In Shakespeare’s tragedy Julius Caesar, Brutus is the last among the group of Romans who together murder Caesar by stabbing him. Marc Antony did not participate in the murder. Afterwards, he speaks to the Romans assembled in the street (act 3, scene 2). In several speeches, he condemns the murderers, while still claiming to understand their stated motives of opposing Caesar’s tyranny.
When speaking of Brutus, however, Antony is especially harsh. Showing the crowd Caesar’s robe, he points out all the tears that the knife thrusts created and points especially to one rip that he says Brutus made:
Through this the well-beloved Brutus stabb'd;
And as he pluck'd his cursed steel away,
Mark how the blood of Caesar follow'd it
The line quoted in your question immediately follows:
For Brutus, as you know, was Caesar's angel:
Judge, O you gods, how dearly Caesar loved him!
This was the most unkindest cut of all;
For when the noble Caesar saw him stab,
Ingratitude, more strong than traitors' arms,
Quite vanquish'd him: then burst his mighty heart
By “angel,” Antony means, as the next line makes clear, beloved. Telling the people that it was personal betrayal and a broken heart that finally killed Caesar, Antony not only pins the blame squarely on Brutus, but also dismisses the validity of patriotic motivation.
Thursday, November 22, 2018
What does Antony mean when he refers to Brutus as “Caesar’s angel”?
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
What is the theme of the chapter Lead?
Primo Levi's complex probing of the Holocaust, including his survival of Auschwitz and pre- and post-war life, is organized around indiv...
-
The statement "Development policy needs to be about poor people, not just poor countries," carries a lot of baggage. Let's dis...
-
"Mistaken Identity" is an amusing anecdote recounted by the famous author Mark Twain about an experience he once had while traveli...
-
Primo Levi's complex probing of the Holocaust, including his survival of Auschwitz and pre- and post-war life, is organized around indiv...
-
De Gouges's Declaration of the Rights of Woman was enormously influential. We can see its influences on early English feminist Mary Woll...
-
As if Hamlet were not obsessed enough with death, his uncovering of the skull of Yorick, the court jester from his youth, really sets him of...
-
In both "Volar" and "A Wall of Fire Rising," the characters are impacted by their environments, and this is indeed refle...
No comments:
Post a Comment