Discussion Topic

Marullus and Flavius' reactions and reprimands to the commoners in the opening scene of Julius Caesar

Summary:

In the opening scene of Julius Caesar, Marullus and Flavius reprimand the commoners for their fickle loyalty. They criticize the people for celebrating Caesar's triumph when they had previously supported Pompey, whom Caesar defeated. Their reaction highlights their disapproval of Caesar's rising power and the commoners' inconsistency.

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How do Marullus and Flavius rebuke the people in scene 1 of Julius Caesar?

Marullus and Flavius are rebuking the commoners in Scene I because they are out celebrating in the streets on a work day without wearing the sign of their trade.  While ancient Romans did not have uniforms to signify their professions, the people of Elizabethan England did, and Shakespeare added that element to the play to make it more relevant for his audience. Marullus and Flavius are Tribunes who are members of the patrician, or upper-class of Roman society.  It is not customary for the commoners, or plebeians they are referred to in the play, to be out in the streets when they should be at work.  Marullus and Flavius are also angered by the fact that the people are celebrating Caesar's triumph over Pompey, calling them hypocrites and traitors for converting their loyalty.

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How did Marullus and Flavius react to the commoners' wordplay in Julius Caesar, act 1, scene 1?

In Act I, Scene 1 of Julius Caesar, the tribunes Marullus and Flavius accost a group of tradesmen who are wandering the streets in holiday mood. Flavius feels they have no right to be out celebrating:

Hence! home, you idle creatures, get you home.
Is this a holiday?

His temper is not improved when one of the workmen, a cobbler, indulges in some elaborate wordplay around the tools and materials of his trade to dance around Flavius' irritated inquiries:

Truly, Sir, all that I live by is with the awl; I meddle
with no tradesman's matters, nor women's matters, but with
awl. I am indeed, sir, a surgeon to old shoes; when they are
in great danger, I recover them.

As well as punning on "awl/all" and "recover/re-cover," the cobbler plays on the dual meaning of "cobbler" itself (shoe-repairer and bungler) and the two meanings of "out" (angry with and worn out), as well as punning on "sole/soul."

This frivolity serves to underline the high spirits of the common people at the prospect of Caesar's return in triumph, and the furious outburst that it eventually draws from Marullus ("You blocks, you stones, you worse than senseless things") alerts us to the different attitudes towards Caesar in different sections of the Roman populace. In their reaction to the gaiety of the commoners, Flavius and Marullus foreshadow the attitudes of the conspirators against Caesar later in the play.

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