Badge-Semantic Field-How does Shakeapeare build tension and play with the idea of fate.

The idea of fate was a big part of life and believed in strongly Caesar’s and Shakespeare’s time, and some people still believe in it today. Fate is a big part of the play and it sets the way for all the major events to happen, such as the death of Caesar, Brutus and Cassius. Without fate the play would lose a lot of the tension. like if the sooth sayer did not say his message you would not know when Caesar would die. Shakespeare uses fate throughout the play using many different methods to do so. some of the ways are; dramatic irony, Caesar’s hubris and figurative language.

One way Shakespeare makes tension is by using dramatic irony. Dramatic irony is when the audience knows more about what is going to happen than the characters. I can tell that as in the play the audience knows that Caesar will be killed on the Ides of March as it is a well-known fact. They could also tell that Caesar will die by the quote “Beware the ides of March” said by the soothsayer. However Caesar does not know he will be killed then. This builds tension when Caesar by saying that he will not go to the capital and he won’t be killed, but then Decius makes him go so now he will be killed. It leaves you thinking will he be killed or not. By using the same quote “Beware the ides of March”. Shakespeare has another way to build tension. If you don’t know Caesar gets killed in the ides of March you won’t know what the message means as it is only half the original message as soothsayers only give half of the message from God. This will make the audience in a state of confusion as that only have half the message. With dramatic irony we know what will happen, however we don’t know how, who and when. When we are trying to discover the how we are lead into a state of being ambiguous. This is because the language Shakespeare is using can lead us in many different ways. For example from a conversation between the sooth sayer and Caesar. Caesar says to the soothsayer “The Ides of March are come” and the soothsayer says back “Ay, Caesar, but not gone”. The audience know that Caesar will be killed today as they saw the conspirators having a conversation about they are going to kill Caesar at the senate. – another instance from the play to be added.

In Act 2 Scene 2 Shakespeare uses the arrogance of Caesar to make the audience feel suspense as we don’t know whether he will go to the Senate where his death will take place. His wife has started to persuade Caesar not to go there because she has had dreams that he will be killed if he does. He does not listen to her as he is too arrogant.  I can tell this by the quote “Danger knows full well that Caesar is more dangerous than he”. Caesar has personified the word danger as he is trying to say that danger is a coward compared to his power. This shows that Caesar’s hubris is unstable as he has excessive self-confidence. He then gives into her and agrees to stay . Then Decius uses his hubris to make him go to the Senate. I can tell this by the quote “Break up the Senate till another time, when Caesar’s wife shall meet with better dreams”. Better quotation from Decius This presents the idea of fate as Caesar had to go to the Senate.

The third way Shakespeare builds tension is by using figurative language. When Calpurnia is trying to persuade Caesar to stay home. Her reasons are bad omens. A quote that shows a bad omen is “A lioness hath whelped in the streets”. This gives the impression that Caesar will not go to the Senate and will survive. That quote shows that a lion is showing weakness. A lioness is one of the mightiest animals. To Calpurnia Caesar is a mighty person. So it shows that Caesar will show weakness. These bad omens presents the idea of fate. As it shows that the omens come true. During the bad omans there was alot of use of pathetic fallacy. Pathetic fallcy is when people use the weather to describe the mood of people, thing or the whole sceen. One quote that shows the use of pathetic fallcy is ” The noise of battle hurtled in the air”. Pathetic Fallcy

The idea of fate is in all of these points as they all show that some how Caesar will die. The idea of Caesar’s hubris it shows that his arrogance will lead him to his fate. At one point in the play it looks like Caesar will avoid his fate as he agrees to stay home with Calpurnia, but then Shakespeare toys with us by bringing Decius Brutus in to the scene. We then know that he will use Caesar’s hubris to manipulate him to go to the Senate.Decius carefully mocks Caesar by questioning his power as bis wife controls what he does, accusing him of cowardice and also questioned his pride. I can tell he does all that by the quote ” Besides, it were a mock apt to be render’d for someone to say, ‘Break up the Senate till another time, when Caesar’s wife shall meet with better dreams’ ” The Idea of dramatic irony  shows that Caesar will die, as us the audience will know more than the characters. This will allow us to be one step in front of the characters. We will know Caesar’s fate was to die as the play  was written hundreds of years later than the murder of Caesar. In the play it is set in the time is was taken place , so the knowledge of Caesar’s death would not have been around.  The bad omens present the Idea of fate as it shows that no matter what Caesar will be terminated. As the omen show that Caesar will be murdered and all the city are around it rejoicing. This shows that Caesar will die, as we know his fate is to die and a bleeding statue of Caesar with blood pouring out of it, ensure us of Caesar’s fate.

In conclusion I believe that the idea of fate to build tension is a major part of the play and the play would not be as good without it. The idea of fate in Caesar could be fought of as cruel as it brings death to three main characters in the play. For example Cassius kills himself as he hears shouts and he thinks his side has lost the battle and he was the next to die. That day was his birthday and he did not want to be killed on his birthday so he decided to kill himself. In the end it ended up that the cheers was from his team and they won the battle. So he tried to avoid fate and kill himself and ended up causing his fate.