Symbols

The Ides of March The date in March against which a soothsayer warns Caesar and which the play treats as a deadline: the day the Senate meets and Caesar is killed. Before it arrives, it is announced; afterward, it becomes the mark of everything that came from the assassination. The Omens The signs of heaven, earth, and dreams that the play scatters around the assassination: the storm of fire, the lion loose in the street, the night bird in broad daylight, the sacrificed animal without a heart, the dreams of Calpurnia and of the poet Cinna,... Caesar's Ghost Caesar's apparition to Brutus, and afterward the idea that his spirit keeps acting after the death of the body. The play shows the vision once, and the rest of Act V treats it as truth. The Refused Crown The crown that Antony offers Caesar at the Lupercal and that he refuses three times. The play never shows the scene: it arrives told, and afterward it reappears in every discussion about whether Caesar wanted to be king. Caesar's Blood The blood of Julius Caesar and the wounds opened in his body. Before the crime, it appears in Calpurnia's dream, in which Caesar's statue gushes blood like a fountain; in the Senate, the conspirators bathe their hands in it; at the funeral, Mark Antony shows...