Singapore's economy soared in the first three months of 2010, bouncing back from a contraction the previous quarter as manufacturing more than doubled.
Gross domestic product grew an annualized, seasonally adjusted 32.1 percent in the first quarter, led by a 139 percent jump in industrial production, the Trade and Industry Ministry said Wednesday.
The economy grew 13.1 percent in the first quarter from the same period a year ago, and the government boosted its 2010 GDP forecast to between 7 percent and 9 percent from between 4.5 percent and 6.5 percent, the ministry said.
Singapore's strong GDP numbers suggest Asia has emerged from last year's recession as a leading driver of global economic growth.
The city-state was the first Asian country to report first quarter GDP results, while China is scheduled to do so Thursday.
"The recovery of the Singapore economy has been stronger than expected and more entrenched since the beginning of this year," the central bank said.
"Looking ahead, domestic economic activity is likely to be sustained at a relatively high level."
The bank, known as the Monetary Authority of Singapore, said Wednesday that it has shifted its exchange rate policy from a 0 percent appreciation of the Singapore dollar to a "modest and gradual" appreciation in a bid to dampen inflation.
The government also raised its inflation forecast for this year by 0.5 percentage points to between 2.5 percent and 3.5 percent.
"Inflationary pressures are likely to pick up, driven by rising global commodity prices," the bank said.
Both Caesar and Brutus are perceived to be heroes and villains in Julius Caesar. At the opening of the play, Caesar is hailed for his conquests and is admired for his apparent humility upon refusing the crown. However, once murdered, Caesar is painted (by Brutus et al) as a power hungry leader with the intentions of enslaving all of Rome. Brutus' speech, which follows Caesar's death, successfully manipulates the plebeian perspective. By the end of his speech, the crowd is hailing Brutus for killing Caesar, whom they now perceive as a great villain.
However, the simplistic and gullible crowd is easily swayed once again when Antony speaks. Following Brutus' remarks, Antony gives Caesar's eulogy, manipulating the crowd with stories of Caesar's kindness, and sharing the details of Caesar's will, which leaves money to every Roman. At the end of Antony's speech, the crowd is once again supportive of Caesar, mourns his death, and they are bent on killing Brutus, Cassius, and the other murderers. The swaying opinions of the plebeians, and the great differences in opinion that the play presents leave the audience to determine who, if anyone, is the hero of the play, and who, if anyone, is the villain.
Omens
The seriousness with which Romans looked to omens is evident throughout Julius Caesar; though many ominous warnings and negative omens are often overlooked or misinterpreted by the characters in the play. For example, Caesar ignores the soothsayer's warning to "beware the ides of March", of Calpurnia's detailed dream of his death, and the negative omen of the sacrificial animal who has no heart. Caesars pays the price for ignoring these omens.
The other omens were mentioned after the festival of Lupercalia. Casca sees many strange omens, such as a man with a burning hand but suffers no burns, a strange occurrence of a lion roaming in the streets, as well as an owl screeching during the day time. Cicero, with whom Casca confers regarding these matters, explains that people interprets omens as they see fit, inventing their own explanations. True to form, Casca interprets these strange omens as warnings of Caesar's wish to rule all of Rome with an iron hand, and to destroy the Republic.
Other omens that play important roles in the play include the appearance of Caesar's ghost and when eagles abandon Cassius' and Brutus' camp and are replaced by ravens and vultures.
Idealism
Brutus wishes for an ideal world. He is happily married, lives in a beautiful home, and is successful according to all measures of Roman living. However, Brutus wishes for perfection in his life, and although he loves Caesar, Brutus fears Caesar is too power hungry, and might possibly destroy the Republic. Cassius understands Brutus' idealism and manipulates him into joining the conspiracy against Caesar. At heart, it appears it is Brutus' idealism for a stable and peaceful Rome that causes his ultimate downfall though many may interpret that Brutus own ‘idealism of self’ killed him. Antony recognizes this fact when addressing Brutus' dead body at the conclusion of the play, saying "This was the noblest Roman of them all". There is a play on the word, “Roman’ here.
