to act on Rome’s behalf. His decision to tell his wife of this conspiracy is actually one of manipulation on her part, the overall secret being from the letter of Cassius, the man who sent the anonymous letter. Another manipulation that actually happened by chance takes place in a scene shortly thereafter. Because of a storm that takes place the dawn before the Ides, Caesar and his wife, Calpurnia, lie awake in their bed. Caesar intends to go to the Capitol, but Calpurnia objects. She urges him to stay home because of many threatening omens, and she has him completely persuaded. Calpurnia easily manipulates her husband’s decisions, and he agrees to stay home for her sake.Along with the actuality and the attempts of manipulation in this play reside many forced manipulations. In the same scene in which Calpurnia convinces her husband to not go to the Capitol, a group of conspirators meet at Caesar’s house to make sure he does not decide to stay at home, simply so that the planned assassination can, in fact, take place. Brutus, one of the conspirators, tells Caesar that his wife is superstitious, and that he should not be listening to her. In a later scene, after Caesar’s death, Brutus and Antony begin to speak to a group ofcitizens of Rome. After Brutus’ speech explaining that Caesar needed to be slain for the good of Rome, Antony cleverly manages to turn the crowd against the conspirators by telling them of Caesar’s good work, and his concern for the common people. By stirring the crowd with the belief that their ruler had left all of his wealth to the people, the crowd is genuinely convinced by the forced manipulation of Antony. In one of the closing battle scenes of “Julius Caesar”, many people die, and many others flee. One of the men that had died was Cassius, a leader in the war. Cassius’ forces are losing their battle, and Antony’s troops set Cassius’ t...
