The fickle crowd of Roman plebians that gather after the assasination of Julius Caesar is influenced by the words of both Brutus and Marc Antony. When the citizens first hear the reasons that Brutus propounds for the slaying of Caesar, that he loves Rome more than he does Caesar, and that...
See This Answer Now
Start your 48-hour free trial to unlock this answer and thousands more. Enjoy eNotes ad-free and cancel anytime.
Already a member? Log in here.
he and the others slayed Caesar to save Rome from tyranny and keep them free, they cheer Brutus and tell him to live, rather than sacrifice his life at their demand. In fact, some want to erect a statue of him, while others suggest that he become a Caesar--"let him be Caesar"; moreover, one citizen even says,
Caesar's better parts
Shall be crown'd in Brutus. (2.2.53-54)
However, after this same crowd listens to Marc Antony's oration, they are easily moved by his rhetoric; consequently, they begin to doubt Brutus and the others' noble deed in slaying Caesar. For, Antony has raised suspicion in the crowd regarding the motives of the conspirators by saying such things as
You all did love him once, not without cause;
What cause withholds you then to mourn for him? (3.2.110-111)
As he kneels over the body of Ceasar that he tells the crowd has been disfigured by traitors, Antony directs the crowd to the many and brutal wounds of Caesar,
Look, in this place ran Cassius' dagger through;
See what a rent the envious Casca made;
Through this the well-beloved Brutus stabb'd;
And as he pluck'd his cursed steel away,
Mark how the blood of Caesar follow'd it, (3.2.184-188)
Further, Antony stirs the Romans suggesting that Brutus and the others want their inheritances from Caesar; moreover, Antony says if he were Brutus and Brutus Antony, this Antony
Would ruffle up your spirits and put a tongue
In every wound of Caesar that should move
The stones of Rome to rise and mutiny.(3.2.238-240)
With his words, Marc Antony spurs the Roman crowd to riot, and they run to set fires, tear down benches, break windows, and create civil unrest. Most significantly, the civil war that the Roman citizens begin causes the separation of powers with Brutus and Cassius against the Triumvirate of Marc Antony, Caesar Octavius, and Marcus Aerilius Lepidus; after Brutus and Cassius's forces are defeated, the provinces are divided into spheres of influence.
What role does the mob have in Shakespeare's Julius Caesar?
The high point in the play is Antony's funeral oration in Act 3, Scene 2, in which Antony succeeds in turning the Roman citizens against Brutus, Cassius, and the other assassins of Julius Caesar and causes the enraged mob to drive the conspirators out of Rome. Shakespeare needed to hire a bunch of extras to play the mob members, simply providing each man with something resembling a toga and instructing them to follow the lead of one or two members of his regular company who were professional actors. It is noteworthy that in order to make the best use of these extras, he wrote in two additional scenes in which a large body of plebians appears. One is at the very beginning where "certain Commoners" are confronted by the tribunes Flavius and Murellus and told to get off the streets (1.1.64). The other appearance of the mob members occurs in Act 3, Scene 3, when the innocent poet named Cinna is torn to pieces by the rampaging mob simply because he bears the same name as one of the conspirators (3.3.1-37). This scene is intended to show the irrational behavior of mobs in general as well as to illustrate dramatically how thoroughly Antony has enraged them with his funeral oration. Without the mob, Brutus and Cassius and the other conspirators would have remained in power in Rome and subsequent history might have been entirely different.