Identities, both Public and Private
In Julius Caesar, the audience is able to see both the private and public sides of Caesar and Brutus. Caesar is a powerful confident man who leads great armies and effectively rules the Roman Empire, yet he is not without weakness. He is highly superstitious, suffers from epilepsy, and ultimately proves to be human when murdered by his closest friends. Similarly, Brutus is strong and refuses to show weakness when in public, whether it be speaking to the plebeians or leading an army into battle. However, we see through his intimate conversations with his wife Portia and with Cassius, that Brutus is often unsure and greatly pained. Specifically, after fleeing Rome, Brutus learns that his wife has committed suicide, and is heartbroken when discussing it with Cassius. However, as soon as soldiers enter his tent, he pretends to not know of her death, and when told of it, does not react with great emotion.
Ambition and Conflict
Caesar is a great man, and an ambitious man. His ambition is what worries Brutus, and ultimately leads to Brutus joining the conspiracy to murder Caesar. Cassius is also a very ambitious man, and because he is so jealous of Caesar's power, wishes to kill him to gain more power for himself. Ultimately, the ambition of these two men leads to their downfalls and to virtual anarchy in the streets of Rome. Great ambition leads to great conflict.
Power of Speech
Speech plays a very important role in the plot developments of Julius Caesar. The plebeians are easily swayed into greatly opposing viewpoints through Brutus' and Antony's speeches. Antony's great manipulation of the crowd causes anarchy in the streets of Rome and creates the support for a mission to avenge Caesar's death.
In addition, Brutus is hesitant at first to join the conspiracy against Caesar, but after speaking with the highly manipulative Cassius, Brutus is more convinced. Then, after receiving an anonymous letter (actually written by Cassius) that decries the rule of Caesar, Brutus is convinced he must take action and agrees to join Cassius' murderous plot.
Scholars generally date the composition of Julius Caesar to 1599, between Shakespeare's Henry V and Hamlet, and suggest that the drama combines the elements of Shakespearean history and tragedy. Set in Rome in 44 B.C, the play depicts the senatorial conspiracy to murder Caesar and the political turmoil that ensues in the aftermath of the assassination.
Critics observe that the drama features two potentially tragic figures: the slain emperor and Marcus Brutus, Caesar's close friend and the head of the conspirators. Contemporary scholars have continued the tradition of analyzing the motivations and ambiguities inherent in Shakespeare's dramatization of these historical personages, particularly Brutus. Additionally, modern commentators have studied Shakespeare's intriguing historical reconstruction of early Imperial Rome, with a particular focus on the interrelationship of history, politics, and philosophy in the drama. Summarizing a contemporary understanding of Julius Caesar, John Wilders calls a brilliantly constructed political thriller” with powerful resonance in the modern world.
Character-centered study of Julius Caesar has primarily concentrated on the figure of Brutus, who is considered by many critics to be the tragic focus of the play. Although conventional, twentieth-century critical consensus on Brutus has tended to emphasize his nobility and idealism, some critics have stressed the ambivalent nature of his character. William R. Bowden (1966) describes Brutus as intellectually inferior to his coconspirator Cassius, as well as generally unperceptive and deliberately self-serving, despite his attempts to mask these tendencies.
In contrast to Bowden's unfavorable portrait of Brutus, Ruth M. Levitsky (1973) remarks on the virtues of this character. Levitsky contends that Brutus's virtue derives from his Stoic persona and ideals, which are the source of his will, purpose, constancy, and passion.
Similarly, A. D. Nuttall (1983) admires Shakespeare's finely nuanced portrayal of Brutus. Nuttall traces the ways in which Shakespeare infused Brutus's character with such abstract qualities as Stoicism, pathos, egotism, shame, and rationalization in order to produce a well-rounded, psychologically distinct character capable of eliciting audience sympathy.
Julian C. Rice (1973) contends that Julius Caesar promotes a philosophy of character based upon Renaissance Pyrrhonism, a skeptical philosophical position that underscores the antiheroic, fallible, and incongruous attributes of the play's characters.
