Essay-The role of Women in Julius Caesar (William Shakespeare)

Veronica: 

Julius Caesar was one of the greatest works by William Shakespeare. It was written in 1599. In this play, actually there are more males’ characters than females’ characters. Tough, in this play, the two women play important roles but it is showed in explicit way. The two females characters in this play are Calpurnia and Portia. The writer puts the attention more into the men, for example, about how the men fail to seize their passion. Actually, there are some points that show about the important roles of women in the play.

The first character is Calpurnia, whose husband is Caesar. Actually, without realizing it, she is very important to Caesar’s life. When Caesar prepares to go to the Senate, she begs him not go there because of her recent nightmares. She was dreaming about his statue that full of blood, which she thinks it represents the death of her husband (Act II, Scene ii) Also, in her nightmare, there was a man whose hands were bathed in the blood. Calpurnia has tried to convince her husband about her dreams but once again she fails. Caesar decides not to follow what his wife said in order to pursue his ambition. This decision leads him to face his death. If he has listened to his wife, he might not die. So, it means that actually Calpurnia has an important role in this play, but unfortunately her husband was rebuffing her intuition.

The second character is Portia, whose husband is Brutus. In Act II, Scene i, it is very obvious that Portia is a symbol of Brutus’ life. She represents the correct intuition that Brutus should follow. Actually, Portia has been represented the same as Calpurnia. Portia begs him to reveal his thoughts with the conspirators because she observes that Brutus appears preoccupied. In the end, his inability in telling the truth leads him to foolishness and resulted a huge mistake. For example, when Cascius conspires him to join his group in order to murder Caesar although he is Caesar closed buddy. If he is open to his wife, he might not have murdered Caesar and he also might not have died in his own sword.