by Patalasi

Created on: December 21, 2006   Last Updated: May 08, 2007

In his play Julius Caesar, Shakespeare hints at Caesar's imminent death via three very useful literary devices. Act II, takes place on March 15 just hours before Caesar's death. A death prognosticated through foreshadowing, asides, and imagery.
Consequently, this act abounds with events, while directly related to, are irrespective of Caesar. It opens with a look at Brutus, the voice of reason among a group of conspirators bent on preemptive regicide. Already, readers can expect fate to have rendered Caesar powerless as Brutus' soliloquies prepare them for a Messianic trajectory, i.e. Caesar becomes martyred to his success murdered to soothe the fears of a select few of the Roman aristocracy (Gelzer). As evidence, consider the element of foreshadowing displayed in Brutus' statement: "It must be by his death and for my part, I know no personal cause to spurn at him, But for the general. He would be crown'd: How that might change his nature, there's the question" Rome's bitter experience of rule under a series of tyrants leads many to fear that Caesar, not content with the title of dictator, will soon declare himself King of the Romans (McManus).

Therefore, Shakespeare continues to promote the sense that Caesar will die. With a play on the situation, Brutus' words take on new meaning: "and the state of man. Like to a little kingdom, suffers then The nature of an insurrection" Caesar, a king in deed, if not fact, will suffer the fate of an unpopular king, in this case, death at the hands of his subjects. Further evidence of his fate appears in the following asides. Caesar's murderers come to his home under the auspices of guiding him to the senate. At the time Caesar reminds Trebonius that they must speak later and while he acknowledges Caesar's statement, it is his aside that deserves strict appraisal as it forecasts Caesar's imminent death with a bit of irony: Caesar to Trebonius: "Be near me, that I may remember you"; Trebonius to Caesar: "I will", then aside, "and so near will I be, That your best friends shall wish I had been further." Ironically, Trebonius, in a few hours time, will be closer to Caesar than the latter could hope or even desire, as he along with the other conspirators execute, severally, the twenty-three stab wounds Caesar is said to have suffered (McManus).
However, the most striking literary device at Shakespeare's disposal stems from the imagery. Something, as cataclysmic as death, is imminent with hints supplied by a violent storm the

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