Throughout most of its history, Julius Caesar has been highly popular on the stage. Directors and audiences alike are attracted to the play's grandiose displays of pageantry, rhetorical eloquence, forceful characterizations, and exciting battle sequences.
Director Edward Hall's 2001 to 2002 production of Julius Caesar with the Royal Shakespeare Company generally inspired praise from reviewers. Patrick Carnegy (2001) admires Hall's interpretation, particularly its portrayal of the conspirators, rather than Caesar, as the greater threat to Rome, and notes that the production captured “the ambiguities at the heart of the play.” Russell Jackson (2002) contends that despite Hall's “ruthless” cutting of Shakespeare's text, the director managed an effective Julius Caesar by balancing ideological allusions with innovative perspectives on character, such as Brutus's display of an overarching pride and ambition that nearly matched Caesar's own self-absorbed power. Reviewer Frank Johnson (2002), in contrast, returns a far more critical estimation of the production, arguing that the worn idea of Caesar as a fascist dictator, as in Hall's staging, should be retired.
Karin Coonrod's Theatre for a New Audience production failed to impress Bruce Weber (2003), whose appraisal faults its reductive concentration on American partisan politics. In contrast, Weber praises Daniel Sullivan's 2003 production of Julius Caesar staged at the Old Globe Theater in San Diego, particularly its imaginative and politically evocative setting which depicted life after the collapse of the American empire and suggested the destructive legacy imposed by worldly ambition.
Shakespeare's representation of history and politics in Julius Caesar have been a major interest for contemporary critics. Joseph S. M. J. Chang (1970) views Julius Caesar as a demonstration of Shakespeare's historical relativism. According to Chang, the play illustrates that “the past is difficult to retrieve, and that the ends of history are best served by scrupulous objectivity.” Robin Headlam Wells (2002) claims that in Julius Caesar Shakespeare depicted a Machiavellian view of politics and history, but notes the play is “Machiavellian in the sense that it dramatises a pragmatic and sceptical view of politics which recognizes that virtue and utility are not always compatible.”
Critics are also interested in the play's depiction of Rome and its affinities with Shakespeare's England. A. W. Bellringer (1970) maintains that the subject of Julius Caesar is essentially Roman, with no significant Elizabethan or modern parallels. Marvin L. Vawter (1973) also explores the play's Roman themes. The critic claims that the drama should be understood as a critique not just of Caesar's tyrannical ambition or the malicious intent of the conspirators, but as a wholesale condemnation of the corrupted Roman nobility for its destruction of natural, communal bonds. Myron Taylor (1973) regards Julius Caesar as a drama concerned with clashing philosophical perspectives: the Epicurean philosophy of Cassius and the superstitious worldview of Caesar. Taylor contends that the play refutes Cassius's atheist and materialist viewpoint and presents the philosophical message that “[m]en are not the masters of destiny, nor is history without moral significance.”
Before Shakespeare's time and during his boyhood, troupes of actors performed wherever they could ¬ in halls, courts, courtyards, and any other open spaces available.
However, in 1574, when Shakespeare was ten years old, the Common Council passed a law requiring plays and theaters in London to be licensed. In 1576, actor and future Lord Chamberlain's Man, James Burbage, built the first permanent theater, called "The Theatre", outside London city walls. After this many more theaters were established, including the Globe Theatre, which was where most of Shakespeare's plays premiered.
Elizabethan theaters were generally built after the design of the original Theatre. Built of wood, these theaters comprised three tiers of seats in a circular shape, with a stage area on one side of the circle. The audience's seats and part of the stage were roofed, but much of the main stage and the area in front of the stage in the center of the circle were open to the elements.
About 1,500 audience members could pay extra money to sit in the covered seating areas, while about 800 "groundlings" paid less money to stand in this open area before the stage. The stage itself was divided into three levels: a main stage area with doors at the rear and a curtained area in the back for "discovery scenes"; an upper, canopied area called "heaven" for balcony scenes; and an area under the stage called "hell," accessed by a trap door in the stage. There were dressing rooms located behind the stage, but no curtain in the front of the stage, which meant that scenes had to flow into each other and "dead bodies”, had to be dragged off.
