Julius Caesar Essay: Gender Transformation of Caesar -- Julius Caesar

Julius Caesar: Gender Transformation of Caesar  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Shakespeare's Julius Caesar opens with the concurrent celebrations of Caesar's defeat of Pompey and the annual fertility festival of Lupercal. The coupling of the two historically separate events each celebrating distinct gender roles dramatically highlights the importance of gender characterization. Rome's patriarchal society demands a leader who embodies the virile spirit of the state with leadership marked by strength, courage, and constancy. Caesar quite fittingly assumes this role as he returns valiant and victorious from the battlefields; thus, in order to remove him the strong ruler of Rome, Caesar's enemies must retrench his masculinity. Roman society considers women as the embodiment of weaknesses, thinking that their physical, mental, and political inferiority make them of little use beyond reproductive purposes, explaining why aspirants to the throne feminize the identity of the masculine warrior figure to position him as unfit for the crown. The portrayal of the two female characters of the novel, Portia and Calphurnia, captures the prevailing stereotypical perceptions of women. Caesar's wife, Calphurnia, demonstrates women's predisposition towards fearfulness and superstition when she pleads with Caesar to remain at home after dreaming that a statue made in the likeness was Cesar pouring forth blood. Calphurnia establishes the sentiment that fear is a feminine trait with her entreaty to Caesar asking him to use her anxiety as an alibi, saying, "Do not go forth today. Call it my fear." (2.2.50). Caesar agrees to this arrangement temporarily with a veiled acknowledgment of the reality- a rhetorical question relating to the fact that he is "afeard to tell th... ... and Brutus. Cassius proclaims in his death "Guide thou the sword- Caesar, thou art revenged, /Eve with the sword that killed thee" (5.3.45-46). This conclusion of ultimate victory of the masculine spirit seems the only fitting outcome for Shakespeare to engineer if his play is to be a true reflection of Roman culture. Women hold value only in terms of the services that the provide which advance the interests of the masculine community, and in this case, the conspirators needed grounds to render Caesar inadequate for his position and feminizing him provides a useful mechanism in doing so. The retransformation of Caesar solidifies itself in Octavious' declaration to the world that "This was a man!," (5.5.75) reinforcing the notion that the masculine spirit will prevail in Roman society. Works Cited: Shakespeare, William. Julius Caesar. New York: Simon, 1975.