Julius Caesar: Writer's Methods and Techniques (AQA GCSE English Literature): Revision Note

Shakespeare employs various dramatic devices, as well as literary techniques, to convey meaning. The exam question on Julius Caesar requires you to analyse methods and how they affect audiences in order to deliver Shakespeare’s aims.

Here we will explore the way Shakespeare uses:

• Form and structure

• Stagecraft

• Language 

• Imagery and symbolism 

Form and structure 

Julius Caesar is an historical tragedy. This means that Shakespeare has chosen to use tragic conventions to deliver themes about political turmoil. It is useful to consider the genre of the play in your analysis as this is a key writer’s method.

With this in mind, it is worth analysing the way the play uses conventions or patterns found in typical tragedies. Shakespearean tragedies generally follow a five-part structure:

• In the exposition (opens in a new tab), the playwright introduces a noble character with high status:

  • In Julius Caesar, this is Brutus, a politician devoted to Rome

• In the rising action (opens in a new tab), the tragic hero is pressured by manipulative characters (in this case, Cassius, a cunning general who is eager to topple the rising Caesar):

  • Typical for a tragedy, Brutus’ inner turmoil is shown in a soliloquy (opens in a new tab)

  • His dilemma is conveyed by conditional statements like “He would be crowned:/How that might change his nature, there’s the question”

• Tragedies usually involve complex plots, deception, and trickery:

  • In Julius Caesar, Shakespeare illustrates the level of mistrust and paranoia in the political sphere via conspiracies, deceitful alliances, and acts of betrayal

  • Through the use of dramatic irony (opens in a new tab), audiences are encouraged to mock characters’ foolishness or duplicity, such as when Brutus trusts Antony

• By the climax (opens in a new tab), the tragic hero has submitted to evil, and now faces guilt and certain death as punishment for his sins:

  • After Brutus’ treacherous assassination, he sees Caesar’s ghost twice, signifying his doomed fate

• One of the main reasons a playwright would choose to use a tragedy is to present a sinister warning about an endless cycle:

  • In the denouement (opens in a new tab) of Julius Caesar, Antony and Caesar’s heir, Octavius, take control, implying the conspirators’ aims were in vain

Stagecraft

• Shakespeare opens his play in a public street to introduce the theme of political power, and the citizens’ response:

  • Stage directions suggest Scene 1 should be populated with “commoners”

  • The commoners are criticised for their quick-changing loyalties

  • Scene 2 opens with a “flourish” as Caesar and his entourage arrive

• Throughout the play, stage directions call for “thunder and lightning” to introduce ominous scenes:

  • In Act 1 Scene 3, “thunder and lightning” introduce Casca’s vision

  • This is mirrored in Act 2 Scene 2, when Calpurnia has a similar dream

• As well as this, the play mentions clocks and dates in order to build tension as the conspiracy develops and Caesar’s ‘fate’ (the “Ides of March”) nears

• Shakespeare breaks two of the Aristotelian Dramatic Unities in this play

• The Unity of Time dictates that action should take place over a short period of time:

  • Julius Caesar begins in February and continues through March to maintain some historical accuracy

  • Caesar was assassinated on 15 March around 44 BCE after a war with Pompey and his sons

• The Unity of Place suggests action should take place in one location: Julius Caesar includes public and private settings, as well as two locations, Rome and Greece:

  • The play depicts concerned wives warning husbands in the privacy of their home, while male characters gather in public locations, like streets and fields

  • There are light-hearted references to the tension between Rome and Greece, such as when Casca says of the Greek Cicero’s words: “it was Greek to me”

  • This phrase has become an idiom (opens in a new tab) that means something is unintelligible

• The play adheres to the Unity of Action, covering one event: Caesar’s assassination

Language

• Shakespeare’s plays are particular in that they use both dramatic and literary techniques, meaning the characters speak in sophisticated, poetic language 

• The characters either speak in blank verse (opens in a new tab), formal verse (opens in a new tab), or prose (opens in a new tab), depending on the scene and the status of the character:

  • Cassius employs blank verse when he tries to persuade Brutus to join the conspiracy in order to make himself sound sincere while still sophisticated

  • For example, his conversational style is clear in: “Well, honour is the subject of my story./I cannot tell what you and other men/Think of this life”

• A rhyming couplet (opens in a new tab) depicts a sophisticated character concluding key ideas:

  • In a key soliloquy (opens in a new tab), Cassius ends his deliberations with: “And after this let Caesar seat him sure;/For we will shake him, or worse days endure”

• Prose (lines without rhyme or steady rhythm) present less serious scenes:

  • Interestingly, Brutus’ speech at Caesar’s funeral is in prose: “Romans, countrymen, and lovers! hear me for my/cause, and be silent”

  • This portrays Brutus as less sophisticated so as to contrast Antony’s more powerful speech, which follows in iambic pentameter (opens in a new tab) 

  • Antony's speech has a rhythm that connotes assuredness: “Friends, Romans, countrymen, lend me your ears;/I come to bury Caesar, not to praise him.”

Imagery and symbolism

• As the play is set in a political world, symbolism (opens in a new tab) is used to highlight themes of political hierarchy:

  • References throughout the play to the body symbolise the body politic

  • Caesar’s “head” needs to be cut off to stop absolute power

• Shakespeare often uses nature to symbolise forces beyond human control

• In Julius Caesar, symbols representing warnings (or omens) include storms, owls and other birds, as well as lions:

  • In Roman mythology, hearing the hoot of an owl meant imminent death

  • In Act 1 Scene 3, Casca describes a vision: “the bird of night did sit/Even at noon-day upon the market-place,/Hooting and shrieking”

  • Casca also describes imagining a “lion” in the “Capitol”

  • Caesar refers to himself and “danger” as “two lions” in Act 2 Scene 2 

  • In the final battle, before his death, Cassius says that “ravens, crows and kites,/Fly o'er our heads and downward look on us”

• To represent the violence that results, Shakespeare uses imagery (opens in a new tab) related to blood:

  • Brutus suggests that to “hack the limbs” once the “head” is removed is “too bloody”: the symbolism refers to killing Caesar and Antony at the same time

  • Calpurnia dreams of “drizzled blood upon the Capitol” and Antony foresees “Blood and destruction”, and Caesar’s blood “rushing out of doors”

• A motif (opens in a new tab) of sickness represents the idea that the ruling class is ‘diseased’ and corrupt:

  • Brutus says Caesar has “falling sickness” (epilepsy) and Cassius replies that they will have the “failing sickness” if they allow Caesar’s rise

  • Portia, sensing her husband’s secrets, repeatedly asks Brutus if he is “sick”

Source

https://shakespeare.mit.edu/julius_caesar/full.html (opens in a new tab).

https://www.rsc.org.uk/shakespeare-learning-zone/julius-caesar/language/key-terms (opens in a new tab)