Performances took place during the day, using natural light from the open center of the theater. Since there could be no dramatic lighting and there was very little scenery or props, audiences relied on the actors' lines and stage directions to supply the time of day and year, the weather, location, and mood of the scenes. Shakespeare's plays masterfully supply this information. For example, in Hamlet the audience learns within the first twenty lines of dialogue where the scene takes place ("Have you had quiet guard?"), what time of day it is ("'Tis now strook twelf"), what the weather is like ("'Tis bitter cold"), and what mood the characters are in ("and I am sick at heart").
One important difference between plays written in Shakespeare's time and those written today is that Elizabethan plays were published after their performances, sometimes even after their authors' deaths, and were in many ways a record of what happened on stage during these performances rather than directions for what should happen. Actors were allowed to suggest changes to scenes and dialogue and had much more freedom with their parts than actors today. Shakespeare's plays are no exception. In Hamlet, for instance, much of the plot revolves around the fact that Hamlet writes his own scene to be added to a play in order to ensnare his murderous father.
Shakespeare's plays were published in various forms and with a wide variety of accuracy during his time. The discrepancies between versions of his plays from one publication to the next make it difficult for editors to put together authoritative editions of his works. Plays could be published in large anthologies called Folios (the First Folio of Shakespeare's plays contain 36 plays) or smaller Quartos. Folios were so named because of the way their paper was folded in half to make chunks of two pages each which were sewn together to make a large volume. Quartos were smaller, cheaper books containing only one play. Their paper was folded twice, making four pages. In general, the First Folio is of better quality than the quartos. Therefore, plays that are printed in the First Folio are much easier for editors to compile.
Although Shakespeare's language and classical references seem archaic to some modern readers, they were commonplace to his audiences. His viewers came from all classes, and his plays appealed to all kinds of sensibilities, from "highbrow" accounts of kings and queens of old to the "lowbrow" blunderings of clowns and servants. Even his most tragic plays include clown characters for comic relief and to comment on the events of the play. Audiences would have been familiar with his numerous references to classical mythology and literature, since these stories were staples of the Elizabethan knowledge base.
While Shakespeare¹s plays appealed to all levels of society and included familiar story lines and themes, they also expanded his audiences' vocabularies. Many phrases and words that we use today, like "amazement", "in my mind's eye", "the milk of human kindness", and "It was all Greek to me" were coined by Shakespeare. His plays contain a greater variety and number of words than almost any other work in the English language, showing that he was quick to innovate, had a huge vocabulary, and was interested in using new phrases and words.
NAGOYA, Japan, Nov 30 — The head of the Bank of Japan (BOJ) said the bank will act decisively if financial markets destabilise again, his strongest hint yet at fresh steps to support markets, as the government piles pressure on it to act against deflation and the risk of another recession.
The comment came ahead of BOJ Governor Masaaki Shirakawa’s expected meeting with Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama this week, which a government spokesman said could touch on whether the BOJ was considering adopting quantitative easing.
“We absolutely don’t have any plan to prepare for exiting our easy policy,” Shirakawa told business leaders in Nagoya, central Japan.
“If we experience financial market turmoil again, the BOJ will act aggressively and decisively,” he said.
The government, worried about the risk of another recession, is putting pressure on the BOJ to do its part to support the economy. But the bank has said there is little it can do beyond keeping interest rates at the current 0.1 percent to push up prices.
Analysts say the BOJ will eventually be pressed to increase its government bond buying, however, or revert to a quantitative easing policy of flooding markets with extra cash.
Shirakawa said he recognises the pain felt by Japanese companies from the yen’s surge to a 14-year high, adding that he would closely examine how currency moves affect the economy.
He said the BOJ held a very cautious view of the economy and shared the government’s view that the country was in mild deflation in the sense that price falls are likely to persist.
The government is considering including measures to deal with the recent surge in the yen in an economic stimulus package it plans to compile this week.
