Cassius

Who He Is

Cassius is the architect of the conspiracy. Lean and hungry, in the description of Julius Caesar, he reads a great deal, observes everything, and takes no pleasure in music or games. He says he saved Caesar from the Tiber when he was drowning and now sees this man treated as a god. He seduces Brutus with a mirror, recruits Casca, forges letters to push Brutus, and loses, one by one, the arguments in which he opposes him. An Epicurean, he comes to give credit to omens on his birthday, at Philippi, and dies by the sword that pierced Caesar.

Trajectory

In Act I, Scene 2, he works on Brutus alone. He says Brutus cannot see his own face and offers himself as the mirror that shows what is hidden in him. He tells that, on a windy day, Caesar challenged him to swim the rough Tiber and, halfway across, shouted for him to save him, and that the fever in Spain made Caesar tremble and ask for water like a sick girl. He says Rome bows to a weak man, and draws the conclusion for Brutus:

Cassius asks what there is in the name "Caesar" that is not in the name of Brutus, and recalls the ancient Brutus, who would not have tolerated a king. He leaves the stage alone, saying that Brutus is noble but seducible, and that he will throw letters through his windows that seem to come from citizens, speaking of the opinion Rome has of his name.

In Act I, Scene 3, in the night of the storm, he walks with his breast open to the lightning and tells Casca that heaven warns against a man who has grown too great, calls the Romans decadent, and says that in them rules the spirit of their mothers. On learning that the Senate wants to crown Caesar, he swears to kill himself before accepting servitude, and says that a weary life is never lacking to the power to dismiss itself. The line that sums him up is this:

He hands letters to Cinna, to plant where Brutus will find them, and tells Casca that three parts of Brutus are already theirs.

In Act II, Scene 1, he arrives with the conspirators, hooded, whispers with Brutus, and proposes that Cicero be sounded out. Brutus refuses, and Cassius accepts. He proposes that Antony fall along with Caesar and, when Brutus defeats him, still says he fears him. He observes that Caesar has lately become superstitious, contrary to his earlier view of dreams and ceremonies, and that the portents of this night may keep him at home. He decides that all will go to fetch him.

In Act III, Scene 1, when Popilius whispers that he wishes the enterprise success, Cassius fears that all is discovered and tells Casca to be quick, for if they are found out, he will kill himself. He kneels beside Brutus to support Metellus Cimber's plea and, after the blow, orders some to proclaim liberty from the pulpits. He imagines the scene being performed through the centuries, in tongues not yet known. When Brutus grants Antony the floor at the funeral, he warns that Antony does not know what he is doing and that he does not like it. In Act III, Scene 2, he goes to another street to divide the crowd with Brutus.

In Act IV, Scene 2, at Sardis, he arrives with his army and says, before the soldiers, that Brutus has offended him, until Brutus asks that they speak in the tent. In Act IV, Scene 3, he protests the punishment of Lucius Pella, takes badly being called a seller of offices, and says that, in life, Caesar would not have dared to treat him so. He offers his breast to Brutus's dagger: let him wound him as he wounded Caesar, for he knows that, even when he hated him most, Brutus loved Caesar more than him. The reconciliation is quick, and he asks Brutus to bear with him when the temper his mother gave him makes him forget himself. When Brutus tells him Portia is dead, he asks how she escaped alive after he had crossed him in that way. He proposes to wait for the enemy, wear him down, and spare their strength, and he yields to the argument of the tide without insisting.

In Act V, Scene 1, the parley with Antony and Octavius turns into insult: he calls Octavius a whining schoolboy and Antony a masked reveler, and, when Antony calls him a flatterer, he tells Brutus to thank himself, for Antony's tongue would not have offended had Cassius sent it. He tells Messala that it is his birthday, that he has come to give credit to omens, and that the eagles that accompanied the army have been swapped for crows. He asks Brutus what he will do if they lose, and bids him farewell with the saying that, if they do not meet again, the parting was well made.

In Act V, Scene 3, he kills the standard-bearer who was retreating, sees the soldiers fleeing, and sends Titinius to see whether the distant troops are friends. From the top of a hill, Pindarus says Titinius has been captured, and Cassius, thinking his friend lost, reminds Pindarus that he captured him in Parthia and made him swear obedience, and asks him to kill him with the sword that pierced Caesar, his face covered. He dies saying that Caesar is avenged.

Themes Embodied

Cassius is the one who uses words to make another act. Besides arguing against Caesar, he gives Brutus back an image of Brutus: he offers himself as a mirror, speaks of the name, recalls the ancient Brutus, forges the letters. In the storm, he reads the sky as a warning against Caesar. The seduction works because the other does not yet know himself.

The man who says at the start that the fault is not in the stars, and who notes Caesar's recent superstition, is the one who, at Philippi, begins to give credit to omens, on the day he was born and on the day he dies. He dies from a mistake of perception: he judges Titinius captured and kills himself before learning that his friend brought good news.

The theme of Fate and Free Will runs through Cassius twice, and the play lets us see the convenience: he denies the signs when he wants to act and accepts them when he loses. As far as the text shows, Cassius is right about Antony and about the funeral, and loses both arguments to Brutus, who has the higher reason and the weaker judgment. On Power, a doubt remains that the text does not resolve: the resentment Caesar describes in him, and which he himself confesses when he speaks of bowing to a man he saved, coexists with his conviction that Rome bows to a weak man.

Relationships

• Brutus: the friend he seduces in Act I, from whom he parts at Sardis, and who calls him the last of the Romans.
• Julius Caesar: the man he says he saved from the Tiber and who points him out as dangerous; he dies by the sword that killed him.
• Casca: the first man he wins over on the night of the storm.
• Mark Antony: the man he wants to kill and whom Brutus spares, and who calls him old Cassius, still the same, at Philippi.
• Octavius: the young man he calls a whining schoolboy before the battle.
• Portia: Brutus's wife, whose death he hears of in the tent.