WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE: THE AUTHOR AND HIS TIMES
Julius Caesar is a play about a political assassination. The
question it asks is: is it ever right to use force to remove a
ruler from power? You, as readers, can answer that question in
terms of your own experience in the last quarter of the 20th
century. But if you're going to figure out what Shakespeare
thought, you'll have to know something about the values and
concerns of the Elizabethan world in which he lived.
History plays were popular during Shakespeare's lifetime
(1564-1616) because this was the Age of Discovery, and English
men and women were hungry to learn about worlds other than their
own. But the Elizabethans also saw history as a mirror in which
to discover themselves and find answers to the problems of their
lives. A play like Julius Caesar taught the Elizabethans about
Roman politics; it also offered an object lesson in how to live.
What was Shakespeare trying to teach his contemporaries?
To answer that question, let's take a look at Elizabethan
attitudes toward (a) monarchy and (b) order.
(A) MONARCHY
Today we believe in democracy and are suspicious of anyone who
seeks unlimited power. We know what can happen when a Hitler or
a Stalin takes control of a government, and we know just how
corrupting power can be. But Shakespeare and his contemporaries
had no such prejudice against strong rulers. Their queen,
Elizabeth I, ruled with an iron hand for forty-five years (from
1558 to 1603), yet her subjects had great affection for her.
Under her rule the arts flourished and the economy prospered.
While the rest of Europe was embroiled in war, mostly between
Catholics and Protestants, England enjoyed a period relatively
free from civil strife. Elizabeth's reign--and the reign of
other Tudor monarchs, beginning with Henry VII in 1485--brought
an end to the anarchy that had been England's fate during the
Wars of the Roses (1455-84). To Shakespeare and his
contemporaries the message was clear: only a strong, benevolent
ruler could protect the peace and save the country from plunging
into chaos again. Shakespeare would probably not have approved
of the murder of Caesar.
(B) ORDER
In 1599, when Julius Caesar was first performed, Elizabeth was
old and failing. She had never married and had no children to
succeed her. Shakespeare and his contemporaries must have
worried greatly that someone (like Brutus? like Cassius?) would
try to grab power and plunge the country into civil war.
