Student Question
What is a person vs. supernatural conflict example from Julius Caesar?
Quick answer:
An example of person vs. supernatural conflict in Julius Caesar is the soothsayer's warning to Caesar to "beware the ides of March," which Caesar dismisses as a dream. This supernatural element foreshadows his assassination. Additionally, omens and dreams, such as Calpurnia's vision of Caesar's blood and Cassius's ominous birthday signs, illustrate the tension between characters and supernatural forces that influence their fates and decisions in the play.
The play contains many examples of superstitions and warnings of doom.
A person vs. supernatural conflict is a conflict between a character and something that is not normal in some way. Supernatural elements include ghosts, omens, and superstitions. Romans were very superstitious, and there are many examples of superstitions in the play.
First of all, the soothsayer’s warning to Caesar is an example of a character vs. supernatural conflict because the soothsayer warns Caesar that he is doomed. Caesar does not pay attention, even though someone is telling him a specific day when he should beware.
CAESAR
What say'st thou to me now? speak once again.
Soothsayer
Beware the ides of March.
CAESAR
He is a dreamer; let us leave him: pass. (Act 1, Scene 2)
This is not the only bad omen mentioned in the play. The conspirators mention all kinds of spooky signs that they say they...
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saw, such as tempests, flaming slaves, and owls during the day. Calpurnia has a dream where she imagines Caesar’s blood running like a fountain, and she does not want him to go to the capital on the Ides of March. Caesar almost listens to her, until Decius Brutus convinces him to reinterpret the dream as a positive sign. Of course, it wasn't. Caesar was assassinated on the Ides of March.
Another example of a character vs. supernatural conflict is Cassius’s birthday omens. Cassius gets very superstitious on his birthday, deciding that the bad omens he is seeing mean that his battle is doomed and he is about to die. Although Cassius says he does not normally pay attention to omens, the combination of the fact that it’s his birthday and he is about to go into a battle he does not think will go well makes him morbid.
Coming from Sardis, on our former ensign
Two mighty eagles fell, and there they perch'd,
Gorging and feeding from our soldiers' hands;
Who to Philippi here consorted us:
This morning are they fled away and gone;
And in their steads do ravens, crows and kites,
Fly o'er our heads and downward look on us,
As we were sickly prey … (Act 5, Scene 1)
Cassius was right to be worried. Brutus and Cassius were apparently outmatched at Philippi. Cassius’s interpretation of the omens led him to misread what happened in the battle and commit suicide prematurely. Brutus’s suicide came not much later.
What is an example of person vs. person conflict in Julius Caesar?
There are many examples of Person vs. Person conflicts in this play; in fact, Shakespeare built the play around these conflicts! On the largest scale, it would be the Conspirators' army vs. that of the Second Triumverate at the end of the play. Of course, the Conspirators are defeated. Then we have the conflict between two Conspirators, Brutus and Cassius, after the assassination of Caesar. Brutus calls Cassius greedy.We have the central conflict between Brutus and Mark Antony concerning who should govern Rome. We have the People vs. the Conspirators during Mark Antony's famous speech. And what starts all this conflict??? Of course, the Conspirators vs. Caesar; some have noble reasons for the assassination such as Brutus, and others not so noble such as Cassius!