julius caesar

Closely following the death of his wife, Brutus shares a drink with Caius Cassius, fellow conspirator, with whom he has just had a heated argument. Because everything is falling apart for his cause and in his personal life, Brutus is feeling a bit repentant (though he may not know it yet).

BRUTUS
Speak no more of her. (To Lucius) Give me a bowl of wine.
To Cassius
In this I bury all unkindness, Cassius.
Brutus drinks.
(JC.IV.2.211)

I like this toast.

Photo by iTopher.

Remember, you don’t have to be totally lost when reading my comments about Will’s plays. I assume you have some previous knowledge about the plays, but if you don’t, or if you’re a bit rusty on a particular story, then you should read a short summary to refresh your mind. I like the ones at No Sweat Shakespeare because they’re the perfect reading length (nice and short).

For instance, before you read my post about Antony and the conspirators against Julius Caesar, read the No Sweat summary here.

It is a hard and fast rule in sales and politics:

The more you repeat a phrase or idea, the less attached to reality it becomes.

This doesn’t mean that the phrase or idea can’t be true, only that a clever salesman or politician can coin it to their advantage by associating it with whatever “truth” they wish to create. When you repeat something over and over again, all you do is remove that something from reality and prompt people’s brains to associate it with something else. Then you can either

1. Let them decide for themselves what it means, which can be dangerous (e.g. “No strings attached!” “No strings attached!” “No strings attached!” …Are you starting to wonder where the strings are? Nobody has explained how or why no strings are attached.)

2. Associate your phrase with an idea, which can be powerful (e.g. “Coke is refreshing because it’s cold and it tastes good. Don’t you want to feel refreshed? Here’s a Coke can. Looks refreshing, doesn’t it?”)

In Julius Caesar, Mark Antony uses a single description, “honorable men,” to turn the minds of the Plebeians (all five of them!) against Julius’ conspiring murderers–to whom the phrase is applied–simply by repeating it over and over. In between his repetitions, he outlines all of the curious contradictions that seem to punch holes in the conspirators’ cause against Julius, but he never directly disagrees with that cause. Rather, he allows the association between wrongful action and the phrase “honorable men” to congeal in the Plebeians’ minds, resulting in the natural conclusion, those conspirators were not honorable men. In Act III Scene 2, Antony uses the word “honorable” a total of ten times. After the eigth time, a Plebeian uses the term when he speaks out against the conspirators. Seems he caught the mind virus that Antony planted. Clever, clever Antony.

This tactic is employed by marketers and politicians around the world, skilled and unskilled alike. You can tell whether the author of the message was skilled or unskilled by your own reaction: do you question his motives because he is repeating himself too much, or do you grab a hold of his fabricated mantra, catch the mind virus, and let a new idea crawl into your brain?

I can’t… not… post this…

For some reason, it greatly bothers me that the characters in Julius Caesar seem to use Caesar as the given name of Julius Caesar. It’s not his name, it’s his title! It’s like calling Jesus “Mr. Christ” when you should probably be calling him “Mr. Nazareth” (though, frankly, I’d call him “sir”).

It’s hard to believe Will would erroneously misname Julius’ character, being such a scholarly playwright. Perhaps, like today, the common folk referred to Julius as the Caesar, so Will decided to use terminology they were already familiar with (even today, talk about Caesar and everyone will assume you mean Julius). Then again, perhaps William is responsible for the confusion of today because his play became so embedded in the culture.

Is this a healthy thing to obsess about?

…As an afterthought: I think it is healthy to obsess yourself with the question of how deeply Will Shakespeare’s works permeate our modern American culture. Really. And how they secretly affect the words that come out of your mouth every day. The reason I can be quite confident in saying that the Will’s works can change your life (see the description in the header of Caliban’s Island) is because they already have. Find out how they have and you’ll become exponentially wiser and more socially powerful.