Who She Is
Calpurnia is the wife of Julius Caesar, and the attempt to keep him from going to the Capitol on the Ides of March is hers. She cried out in a dream, three times, that Caesar was being murdered, and she tells him of the portents of the night. In the Lupercal procession, it is to her that Caesar gives the first order: to stand in Antony's path, so as to be touched and lose her barrenness.
Trajectory
In Act I, Scene 2, at the Lupercal procession, Caesar orders her to stand in Mark Antony's path during the race, so that he may touch her and she may lose the curse of barrenness, for so the old men say. When the procession returns, Brutus notices that her face is pale.
In Act II, Scene 2, on the morning of the Ides, she tells Caesar that he will not leave the house that day. She, who never bound herself to ceremonies, is now afraid: she says that a lioness gave birth in the streets, that tombs opened and gave up their dead, that warriors in flames fought in the clouds and that the rain over the Capitol was blood. She says that when beggars die, no comets are seen, and that the heavens themselves announce the death of princes. Caesar answers that cowards die many times, and that death comes when it comes. She returns to her argument: his wisdom is consumed by confidence. She kneels and asks him to blame her fear, not his, and to send Antony to the Senate to say that Caesar is ill. Caesar gives in, but when Decius arrives, Calpurnia asks him to say that Caesar is ill, and Caesar replies that he will not send a lie; to Decius, who asks the reason, she says it lies in his will, and only afterward gives the cause: she dreamed of his statue gushing blood from a hundred spouts, and many Romans smiling washed themselves in it. Decius reinterprets the dream, and she says no more. Caesar, ashamed of having yielded, asks for his cloak.
Themes Embodied
The dream has two meanings in the same scene, and the one who decides which holds is Decius. For Calpurnia, the blood on the statue is a warning of death; for Decius, it is a promise of renewal for Rome. The argument that Caesar's reason had rejected, that of the portents, falls through one phrase about fear of the senators' laughter.
Calpurnia is the omen given a voice, and she loses to Decius, who knows how to give the dream the meaning Caesar wants to hear: the theme of Language and Narration appears here as a dispute over what one and the same dream means. She mirrors Portia, and the two kneel before their husbands and plead in the name of marriage. On Fate and Free Will, the play leaves a question unanswered: was the warning destiny announcing itself, or only the fear of a woman who knew her husband?
Relationships
- Julius Caesar: her husband, who yields to her for a moment and then contradicts her, saying that her fears are foolish.
- Mark Antony: the man Caesar asks to touch her during the race, and the one she proposes sending to the Senate.
- Portia: the other wife, who asks her husband for the opposite: that he tell her what he hides.