ming painful death in battle. In a dream, Brutus sees Caesar's "ghost", interpreted as an omen of his defeat. He also looks upon the ensign, and instead of the usual stock of eagles, ravens and kites replace them, construed as another sign of their loss at Phillipi. Not surprisingly, Caesar's death is avenged in the end, with two of the conspirators, Titanius and Brutus’ double suicide. The play, The Tragedy of Julius Caesar, by William Shakespeare, clearly reveals how important superstition was to the people of Rome at the time of Caesar, and to the play itself. Superstition was used by the people of Rome to somehow change the unfortunate occurrences that inevitably waited for them in the future. The Romans, with their government in a state of turmoil, wanted to believe that they were somehow in control of their destiny and the unfortunate happenings that could occur, when in fact, they were not. Essential in human existence is the need to believe one has control over one’s own future. To compensate for their helplessness in their fate, the Romans used superstition. With superstition intertwined throughout the entire play, we can reasonably conclude that this irrational belief in why certain events occur and how to avoid them, is what led to Caesar’s demise and eventual avengement. "This was the noblest Roman of them all…. His life was gentle, and the elements So mixed in him that Nature might stand up And say to all the world, ‘This was a man!’"~Marcus AntoniusThe Tragedy of Julius Caesar ...