Data on Monday showed industrial output rose 0.5 per cent in October and manufacturers forecast further rises in the following two months, easing some concern that the economy could slow to a standstill or even contract early next year.
But the yen’s surge last week is hurting Japanese manufacturers’ profitability and could derail an export-driven recovery in the economy.
Finance Minister Hirohisa Fujii said that he would not intervene in currency markets and that now was the time to monitor the markets, Japan’s Mainichi Shimbun daily reported today.
A rebound in the manufacturing sector has been driving Japan’s recovery since earlier this year. The economy grew 1.2 per cent in July-September after a revised 0.7 per cent expansion the preceding quarter. — Reuters
Singapore’s central bank tightened its monetary policy today by recentering its Singapore dollar policy band upwards and by shifting its policy to modest and gradual appreciation for the currency.
The decision came as the economy expanded a stronger-than-expected 13.1 per cent in the first quarter of 2010 from a year earlier, preliminary government data showed on Wednesday, driven by stronger manufacturing output.
Key points:
- The central bank tightened policy by allowing a stronger Singapore dollar, saying the Singapore economy has rebounded from the downturn while inflationary pressures were likely to pick up, after easing policy a year ago to support the economy.
- Gross domestic product in January-March rose 32.1 per cent from the previous quarter on an annualised and seasonally adjusted basis, against market expectations of a 18.4 percent rise.
Commentary:
Robert Prior- Wandesforde, economist at HSBC
“Clearly everyone was expecting a strong number, and the MAS had no choice but to tighten policy. By Singapore standards a significant change, fully justified by this enormous GDP number, on the fact that recovery is not only strong but sustainable.”
Market reaction:
- The Singapore dollar was quoted at 1.3816/29 per US dollar, compared to levels of 1.3916 just before the policy announcement.
- The statement was released before the benchmark FTSE ST Index started trading. It ended Tuesday’s session 0.19 per cent higher/lower at 2,971.60 points.
- To view the full statements, please go to the Web site of the Monetary Authority of Singapore and the Ministry of Trade and Industry.
Context:
* The Monetary Authority of Singapore sets policy by managing the Singapore dollar’s nominal effective exchange rate — its relative value compared with a basket of currencies of trading partners — instead of setting interest rates.
* The band and the basket of currencies are kept secret, but big banks and investors have models that mirror the system.
* Singapore’s economy has rebounded from its worst ever recession last year, and the government now expects gross domestic product to grow by 7-9 per cent this year, after GDP shrank 2.0 per cent in 2009. —
My Take:
Well, what do you know? Singapore is doing very well! Wither Malaysia?
Two market sources have claimed that China’s economy grew about 11.9 per cent in the first quarter from a year earlier, topping expectations. This represents the fastest annual pace in nearly three years.
Consumer price inflation in March was roughly 2.4 per cent year-on-year, below forecasts and a deceleration from February’s 2.7 per cent rate, one of the sources said.
China is scheduled to publish its first-quarter GDP growth rate and a suite of economic data for March tomorrow.
Despite the economy’s rapid growth — an annual rate of 11.9 per cent would be the fastest since the second quarter of 2007 — the government today struck a note of caution.
“The economy’s fast-paced growth is the result of policy stimulus to a relatively big degree and it is also because of the low base effect compared with last year,” the State Council, or cabinet, said in its quarterly assessment of economic performance.
But, in a sign of its gradual shift towards policy tightening, the government omitted a stock phrase used in its assessments last year that the economic recovery was not yet on a solid footing.
Instead, it said that the economy still faced a range of problems, taking direct aim at the property sector.
“Some factors that are pushing up prices have appeared, strengthening inflationary expectations. In particular, the overly fast increase of housing prices in some cities is quite a prominent problem,” the cabinet statement said.
“We will unswervingly curb excessively fast housing price increases,” it said, adding that it would also work to stabilise the overall prices level.
Property inflation quickened to 11.7 per cent in the year to March from February’s 10.7 per cent reading, according to the government’s official gauge, which likely understates the extent of price rises.
