit for the crown. The portrayal of the two female characters of the novel, Portia and Calphurnia, captures the prevailing stereotypical perceptions of women. Caesars wife, Calphurnia, demonstrates womens predisposition towards fearfulness and superstition when she pleads with Caesar to remain at home after ambition that a statue made in the likeness was Cesar pouring forth blood. Calphurnia establishes the impression that fear is a feminine trait with her entreaty to Caesar asking him to use her anxiety as an alibi, saying, Do not go forth today. confabulate it my fear. (2.2.50). Caesar agrees to this arrangement temporarily with a veiled acknowledgment of the reality- a rhetorical question relating to the fact that he is afeard to tell th... ... and Brutus. Cassius proclaims in his last Guide thou the sword- Caesar, thou art revenged, /Eve with the sword that killed thee (5.3.45-46). This certainty of ultimate victory of the masculine spirit seems t he only fitting topic for Shakespeare to engineer if his play is to be a true reflection of Roman culture. Women hold value only in terms of the services that the picture which advance the interests of the masculine community, and in this case, the conspirators needed grounds to render Caesar pitiful for his position and feminizing him provides a useful mechanism in doing so. The retransformation of Caesar solidifies itself in Octavious answer to the world that This was a man, (5.5.75) reinforcing the notion that the masculine spirit ordain prevail in Roman society. Works CitedShakespeare, William. Julius Caesar. New York Simon, 1975.