allowing Anthony to speak last. In spite of Brutus's error in allowing Anthony to speak last at Caesar's funeral this act becomes a device through which Anthony's persuasive speech, "put[s] a tongue / In every wound of Caesar," causing the people of "Rome to rise and mutiny"(act 3, scene 2, lines 230-232) against mutiny. Within Anthony's, intended rebellious result to his excessively persuasive speech, even though he contradicts his claim to be "no orator"(act 3, scene 2, line 219), lies Anthony's tragic flaw. However loyal, noble and clever Anthony appears to be, majestic Caesar would not be proud of a subject so willing to create chaos and disorder as portrayed in Anthony's soliloquy, when he states: "Mischief, thou art afoot, / Take thou what course thou wilt"(act 3, scene 2, lines 262-263). Nevertheless, Anthony's liberation of "mischief" proves to be the device in which Caesar's rule, however despotic, is discovered by the reader to be the unifying force within the republic of Rome. Every congregation of humans needs a ruler. Whether it be a tyrannical dictator or a democratic assembly of nobles, the need for a unifying force is pertinent to a successful society and Caesar was destined to become king and found an empire in Rome. Although with honorable intentions as his motives, Brutus attempts to block the inevitable highway of destiny, and revolts against Caesar only to be squashed by Anthony and Octavius, who, kill noble Brutus, acting on behalf of the spirit and name of Caesar, for Brutus's apparently noble murder of Caesar. It is ironic that although Caesar was murdered in the flesh, the spirit of Caesar or "Caesarism" surivived the tyrant's death, which, ultimately resulted in an empire born under Octavius and Anthony in the spirit and name of Caesar. In conclusion, within William Shakespeare's tragedy of Julius Caesar it is understandable that while immersed in a strenuous study of this problem play in which an init...