The cabinet pledged to maintain the appropriately loose monetary policy and active fiscal policy first implemented at the height of the global financial crisis in late 2008.
Although the official description of policy has not been changed, Beijing has, in practice, reined in its ultra-loose, pro-growth measures.
In its clearest move to normalise policy, it has guided the country’s banks to lend less. Banks issued 2.6 trillion yuan (RM1.2 trillion) in net new local-currency loans in the first quarter, 40 per cent less than in the same period last year.
The focus of the appropriately loose monetary policy has shifted to “appropriately” from “loose”, Hu Xiaolian, a central bank vice governor, said last month.
The cabinet also noted that potential financial risks should not be overlooked, vowing to strengthen its management over local government financing.
Economists have pointed to debt incurred by local governments as a growing risk to Chinese public finances. Estimates of the amount of their debt vary, with most centring around 6 trillion yuan, roughly 20 per cent of GDP.
Provinces, cities and towns have circumvented restrictions on their own borrowing by obtaining financing through investment subsidiaries, making it difficult to gauge the full extent of local government debt.
The cabinet statement did not make any mention of the yuan or exchange rate policy.
US President Barack Obama said on Tuesday that China had yet to set a timetable for reforming the yuan despite “frank” conversations he had had with President Hu Jintao, and a Chinese spokesman said Beijing would not bow to foreign pressure on currency reform.
The GDP and inflation numbers heard by Reuters matched those reported earlier today by China Business News, a Chinese-language newspaper which cited an unidentified source.
The only authoritative edition is the 1623 First Folio which is based on the theater company's official promptbook rather than Shakespeare's manuscript. After some controversy concerning some minor characters the line where Caesar says, “Know Caesar doth not wrong but with just cause." was omitted in the Fisrt Folio. The latter Oxford edition chose to add the four words back into the play, arguing that the apparent contradiction helps to more fully portray Caesar's characteristic god-like aspirations.
Julius Caesar opens in 44 B.C., at a time when Rome ruled territories stretching from as far north as Britain to as far east as Persia. Rome's military success had come at a serious cost to the political situation in the home city. Governed by a senate.there was so much factionalizaton that successful generals started to assume power.
The Roman society also was divided by class differences. The middle class plebeians could elect tribunes or representatives to gain some political power. Women and most plebeians were excluded or disenfranchised. Though the Republic claimed to be democratic, the majority did not participate in general politics.
It was during such a scenario that several men attempted to takes over the government and failed.
The Real or Assumed Might of Julius Caesar
Julius Caesar was a Roman general who had made a name for himself through his successful campaigning of northwest Europe. His advantage lay not only in winning battles, but also in his popularity among the poorer classes in Rome. He possessed innate talent, charisma, ambition, and luck, which, when combined, allowed his political power to increase or is perceived to be so.
Supporters of the traditional form of government realized that men like Caesar posed a serious threat to the republic, and when legal and military attempts failed to stop him, conspirators led Caius Cassius and Marcus Brutus assassinated him.
The death of Caesar undermined the very political institution it was meant to defend. Rome was soon split by civil war, and the armies of the conspirators were defeated by Caesar's friend, Mark Antony and his heir, Octavius. The subsequent events emanating from Caesar’s murder culminated in the demise of the Senate and the assumption of almost absolute power by Octavius as emperor Augustus.
Contemporaries of Caesar quickly grasped the importance of these events, documenting them well. Throughout the centuries since, the events of Caeser's time have been interpreted and discussed at length, and continue to be alluded even in present day politics.
Political commentators have interpreted the actions of the main figures differently. For example, Michelangelo viewed Brutus as a defender of human liberty, while Dante placed him (and Cassius) into the deepest circle of hell in his Inferno. For Shakespeare, this historical drama presented numerous possibilities for analyzing and exploring conflicting perspectives of these events, and thus was a logical choice for one of his plays.
