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The role and significance of women in Shakespeare's Julius Caesar

Summary:

In Julius Caesar, women play a minor yet significant role. Characters like Calpurnia and Portia offer crucial insights into the personal lives and emotional states of their husbands, Caesar and Brutus, respectively. Calpurnia's prophetic dream and Portia's plea for Brutus to confide in her highlight their influence and the gender dynamics of the time.

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What is the role of women in Julius Caesar by William Shakespeare?

In Julius Caesar by William Shakespeare, it is a man’s world.  In the Roman world, women were irrelevant.  They were not allowed to speak in public and were barred from the world of politics.  

A woman’s main function was to serve in the home.  Women in the Shakespearean plays were used to oppose the values of a masculine world. There are only two female characters in Julius Caesar. Calpurnia and Portia love and serve their husbands. 

Calpurnia’s character analysis

Julius Caesar’s wife was Calpurnia.   A wife’s role is as worrier about the safety of her husband.  Calpurnia exclaims: “You shall not stir out of your house today.”

Her purpose in the play was to foreshadow the death of Caesar at the senate.  On the eve of the Ides of March, Calpurnia has a portentous dream.  Calpurnia imagines herself to be “A lioness [that] hath whelped in the streets.”   In comparison,...

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Caesar has asserted that he does not fear death end.  Caesar tells the dream himself:

Calpurnia here, my wife, stays me at home:
She dreamt to-night she saw my statue
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 on her knee
Hath begg'd that I will stay at home to-day.

Calpurnia begs Caesar to stay at home. Her pleas seem to find Caesar’s ear until Decius Brutus shows up.  Decius shames Caesar by indicating that women do not know how to interpret dreams.  Thus, Calpurnia is thrust again to the background as a female who worries over nothing.

PortiaCharacter Analysis

Portia is Brutus's devoted wife.  Portia is aware that something has been troubling Brutus. He refuses to confide his problems to Portia.  Portia feels this goes against the confines of marriage. 


Within the bond of marriage, tell me, Brutus,
Is it excepted I should know no secrets
That appertain to you? Am I yourself
To keep with you at meals, comfort your bed,
And talk to you sometimes? Dwell I but in the suburbs
Of your good pleasure? If it be no more,
Portia is Brutus' harlot, not his wife.

Portia’s thoughts indicate that she believes that  Brutus does not trust his wife.  Then, her purpose is only to serve him, and she becomes his prostitute.

Unfortunately, Portia has been convinced that her sex is weaker than men. Intelligent and clever, she is the daughter of the great Cato, a highly reputed Senator; furthermore,  she  believes that she is stronger than most women.  Foolishly, she stabs herself in the thigh showing no pain and demands that Brutus respect her and share his thoughts with her.  Shocked by his wife’s display, he does agree to talk with her later and tell her his problems.  

Although Portia is an admirable wife, Shakespeare uses her character to portray some qualities that most Shakespearean men found annoying. She nags her husband; she attempts to manipulate him with the reminder of her ancestry; and she deigns to interfere with her husband’s inner most thoughts. 

Portia has hinted at a future occurrence with her self-inflicted wound.  Later, in Act IV, Brutus shares that Portia has killed herself by swallowing fire or hot coals.  What a horrible death, yet an interesting turn of events since it is the men who are prone to violence.

Both women love and respect their husbands.  Yet, their opinions are ignored because they represent the feminine sex. To Shakespeare, they should take care of their domestic roles and let the men rule the world.

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Both women in the play, Calpurnia (Caesar's wife) and Portia (Brutus' wife) help to move the plot along.  Calpurnia does this with her dream and her begging Caesar to stay at home instead of going to the Senate.  She helps to bring forth the theme of superstition and the paranormal--seeing the future in dreams.

Portia represents a much stronger woman in my eyes.  She tells Brutus that she is not just a woman, but his partner in all he does.  She recognizes that he is troubled and begs him to share the trouble with her so that she could help him overcome it.  She obviously loves Brutus, and she proves that she can take the seriousness of his man's problem by stabbing herself with a dagger in her thigh.  Some critics draw attention to the blood she spills on herself as a dangerous and evil omen of what the future holds for her and her husband.  Brutus dies by his own sword, and Portia swallows hot coals to bring on her death.

