Shakespeare's Julius Caesar opens with simultaneous celebrations of Caesar's defeat of Pompey and the annual Lupercal fertility festival. The coupling of two historically distinct events each celebrating distinct gender roles dramatically highlights the importance of gender characterization. The patriarchal society of Rome demands a leader who embodies the virile spirit of the state, with leadership marked by strength, courage and steadfastness. Caesar rightly assumes this role as he returns valiant and victorious from the battlefields; thus, in order to depose the powerful ruler of Rome, Caesar's enemies must remove his masculinity. Roman society viewed women as the embodiment of their weaknesses, believing that their physical, mental, and political inferiority made them of little use beyond reproductive purposes, explaining why aspirants to the throne feminized the identity of the male warrior figure to position him as unfit for the throne. crown.Say no to plagiarism. Get a Custom Essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”? Get an Original Essay The depiction of the novel's two female characters, Portia and Calphurnia, captures dominant stereotypical perceptions of women. Caesar's wife, Calphurnia, demonstrates women's predisposition to fear and superstition when she begs Caesar to stay at home after dreaming that a statue made in Caesar's likeness was shedding blood. Calphurnia establishes the sentiment that fear is a feminine trait by begging Caesar to use her anxiety as an alibi, saying, "Don't go out today. Call it my fear." (2.2.50). Caesar temporarily accepts this arrangement with a veiled acknowledgment of reality - a rhetorical question relating to the fact that he is "afraid to speak the truth to the greybeards" (2.2.67). Caesar then immediately displays his weak resolve when Decius easily persuades him to reverse his earlier decision, and he proceeds to greet the senators, demonstrating another dangerous trait associated with women, fickleness. Portia behaves similarly in the face of women's low expectations and demonstrates "how weak a thing/the woman's heart is!" (2.4.40). She proves untrustworthy and reveals to Lucius Brutus her involvement in the plot because she is overcome by fear. Caesar suffers great insult due to his association with the weak will of women, because in Roman society, masculinity is the measure of Roman dignity. Cassius undertakes a dual strategy to render Caesar unfit for this position. By listing moments of weakness in Caesar's past that illustrate his feminine tendencies, Cassius systematically dismantles the manliness of a figure who should be the embodiment of Roman ideals of masculinity, but he simultaneously seeks to characterize Caesar as an immovable and tyrannical leader for provide a strong moral justification behind the plot. Cassius's revelations highlight the question of how "[a] man of such weak character should / Thus begin the majestic world" (1.2.129-130). Cassius saves him from drowning when Caesar shouts "Help me, Cassius or I will sink!" » » (1.2.111). Similarly, Cassius reveals how Caesar cries for water “like a sick girl” (1.2.128). Continuing this attack, Cassius relates how Caesar, as a woman, "has become superstitious of late" (2.1.195). Ultimately, Caesar's vulnerability is fully realized through Cassius's projections as they provide the impetus for Brutus to join the cause. The physical imperfections that the conspirators exploit as signifiers of female weakness provide further contrast to the leadership's complaintstrong and inflexible of Caesar. Caesar's physical imperfections include the possibility that he is deaf in one ear (1.2.213) because he must turn his head to hear someone speaking (1.2.17). In addition to this defect, Caesar is also prone to epileptic seizures. Caesar adds credibility to the challenges to his claims of leadership by hesitating at the very moment he is to receive the crown (1.2.247-254). Brutus's comment "It is as if he were falling ill" both literally and figuratively foreshadows the gradual devolution of Caesar's masculinity which ultimately culminates in his bloody death. Caesar's death is accompanied by images of blood and tears that parallel a process of childbirth in which the mother's life becomes a sacrifice for the child's survival. Perhaps, in his death, Caesar will be able to create a new Rome, giving an interesting twist to the competition for leadership of this new state between "his sons" Brutus and Antony. Antony's prediction that "domestic fury and fierce civil strife will encumber the whole part of Italy" foreshadows that Caesar's murder threatens to disrupt Rome's homeland (3.1.263-264). Because the woman is the ruler of the domestic domain, the use of the word “domestic” inadvertently places Caesar in a feminine role. Caesar is symbolically the highest authority of a female entity, given that Rome is classified as a feminine name. Antony's comment that "mothers will only smile when they see their children torn apart by the hands of war" (3.1. 267-68) evokes other domestic images. Perhaps by placing Caesar in an unconventional maternal role, Shakespeare allows him to conceive children that his barren wife, Calphurnia, is never able to conceive, thus allowing the full realization of Lupercal, the event that symbolically opens the room. In Calphurnia's disturbing dream of the statue of Caesar, "which, like a fountain with a hundred spouts, / flowed with pure blood, and many vigorous Romans / came smiling and bathed their hands in it" (2.2.76- 79), Caesar becomes a nursing mother like his own, suggesting that Caesar provides his country with a maternal soul upon his death, reaffirming Decius's earlier interpretation of Calphurnia's dream that "from you [Caesar] Rome will suck / revive the blood” (2.2.87). A variation on the notion of Caesar as a reproductive figure is the notable parallel between the bloody images used to discuss Caesar's body and women's menstruation. The phrases “blood was flowing all the time” (3.2.191) and “bleeding business” (3.1.168) that accompany this discussion create a distorted picture of the reproductive cycle. Assuming that Caesar does indeed achieve a mutated form of reproduction, Shakespeare rightly develops a bizarre and twisted characterization of sexuality. Caesar becomes more feminine when his figure is no longer that of an ideal valiant warrior who inspires men; rather, it is the feminine vulnerability of her wounded that arouses a feeling of pity. Brutus' comment "Had I as many eyes as you have wounds / Crying as fast as they flow your blood" (3.1.200-01) recounts the transformation of a world recently clad in armories and weapons for state of reduced tears. Caesar becomes like a woman who has been completely raped by ruthless hunters who need a strong male figure to justify the injustice done to her. Calphurnia's earlier use of the phrase "vigorous Romans" adds a sexualized dimension to regicide, allowing for the possibility that the hunters were metaphorically raping Caesar. As the men ritually cover themselves in Caesar's blood, it is as if they are celebrating the success of the hunt...