Fate and Free Will

The Theme in the Work

In Act I, Scene 2, Cassius tells Brutus that men are sometimes masters of their own fate and that the fault is not in the stars but in themselves. In Act I, Scene 3, he himself reads the storm as a warning from heaven against Caesar, while Cicero reminds him that men interpret events in their own way.

In Act II, Scene 2, Calpurnia, the augurs, and the dream try to hold Caesar back, and he answers that the end set by the gods cannot be avoided and that only cowards die many times. Decius inverts the dream, and Caesar leaves.

In Act IV, Scene 3, Brutus persuades Cassius to march at once to Philippi, using the argument of the tide that is lost if not taken at the flood, and at night the ghost of Caesar promises to meet him there. In Act V, Scene 1, Cassius, who followed Epicurus, confesses that he has come to give some credit to omens, and Brutus says that this day will finish the work the Ides began.

In Act V, Scene 3, before the bodies of Cassius and Titinius, Brutus exclaims that Caesar's spirit is still powerful and turns the swords of the Romans against their own entrails. In Act V, Scene 5, Brutus tells Volumnius that the ghost has appeared to him twice and that his hour has come, with the battle already lost.

In Act I, Scene 2, the Soothsayer warns Caesar against the Ides of March, and Caesar calls him a dreamer; in Act III, Scene 1, on the day of the Ides, Caesar tells him that the Ides have come, and the Soothsayer answers that they have come but have not gone. In the same scene, Artemidorus insists that Caesar read at once the warning he wrote, and Caesar postpones what concerns himself. In Act V, Scene 1, Brutus says he wishes a man could know the end of the day before it comes, but he is content with the certainty that the day ends and then the end will be known. In Act V, Scene 3, Messala attributes Cassius's death to an error of perception, Error, son of melancholy, who shows men what does not exist and kills the one who begot him, and not to a decree of heaven.

The play does not choose between fate and freedom: it gives the freest line to Cassius, who soon reads the sky when it suits him, and has Brutus decide to march on his own argument and then treat death as a fixed hour. Each one uses fate at the moment it serves him, and the text shows the convenience without commenting on it.

Where It Appears

• Act I, Scene 2: Cassius tells Brutus that men are sometimes masters of their fate and that the fault is not in the stars but in themselves.
• Act I, Scene 3: In the night of the storm, Cassius reads the lightning as a warning from heaven against a man who has grown too great, while Cicero distrusts hasty readings of signs.
• Act II, Scene 2: Calpurnia and the augurs try to keep Caesar from leaving, but he says that cowards die many times before their deaths and the valiant taste death only once.
• Act IV, Scene 3: Brutus persuades Cassius to march at once to Philippi with the argument of the tide that is lost if not taken, and then sees the ghost of Caesar, who promises to meet him there.
• Act V, Scene 1: On his birthday, Cassius confesses to Messala that he has come to give credit to omens, because the eagles that marched with the army have been swapped for crows.
• Act V, Scene 3: Brutus arrives and mourns Cassius and Titinius, dead, and exclaims that Caesar is still powerful and that his spirit turns the swords of the Romans against their own entrails.
• Act V, Scene 5: Surrounded and exhausted, Brutus tells Volumnius that Caesar's ghost has appeared to him twice and that his hour has come.

Passages

Cassius, to Brutus, on the stars:

Caesar, facing the augurs:

Brutus, deciding to march on Philippi:

Brutus, before the bodies of Cassius and Titinius: