176 JULIUS CAESAR
Brutus’s wife Portia and Caesar’s
wife Calpurnia exist to temper the
passions, albeit unsuccessfully, of
their husbands. Neither politician
shares his misgivings with his
wife, nor does either one heed
the wifely warnings of danger.
Calpurnia appeals to Caesar’s
regard for reputation and honor to
ask him to remain at home on the
ides of March. By contrast, Portia
wounds her own thigh, proving
herself an equal to her husband
through noble suffering. She takes
her own life by swallowing hot
coals, setting the bar of honor
very high for Brutus’s death.
Like the men in this world, the
women craft their speech. Portia
urges her husband to reveal his
anxieties in a series of questions
using the rule of listing in threes:
“Is Brutus sick? and is it physical /
To walk unbracèd and suck up the
humours / Of the dank morning?
What, is Brutus sick? / And will he
steal out of his wholesome bed /
To dare the vile contagion of the
night, / And tempt the rheumy and
unpurgèd air / To add unto his
sickness? No, my Brutus, / You
have some sick offence within
your mind, / Which by the right
and virtue of my place / I ought
to know of” (2.1.260–269).
Although Brutus promises to
be more open with his wife, she
remains ignorant of the plot against
Caesar. This echoes Calpurnia’s
lack of influence over Caesar.Masters of fate?
For the conspirators at the start
of the play, time and opportunity
work in their favor. Caesar is not yet
an emperor, nor has he morphed
into a tyrant. Before he can become
either, Brutus believes it is in the
interests of the people and state to
dispatch him:“There is a tide in the
affairs of men / Which, taken at the
flood, leads on to fortune; / Omitted,
all the voyage of their life / Is bound
in shallows and in miseries. / On
such a full sea are we now afloat, /
And we must take the current
when it serves, / Or lose our
ventures” (4.2.270–276).When he speaks of riding the tide
of opportunity, Brutus suggests
that fate has a degree of flexibility
to it and that to make the most of
opportunities leads on to fortune.
This is a theory he takes from
Cassius who argues that autonomy
is the route to success: “Men at
sometime were masters of their
fates. / The fault, dear Brutus, is not
in our stars, / But in ourselves, that
we are underlings” (1.2.140–142).
Brutus’s belief in destiny
explains his willingness to accept
his defeat at Philippi. Although he
took the opportunity to remove
Caesar, it is the ghost and
retribution of that same enemy
that brings about Brutus’s fall.
In other words, fate intervenes to
punish the conspirators. If fate
leads these men to their inevitable
ends, how can there be, and what
is the purpose of, free will? This
question consumes Brutus and
Cassius, as well as proving fatal
to Caesar. Although Shakespeare
does not provide a resolution to the
conflict between fate and free will,Cowards die many times
before their deaths;
The valiant never taste
of death but once.
Julius Caesar
Act 2, Scene 2The knives are out for Caesar in this
2014 production at the Globe Theatre,
with George Irving as Caesar, and
Anthony Howell as Cassius.