"Cliff Notes - Julius Caesar" - читать интересную книгу автора (Cliff Notes)

1. Caesar's personal shortcomings are one reason to remove him
from power. Another is his ambition, which threatens to
undermine the power of the people and their elected
representatives.

It's true that Antony calls Caesar "the noblest man / That ever
lived in the tide of times" (Act III, Scene i, lines 256-257),
but why believe Antony--a man blindly devoted to his master, who
is so bad a judge of character that he says of Cassius:

Fear him not, Caesar, he's not dangerous;

Act I, Scene ii, line 196

Caesar's refusal to accept the crown is no more than a cynical
political gesture to impress the masses. His speech comparing
himself to the North Star is the height of arrogance and
blasphemy. His refusal to pardon Publius Cimber is the mark of
a man incapable of justice or pity. Such a man is a tyrant who
knows no limits and deserves to be destroyed.

2. Caesar may be ambitious, but what of it? Ambition in itself
is neither good nor bad. Today, in our democratic age, we are
suspicious of politicians who seek unlimited power, but the
Elizabethans in Shakespeare's time lived under a strong monarchy
and would have had no such prejudice against strong rulers. If
Shakespeare had wanted to show that Caesar was unfit to rule, he
could have found evidence to support that point of view in
Elizabethan history books; but nowhere in the play does he show
Caesar suppressing civil liberties. Brutus himself is forced to
admit:

and, to speak truth of Caesar,

I have not known when his affections swayed

More than his reason.

Act II, Scene i, lines 19-21

A politician should be judged for his accomplishments, not for
his private life. Even if Caesar is inflexible, the times
demand such behavior.

In his personal life, Caesar is considerate to his wife,
courteous to the conspirators, and generous to the Roman people.
He may be vain, but he has something to be vain about. Friends
and enemies alike praise his courage and his accomplishments on
the battlefield--can they all be wrong?