The Relevance of the Death of Caesar and the Elizabethan Era
The story of Caesar's death and the resulting political upheaval was especially salient in Shakespeare's time. The play is thought to have been written in 1599, when Queen Elizabeth was sixty-six years old. Europe and England were ruled by monarchs struggling to consolidate their power. In England, the monarchy ran into opposition from the established aristocracy and elected representatives in the House of Commons. Since Elizabeth had no direct heirs, many feared England might decline into civil chaos similar to that of the fifteenth century. Fear of censorship prevailed in matters relating to political discourse, and so for Shakespeare, the story of Julius Caesar provided a safe way to comment on many of the important questions of the time.
Shakespeare's main source in writing the play was Thomas North's English translation of Plutarch's Lives of the Noble Greeks and Romans. Plutarch wrote in the first century A.D. and recorded his biographies as an historian. His description of the Roman Republic stated that it was ruled by at least one or more powerful men, yet rarely more than a few men. Shakespeare adopts this concept of Rome for Julius Caesar, focusing on the actions and influences of a few remarkable individuals rather than dealing with larger social movements.
However, this approach does not imply a limited awareness of Rome's social problems, as the play's opening scenes clearly address Rome's social divisions.
Shakespeare condenses the action in Julius Caesar breaking slightly from historical accuracy. For example, Shakespeare places Caesar's triumph over Pompey's sons with the Lupercalia in February; whereas Plutarch indicates the victory took place in October. With this time change, the assassination on the Ides of March appears to be in response to Caesar's growing influence and arrogance. Furthermore, in Shakespeare's version, Brutus and Cassius flee from Rome immediately after Antony's speech to the Roman mob, but Plutarch describes them withdrawing from the city over a year after Caesar's funeral. These differences cause Roman leaders' personal flaws and strengths to appear far more important in shaping the action of the plot.
The Main Characters: Caesar, Antony and Brutus
Shakespeare's Julius Caesar is composed of several characters, none of whom dominate the plot; even the titular hero is merely one of the several personalities in the play. Indeed, Shakespeare creates only a limited depth to Caesar's characterization, mainly relying on the negative reports from those most hostile to him. However, when onstage, Caesar does not live up to the reputation his enemies claim for him, thereby undermining his ability to dominate the plot at any point.
Brutus is a much fuller character. As the friend and murderer of Caesar, he provides tremendous insight into his personality through soliloquies in which he discusses his motives and the consequences of his actions. Brutus also is portrayed in many different roles, including husband, military leader and assassin. These different roles allow us to see the internal strife inherent in Brutus' character; he is a man who must justify his extralegal murder while simultaneously remaining a faithful and good husband.
In Julius Caesar, Shakespeare utilizes one of his great techniques, often called "gradual release", slowly providing pertinent plot information as the play progresses, forcing the audience to continually revise its interpretation of the action. A good example of this is when Antony climaxes his famous eulogy by reading Caesar's will and speaking of the generosity Caesar has shown to the common people, mentioning that Caesar has left them all some money. However, only two scenes later we see him trying to minimize the cost of this generosity by reducing the amount of money that needs to be given out. The combination of the two scenes forces the audience to reevaluate everything we know about Antony, and denies us the ability to fix firm motives on any of the play's characters.
Shakespeare never intended the play to be historically accurate. In fact, he clearly expected the actors to appear in Elizabethan dress. Furthermore, he gives Rome the medieval invention of the mechanical clock, a notorious anachronism. However, Shakespeare's Romans share a distinct cultural heritage and society, including Roman society's implicit ideals and assumptions. When Antony calls Brutus, "the noblest of the Romans," he is referring to the specific "Roman" virtue, associated with the Republican government Brutus dies defending. The protagonists in the plot are never able to overcome the pressure of the Roman values, and thus are not completely free to invent themselves, relying instead on the cultural values provided.
In journeying through life, many things will happen to us. We are amused by many things. We sober up on others. Oftentimes,we reflect on the more important ones and we meditate deeply on some of them.
Journaler 0203 will chronicle the milestones of the author's life in 2009, the crossroads where decisions had to be made, times when he reflected on things past and his vision for the immediate future. So come; journey with him and have fun reading his entries!
