hase, shake off their sterile curse. He wants a child to carry on his family name, so he chooses to believe that if Calpurnia is touched during the race, she will become pregnant. However, when Calpurnia dreams about Caesar’s murder at the Senate, he doesn’t believe in that. Even Cassius realizes this when he said “ but it is doubtful yet whether Caesar will come forth today or no; for he is superstitious grown of late, quite from the main opinion he held once of fantasy, of dreams, and ceremonies. The unaccustomed terror of this night, and the pervasion of his augurers may hold him from the capitol today.” (335; act2, sc1). What Cassius is trying to say is that Caesar never used to believe in the supernatural, but he has quite suddenly become much more superstitious. Normand Holland believes that Caesar is superstitious throughout the entire play. He says “ He believes in omens and auguries; he believes dreams are prophetic. He is superstitious by modern standards, but so is the play as a whole” (Holland 137). Calpurnia is selectively superstitious in a very similar way to Caesar. She herself admits “ Caesar, I never stood on superstitions, yet now they fright me. There is one within, besides the things that we have heard and seen, recounts the most horrid things seen by the watch” (339; act2, sc2).This trend is noted by James Farrow, who stated “...as the play continues, we find more and more characters who selectively believe in the supernatural...”(Farrow). The supernatural also provides more characterization when Caesar’s ghost appears before Brutus and calls himself “Thy evil spirit” (382; act4,sc3). Leithart agrees that “...Brutus too has been transformed into a little Caesar. Caesar’s ghost introduces himself to Brutus as ‘Thy evil spirit’. Even if the ghost had not given us this huge clue, Shakespeare has made it clear that Bru...
