Caesar, Julius | Norman Sanders (essay date 1964)
Norman Sanders (essay date 1964)
SOURCE: "The Shift of Power in Julius Caesar" in A Review of English Literature, Vol. 5, No. 2, April, 1964, pp. 24-35.
[In the following essay, Sanders traces the movement of political power in the play, arguing that Octavius regains the power formerly possessed by Caesar.]
It has frequently been noted that Julius Caesar has a special atmosphere which sets it apart from both Shakespeare's other Roman plays and his tragedies in general. Many critics have seen this atmosphere, in the main to be a product of the distinctive style that Shakespeare fashioned for the play. T. S. Dorsch, the play's most recent editor, has suggested that the language is 'in keeping with the gravity and dignity traditionally associated with the Roman character', and instances the clarity and simplicity of the speeches, the comparative lack of humour, and the relative absence of highly descriptive poetry. All this is...
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