[Julius Caesar]Performance Assessment

Partner: MinJin, Kim - as Decius
Me - as Caesar

Passage: Act2,Scene2, lines 65-107

CAESAR
Shall Caesar send a lie?
Have I in conquest stretch'd mine arm so far,
To be afraid to tell graybeards the truth?
Decius, go tell them Caesar will not come.

DECIUS BRUTUS
Most mighty Caesar, let me know some cause,
Lest I be laugh'd at when I tell them so.

CAESAR
The cause is in my will: I will not come;
That is enough to satisfy the senate.
But for your private satisfaction,
Because I love you, I will let you know:
Calpurnia here, my wife, stays me at home:
She dreamt to-night she saw my statua,
Which, like a fountain with an hundred spouts,
Did run pure blood: and many lusty Romans
Came smiling, and did bathe their hands in it:
And these does she apply for warnings, and portents,
And evils imminent; and on her knee
Hath begg'd that I will stay at home to-day.

DECIUS BRUTUS
This dream is all amiss interpreted;
It was a vision fair and fortunate:
Your statue spouting blood in many pipes,
In which so many smiling Romans bathed,
Signifies that from you great Rome shall suck
Reviving blood, and that great men shall press
For tinctures, stains, relics and cognizance.
This by Calpurnia's dream is signified.

CAESAR
And this way have you well expounded it.

DECIUS BRUTUS
I have, when you have heard what I can say:
And know it now: the senate have concluded
To give this day a crown to mighty Caesar.
If you shall send them word you will not come,
Their minds may change. Besides, it were a mock
Apt to be render'd, for some one to say
'Break up the senate till another time,
When Caesar's wife shall meet with better dreams.'
If Caesar hide himself, shall they not whisper
'Lo, Caesar is afraid'?
Pardon me, Caesar; for my dear dear love
To our proceeding bids me tell you this;
And reason to my love is liable.

CAESAR
How foolish do your fears seem now, Calpurnia!
I am ashamed I did yield to them.
Give me my robe, for I will go.




The following scene is when Caesar decides to stay at home as Calpurnia wished him to for she fears that Caesar is going to be killed as she dreamt. However, Decius turns out and starts to flatter Caesar to come to the capitol as he planned with the conspirators.
This passage has a few significance in it. Starting with the dramatic irony. The viewers and readers know that Caesar is going to be killed when he reaches the capitol and gets out of his house, and just when Calpurnia managed to find a way to save him, Decius comes along taking that chance away. However, when Caesar claimed that he shall not go, it gives tension in the play and makes the audience think in a different perspective whether Caesar shall be killed or not. Not only making the audience think in a different way, but it also adds some personal feelings in the play such as sympathy or anger towards Caesar's innocence. Another significance is that this is the scene that decided Caesar's fate. The moment he was flattered by Decius to go to the capitol with him, it became sure to the audience that the conspirators shall succeed in their conspiracy and assassination and Caesar shall meet his end.