Shakespeare creates sympathy for Caesar by reminding us his wife is barren, having us learn about his seizures, and showing us his reaction to Brutus’s betrayal.
Caesar is hardly a sympathetic character. In fact, Shakespeare goes out of his way to make him seem like an arrogant and thoroughly unlovable guy. However, hidden in his portrait of Caesar the egotistical are a few incidents that make him a more sympathetic character. Caesar had troubles just like any other man.
First of all, Caesar has no sons. For an important man in ancient Rome, this would have been not only difficult, but almost unbearable. This is the reason Caesar asks Mark Antony, his cousin, to help him make Calpurnia fertile.
CAESAR
Forget not, in your speed, Antonius,
To touch Calpurnia; for our elders say,
The barren, touched in this holy chase,
Shake off their sterile curse. (Act 1, Scene 2)
The Romans were a superstitious lot. They believed that if a man running in the Feast of Lupercal race touched a woman, she would have a baby. Caesar asks Antony to do this because he wants an heir. This helps make the audience sympathetic to Caesar because it humanizes him. We realize that he has some of the same problems as anyone else, and we feel sorry for him.
Another example of Caesar’s weaknesses being demonstrated by Shakespeare is the seizure or fainting fit. As with the Feast of Lupercal race, the seizure demonstrates a complex use of characterization. Shakespeare uses Casca to describe it, and Casca is hardly sympathetic to either Caesar or the people.
CASSIUS
But, soft, I pray you: what, did Caesar swound?
CASCA
He fell down in the market-place, and foamed at
mouth, and was speechless.BRUTUS
'Tis very like: he hath the falling sickness. (Act 1, Scene 2)
Caesar’s seizures are a sign of weakness to his fellow Romans, and they may make us feel sorry or concerned for him. They make him seem like a sick man or an old man, not a powerful or invincible man. Caesar ignores warnings of the danger to him, but clearly he has some health problems. Shakespeare wants to make sure his audience knows about them.
Finally, there is the assassination itself. We may not feel too sorry for Caesar before he is stabbed, but you would have to be pretty heartless not to feel sorry for him after. For one thing, he is tricked and waylaid by a group of senators, all of who stab him. He is stabbed dozens of times. Ultimately, though, it is Brutus’s betrayal that hurts him.
CASCA
Speak, hands for me!
CASCA first, then the other Conspirators and BRUTUS stab CAESAR
CAESAR
Et tu, Brute! Then fall, Caesar.
Dies (Act 3, Scene 1)
It doesn’t look terribly impressive on paper, but picture it performed in a theater! Brutus, Caesar’s friend, the man who has been like a son to him, stabs him last as he is lying there after having been stabbed over and over again. We certainly pity Caesar at this moment, when he feels betrayed by everyone, but especially by Brutus.
Caesar is not a completely sympathetic character. He laughs off the soothsayer and refuses to listen to the Cinder brothers. He clearly has been pushing people around, since Brutus and his friends keep calling him arrogant and power-hungry. Nonetheless, Shakespeare makes an effort to show a Caesar as at least a little nuanced. We see him as a man, and not just as the leader of Rome. They say it's lonely at the top. It seems like it was for Caesar. He was betrayed by those closest to him, and he didn't even have a son to leave his legacy to.
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