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Julius Caesar

Quotes

The 22 passages that decide the work, each with who speaks, the linked themes and characters, and an explanation.

Act I: The Triumph and Seduction of Brutus

These growing feathers plucked from Caesar's wing / Will make him fly an ordinary pitch
Speaker
Flavius
Characters
Julius Caesar
Themes
PowerPolitics
Devices
Metaphor

Explanation and analysis

The play opens in the streets of Rome, on the day of Caesar's triumph. The tribunes Flavius and Marullus drive away the artisans who are celebrating and accuse them of forgetting Pompey, whom they had acclaimed before. With the crowd dispersed, the two go to strip Caesar's ornaments from the statues, even though they have been warned that it is the feast of the Lupercal. It is then that Flavius explains his reason: to clip Caesar's feathers, so that he will not fly too high and keep everyone in servitude.

The image is that of a bird whose feathers grow back and must be trimmed. Caesar's power appears as plumage, something that grows on its own and can only be held in check by a cut. The stated aim is not to bring him down, but to return him to a common height, that of any citizen. Note that Caesar has not yet even entered the scene: before hearing him speak, the reader already finds him discussed as a threat. One may read Flavius's fear as less about what Caesar has already done than about what he may yet become.

The reasoning recalls what Brutus will use in the orchard, in Act II, when he speaks of the serpent's egg: acting on what the other may become. For this reason Flavius's line works as a first warning of the play's themes of power and politics. The play's conflict turns on who commands and who bows, and one may read in this opening scene the idea that, for Caesar's enemies, servitude has already begun, even without a crown.

I, as Aeneas, our great ancestor, / Did from the flames of Troy upon his shoulder / The old Anchises bear, so from the waves of Tiber / Did I the tirèd Caesar
Speaker
Cassius
Characters
Cassius, Julius Caesar, Brutus
Themes
PowerPoliticsHonor and Reputation
Devices
Allusion, Simile

Explanation and analysis

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Why, man, he doth bestride the narrow world / Like a Colossus, and we petty men / Walk under his huge legs and peep about / To find ourselves dishonorable graves
Speaker
Cassius
Characters
Cassius, Julius Caesar, Brutus
Themes
PowerPoliticsHonor and Reputation
Devices
Simile, Hyperbole

Explanation and analysis

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Men at some time are masters of their fates: / The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars, / But in ourselves, that we are underlings
Speaker
Cassius
Characters
Cassius, Brutus
Themes
Fate and Free WillPowerHonor and Reputation
Devices
Antithesis

Explanation and analysis

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Cassius from bondage will deliver Cassius
Speaker
Cassius
Characters
Cassius, Casca
Themes
Loyalty and BetrayalPowerPolitics
Symbols
The Omens

Explanation and analysis

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Act II: The Conspiracy and the Morning of the Ides

And therefore think him as a serpent's egg / Which, hatched, would, as his kind, grow mischievous, / And kill him in the shell
Speaker
Brutus
Characters
Brutus, Julius Caesar
Themes
PowerPoliticsHonor and Reputation
Devices
Simile, Soliloquy

Explanation and analysis

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Cowards die many times before their deaths; / The valiant never taste of death but once
Speaker
Julius Caesar
Characters
Julius Caesar, Calpurnia
Themes
Fate and Free WillHonor and Reputation
Symbols
The Omens
Devices
Paradox, Antithesis

Explanation and analysis

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Security gives way to conspiracy
Speaker
Artemidorus
Characters
Julius Caesar
Themes
Loyalty and BetrayalFate and Free Will
Symbols
The Omens

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I have a man's mind, but a woman's might
Speaker
Portia
Characters
Portia, Brutus
Themes
Loyalty and BetrayalHonor and Reputation
Devices
Antithesis, Aside

Explanation and analysis

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Act III: The Assassination and the Forum

Et tu, Brute? Then fall, Caesar!
Speaker
Julius Caesar
Characters
Julius Caesar, Brutus, Casca
Themes
Loyalty and BetrayalPower
Devices
Rhetorical Question

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Cry 'Havoc!' and let slip the dogs of war
Speaker
Mark Antony
Characters
Mark Antony, Julius Caesar, Octavius
Themes
PoliticsPowerLoyalty and Betrayal
Symbols
Caesar's Ghost
Devices
Metaphor, Soliloquy, Foreshadowing

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Not that I loved Caesar less, but that I loved Rome more
Speaker
Brutus
Characters
Brutus, Julius Caesar
Themes
Honor and ReputationPoliticsLoyalty and Betrayal
Devices
Antithesis, Parallelism

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Friends, Romans, countrymen, lend me your ears! / I come to bury Caesar, not to praise him.
Speaker
Mark Antony
Characters
Mark Antony, Brutus, Julius Caesar
Themes
Language and NarrationPoliticsPower
Devices
Irony

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But Brutus says he was ambitious, / And Brutus is an honorable man
Speaker
Mark Antony
Characters
Mark Antony, Brutus, Julius Caesar
Themes
Language and NarrationPoliticsHonor and Reputation
Devices
Repetition, Irony

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It is no matter, his name's Cinna
Speaker
A citizen of the mob (the fourth citizen)
Themes
PoliticsLanguage and Narration
Devices
Situational Irony

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Act IV: The Quarrel in the Camp

He shall but bear them as the ass bears gold, / To groan and sweat under the business
Speaker
Mark Antony
Characters
Mark Antony, Octavius
Themes
PowerPoliticsLoyalty and Betrayal
Devices
Simile

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When love begins to sicken and decay, / It useth an enforcèd ceremony
Speaker
Brutus
Characters
Brutus, Cassius
Themes
Loyalty and BetrayalHonor and Reputation
Devices
Metaphor, Personification

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There is a tide in the affairs of men / Which, taken at the flood, leads on to fortune
Speaker
Brutus
Characters
Brutus, Cassius
Themes
Fate and Free WillPower
Symbols
Caesar's Ghost
Devices
Metaphor

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Act V: Philippi and the Death of Brutus

But this same day / Must end that work the Ides of March begun
Speaker
Brutus
Characters
Brutus, Cassius
Themes
Fate and Free WillHonor and Reputation
Symbols
The Ides of March
Devices
Leitmotif, Foreshadowing

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O Julius Caesar, thou art mighty yet! / Thy spirit walks abroad and turns our swords / In our own proper entrails
Speaker
Brutus
Characters
Brutus, Cassius, Julius Caesar
Themes
Fate and Free WillPower
Symbols
Caesar's Ghost
Devices
Apostrophe, Situational Irony

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When you do find him, or alive or dead, / He will be found like Brutus, like himself
Speaker
Lucilius
Characters
Brutus, Mark Antony
Themes
Honor and ReputationLoyalty and Betrayal
Devices
Foreshadowing

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This was the noblest Roman of them all. / All the conspirators, save only he, / Did that they did in envy of great Caesar
Speaker
Mark Antony
Characters
Brutus, Mark Antony, Octavius, Julius Caesar
Themes
Honor and ReputationPowerLoyalty and Betrayal
Devices
Antithesis

Explanation and analysis

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