The women act as foils to their husbands, bringing out certain characteristics in the men for the audience that perhaps other characters would not be able to illiminate.

They are the confidants and support system for their husbands. But notice that the only two women mentioned in the entire play are the spouses of the two most important characters.  Undoubtedly other women were involved historically, but Shakespeare only includes these two in order to reveal things about their husbands and to develop theme/plot.

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What are the roles of women in The Tragedy of Julius Caesar by Shakespeare, and why are they included?

Shakespeare derived virtually all the historical information he used in his play from Plutarch's "Life of Julius Caesar," "Life of Brutus," and "Life of Antony." Both Calpurnia and Portia are frequently mentioned in these histories, so it was natural that Shakespeare should include them in his play. Besides that, there are too many male characters. It is impossible to keep them all straight in one's mind. Shakespeare needed some female characters (albeit played by young males) just for contrast and variety. He had actors in his company who specialized in female roles and he wanted to make use of them. (It seems possible that both Calpurnia and Portia, who never appear together, may have been played by the same young female impersonator wearing different wigs and different gowns.)

Calpurnia is important because of her dreams and her urging her husband to stay at home on the Ides of March. This comes straight out of Plutarch. An example of how Shakespeare dramatizes what he learned from Plutarch is seen in the following from Act 2, Scene 2:

Caesar, I never stood on ceremonies,
Yet now they fright me. There is one within,
Besides the things that we have heard and seen,
Recounts most horrid sights seen by the watch.
A lioness hath whelped in the streets;
And graves have yawn'd, and yielded up their dead;
Fierce fiery warriors fight upon the clouds,
In ranks and squadrons and right form of war,
Which drizzled blood upon the Capitol;
The noise of battle hurtled in the air,
Horses did neigh and dying men did groan,
And ghosts did shriek and squeal about the streets.
O Caesar! These things are beyond all use,
And I do fear them.

Portia is important mainly because she gives Brutus someone to talk to about his conflicting feelings. Otherwise Shakespeare might have had to resort to more soliloquies, which may be eloquent but are not dramatic. In Act 2, Scene 1, Portia finally gets her husband to promise to tell her everything about what is worrying him. Here is an example of her persuasive power.

Is Brutus sick, and is it physical
To walk unbraced and suck up the humors
Of the dank morning? What, is Brutus sick,
And will he steal out of his wholesome bed
To dare the vile contagion of the night
And tempt the rheumy and unpurged air
To add unto his sickness? No, my Brutus,
You have some sick offense within your mind,
Which by the right and virtue of my place
I ought to know of; and, upon my knees,
I charm you, by my once commended beauty,
By all your vows of love and that great vow
Which did incorporate and make us one,
That you unfold to me, yourself, your half,
Why you are heavy, and what men tonight
Have had resort to you; for here have been
Some six or seven, who did hide their faces
Even from darkness.

Both Calpurnia and Portia love their husbands and are utterly dependent upon them. They both provide interesting exchanges of dialogue between husbands and wives, building audience sympathy as well as creating suspense. Calpurnia is not successful in persuading her husband to stay at home that fatal day, but the outcome shows she was totally correct in her fears and premonitions.

Portia does not attempt to persuade Brutus to abandon his role in the plot to assassinate Caesar, but she does learn all about it from him in a conversation which is assumed to have taken place offstage. Onstage he tells her:

Portia, go in awhile,
And by and by thy bosom shall partake
The secrets of my heart.
All my engagements I will construe to thee,
All the charactery of my sad brows.
Leave me with haste.   II.i

She has become a co-conspirator--something he probably wanted to avoid by concealing everything from her. In Act 4, Scene 4 she is in an emotional turmoil because now she knows all about the attempt that will shortly be made on Caesar's life. This scene is very effective because she is a weak, helpless woman who is burdened with direct and complete knowledge of what is about to happen. This is in contrast to Calpurnia who only has dreams and premonitions. But both women serve to build tension up to the point where the conspirators encircle Julius Caesar and stab him to death.

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