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REVIEW
- Daiches, David. Shakespeare: Julius
Caesar.
- Studies in English Literature. 65. London:
Edward Arnold, 1976.
Thesis: In this slim book (58 pages), Daiches, after
some opening remarks on tragedy, "the relation between virtue and
power" (8), and "the order-disorder theme" (11), proceeds with a
fairly detailed account of the play. Throughout, Daiches focuses on
character and motivation. Here's a sample of his commentary on the
mixed motives of Brutus:
That human reality is precisely
what Brutus cannot help wanting to obscure. He objects to Cassius's
proposal that the conspirators should take an oath of resolution on
the grounds that this is a unique compact between honesty and honesty
(not interestingly enough, between honest men and honest men) and,
unlike all other sorts of conspiracy, does not require an oath. When
Cassius suggests bringing in Cicero, Brutus impatiently brushes the
suggestion away, 'For he will never follow anything / That other men
begin' (is this a glimmer of political realism, or a sole touch of
jealousy?). When Decius and Cassius argue for the elimination of
Antony as well as Caesar, Brutus dismisses their case on the grounds
that that would be real murder, whereas they are going to kill as
'sacrificers, not butchers'. It is an extraordinary piece of
dressing up:We all stand up against the spirit of
Caesar,
And in the spirit of men there is no blood.
O that we
then could come by Caesar's spirit
And not dismember Caesar! But,
alas,
Caear must bleed for it! And, gentle friends,
Let's kill
him boldly but not wrathfully;
Let's carve him as a dish fit for
the gods,
Not hew him as a carcass fit for hounds.
And let our
hearts, as subtle masters do,
Stir up their servants to an act of
rage
And after seem to chide 'em.
The murder of
Caesar must be done as a disinterested ritual act. As a murder it
must not be real. At the same time there must be an element of
hypocrisy in it (and we remember the etymology of the word
'hypocrisy' from the Greek hypocrisis, 'an acting on the
stage'), since after stirring up their hearts to commit the deed,
they must 'after seem to chide 'em'. If they do it this way,
the populace will see them as 'purgers, not murderers'. The audience
must surely by now have an intense curiosity as to just how this man,
who talks of sacrificing and carving and purging when he is about to
join in committing a political murder, will actually behave during
and immediately after the assassination.
(25)
This kind of thing is helpful, and it gets even
more interesting when Daiches compares characters to each other.
However, Daiches has no general theory about the characters or themes
of the play—or maybe it should be said that he has no axe to
grind.
Bottom Line: Pretty good
pony.
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