Julius Caesar takes place in Rome during around 100 BC. The question asked is how a play that takes place thousands of years relate to modern times. Although Julius Caesar and the other members of the play lived thousands of years ago, they still pocess the same human nature that we see today in our modern society. Each character in the play is symbolic to a type of person that is found competing for power. Many of the events that occured in Julius Caesar have occured throughout time, making many of the scenes and themes universal. The situation that Julius Caesar got himself into can still be a threat to people in power today.
Each of the four main characters, Brutus, Caesar, Antony, and Cassius all represented different personality types that can still be found on the campaigne trail today. Caesar is shown as the popular man in power. The one that has the uneducated members of society backing him. There are many uneducated and easily swayed people in America, so he feels like he has tons of power and authority, but he is unable to fool the higher members, who will eventually ruin him one way or another. Brutus is the one that has been around for a long time, and has earned much respect from the people, but lacks the desire that Caesar has to try and recieve all the power. His motives are more genuine, he is out there for the country's sake, and will go all out to try and protect it. His naive manner can also cause him to get in trouble just as Brutus did in Julius Caesar. Cassius is the model of the jealous man, who wants someone else's power. He will go to great lengths to rid the man of the highest power, which usually causes him to be the least successful due to his excessive greed and selfish intentions. Last of all Antony is like the vice president to Caesar. He is the one educated man that backs everything the man of power says. The followers can be in it for the ride, but also because they are very naive and truely believe everything the man in power is saying. The four men that starred in Julius Caesar represent the four different personalties that are not only found on the campaigne trail, but in many situtations that contain power struggles.
Brutus and Cassius wanted to take down Caesar because they thought that he was trying to turn the Roman Empire into a Monarchy. All throughout time people have being taking down empires and governmets, which have caused our the government that we have now to be so sucessful. The play Julius Caesar was able to capture the build up of emotions before something drastic like an assanination occurs. Julius Ceasar tells us why this historical events happen, and the conquences that are followed after. It shows that even though the play is about something that happened in 100 BC, the modern society still has many of the same emotions and events that the Romans did.
Julius Caesar contained the type of people and emotions that can be found today in the modern society. Shakespeare used the four string personalities to show the corruption that not only ruined the Roman Empire, but governments throughout time, and even in the modern world. The play took us into the minds of the conspirators, and showed why the overtaking of a government could possibly occur. The corruption of politics still occurs in the modern world today, and Julius Caesar gives an insight to why there is corruption.